Holy Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt and All Russia (ROCOR)

John Sergiev was born in 1829 in the village of Sura in the far north of Russia, the son of a poor sexton. After the St Petersburg Theological Academy he was ordained in 1855 to St Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt, the naval fortress near the capital, where he served for fifty-three years.

He worked among the poor of the port, founded a House of Industry (1882) that gave work, schooling and shelter, and drew crowds of thousands to his services, where he introduced a general confession. His diary, My Life in Christ, was read widely. He died on 20 December 1908. The Russian Church Outside Russia canonized him in 1964, the Moscow Patriarchate in 1990.