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Commemorated on April 18, April 11
The Monk John
was born at the end of the VIII Century. At a young age he became a disciple of
the Monk Gregory Dekapolites (+ c. 820, Comm. 20 November) and accepted
monastic tonsure from him at the Soluneia (Thessalonika) monastery. Under the
guidance of this experienced teacher, the Monk John attained to high spiritual
accomplishment.
When the emperor Leo
the Armenian (813-820) renewed the persecution against Orthodox Christians
because of their veneration of holy icons, the Monk Gregory Dekapolites
together with the Monk Joseph the Writer of Church-Song (+ c. 863, Comm. 4
April) and his student the Monk John set off from Soluneia to Constantinople,
to muster opposition to the Iconoclast heresy. In spite of persecution, for
several years Saints Gregory and John fearlessly defended Orthodoxy, and preached
veneration of holy icons. After many hardships the Monk Gregory died (in about
the year 820), and soon after him his faithful student John also expired to the
Lord. The Monk Joseph the Song-Writer transferred the relics of Saints Gregory
and John and placed them in a church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
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