The Life of Saint John of Kronstadt
by I.K. Sursky

    This biography of the great miracle-worker Saint John of Kronstadt, whose “My Life in Christ” is a spiritual classic known throughout the Orthodox world and beyond, was written by I.K. Sursky, who both knew Saint John personally and collected many eye-witness accounts of him for his biography. Originally serialized in our diocese’s periodical The True Vine between 1990 and 1996, it is now available complete in book form. The service to Saint John, printed in our Menaion in 2005, is included.

     Sursky collected many accounts of Saint John from those who knew him, such as the following:
      Once the relatives of a certain sick person in Petersburg earnestly entreated Father John to visit him. This was during Cheese-fare Week. For some reason Batiushka did not go, and the sick man said as a joke that he probably wouldn’t come because he was off somewhere eating bliny [a sort of crêpes traditionally eaten with sour cream and other rich fillings during Cheese-fare Week]. And suddenly, on the next day, Father John came, and entering into the apartment, and knowing exactly the layout of the rooms, went straight to the sick man. On approaching his bed he suddenly said, ‘And I was not eating bliny.’ This greatly astounded all present. [page 75]

    But since he knew Saint John himself – it was Saint John who found his wife for him, to whom he was very happily married – Sursky adds many details from his own experience, providing insights, some of them amusing,  into what it was like to live with a Saint in their midst:
    I myself experienced his clairvoyance, and often heard how people who had been invited to be present in some family’s house when Father John was to come would say, “No, I won’t come. He’ll have something to say to me.” [page 186] 

    Sursky’s life of Saint John of Kronstadt is a sewn paperback, 352 pages, and available here.