Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (VII)
Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, was born on Cyprus, into the family of the ruler Epiphanius. He was fifteen when he saw in a vision in his sleep a wonderful maiden with a crown of olive on her head, who said to him: “I am the eldest and dearest daughter of the great King. If you become my friend, I will ask mercy for you from Him and bring you before His throne, for no one has such boldness before the King as I.” The saint understood that this maiden was compassion, the highest virtue. “You must show mercy to your neighbour if you want the Lord to have mercy on you,” he thought as he went to church at dawn. On the way the blessed one saw a naked beggar shivering with cold; he took off his outer garment and gave it to him, thinking to himself: “Now I shall find out whether last night I saw a divine vision or was tempted by the devil.” But before he reached the church a stranger dressed in white met the saint, handed him a bundle and said: “Friend, take these hundred gold pieces for your needs.” John took the gift and understood at once that his vision had been a heavenly revelation, and said to himself: “Enough, my soul; do not tempt the Lord!” From that day on the saint became wonderfully merciful.
In his youth John had a wife and children, but soon his wife and children died. After this he became a monk and gave himself to strict fasting and prayer.
His spiritual labours made the holy father known far and wide, and when the patriarchal see of Alexandria became vacant, the Emperor Heraclius (610–641) and the body of the clergy asked him to take on the guidance of the Church. Out of humility John refused for a long time, but at last he was obliged to agree.
The blessed hierarch bore his heavy cross worthily: he cared for the moral perfection of his flock and fought heretical teachings, but he still regarded almsgiving and help to all in need as his chief work. A short time after ascending the patriarchal throne John ordered the stewards of the Church to establish the number of the needy people of the whole city. They drew up a list of seven thousand five hundred poor, to whom from that time on the saint gave a daily allowance from the property of the Church.
Two days a week, Wednesday and Friday, the patriarch sat at the doors of the church and listened attentively to everyone who came and helped them. Some were surprised at the blessed one’s patience, but he said: “If I can always turn to my Lord Jesus Christ and ask in prayer for what I want, how should I forbid my neighbour to come to me?” On a day when no one asked the holy father for help, he was left much grieved. The blessed one did not like putting off a work of mercy: a poor widow wronged by her relatives came up to John with her complaint just when he was going to church. Those with him advised the patriarch to hear her after the service, but the saint answered: “If I will not hear her, will the Lord hear me?”
Three times a week John went to the hospitals and helped the sick. When the Persians sacked Jerusalem and carried off the inhabitants as captives, the holy patriarch gave a large part of the church treasury to ransom them.
The saint never turned beggars away. Once, as the hierarch was going to a hospital, a beggar met him. The hierarch ordered six pieces of silver to be given him. The beggar changed his clothes, caught up with John and asked for alms again. The saint again gave him six pieces of silver. But when the beggar held out his hand to the blessed one for alms a third time, and the servants made to drive him off, the patriarch said: “Perhaps it is Christ testing me,” and ordered twelve pieces of silver to be given to the beggar.
Once the steward told the patriarch that sometimes well-dressed people too came to ask for alms, and asked him whether they should be helped like the others. John answered: “If you are a servant of Christ, do as Christ commanded us: give alms without looking the one who asks in the face. We are giving not what is ours but what is Christ’s; and who can be richer than Christ?” And indeed the patriarch gave away a great deal, but the Lord always raised up good people by whose donations the nearly empty treasury was filled again.
Once a rich nobleman came to John to receive his blessing. He saw that a poor-quality, half-worn blanket was spread on his bed. When he got home he sent the saint a new brocade blanket worth thirty-six gold pieces. The Lord’s chosen one did not want to disappoint the sincere donor, and that night he covered himself with that blanket; but when he woke he remembered the poor, the strangers and the homeless, and decided to sell the costly gift. In the morning the rich man, happening to go to the market, saw his blanket put out for sale; he bought it and sent it to the chief shepherd again. The saint accepted the gift with thanks, and then sent it to be sold again. The nobleman bought it again and returned it to the patriarch. When this had happened several times, John sent word to the rich man: “Let us see who tires first: I, who have decided to sell it, or you, who insist on buying it and sending it to me.” So the saint used the nobleman’s goodwill towards him for the benefit of the poor.
Saint John was marked by wonderful humility. Once he was obliged to excommunicate one of the clergy who had fallen into sin. The sinner grew bitter against the patriarch. While the saint was celebrating the Divine Liturgy, he remembered the words of the Gospel: “If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23–24). He came out of the sanctuary, called the sinful son to him, fell on his knees before him and publicly asked his forgiveness. The shaken cleric fell into repentance and afterwards became a devout priest.
Once a secular official insulted John terribly for taking the part of the poor. That same day, before sunset, the blessed one sent a man to the one who had insulted him with the message: “The sun will soon set; let us be reconciled.” The official was so moved by these words that he not only made peace with the peacemaking hierarch but vowed that from then on he would try to avoid all strife.
A commoner treated a close relative of the patriarch, George, disrespectfully. George was indignant, went to the saint and asked him to take revenge on the man who had insulted him. And the hierarch promised: I will repay him in such a way that all Alexandria will be amazed. This calmed George. Then John instructed him, urging that we must have meekness and humility, and afterwards called the man who had given the insult and announced that he was releasing him from the church land tax. Alexandria was indeed amazed at such “revenge”.
The blessed father was wonderfully careful in judging others; he used to say: let us judge no one, for we see only the bad deed, but the repentance and sorrow of the sinner, hidden from us, we do not see.
Saint John, a strict ascetic and a man of prayer, had the continual remembrance of death. He ordered a coffin for himself, but told the craftsmen not to finish it, and to come to him on every feast and ask whether the time had come to finish the work.
During the Persian attack on Egypt Saint John left Alexandria and set out for Constantinople by way of his homeland, Cyprus. On the way the blessed one had a divine revelation: in a vision in his sleep a young man clothed in light stood before him and said: “The King of kings is calling you.” The patriarch understood that his end had drawn near; he stopped on the island of Cyprus, in his native city of Amathus, prepared for death and committed his soul to the Lord in peace (+616, 619 or 620). The blessed one was buried in that same city, in the church of Saint Tychon.
Saint John reposed on 11 November, but since on that day the commemoration of the holy Martyr Menas was solemnly kept in Egypt, and in Alexandria that of the Venerable Theodore the Studite, the Church appointed 12 November as the day of his commemoration.
