Saint John “the New”
of Suceava was born around 1300 in Trebizond, being well educated according to
the Christian model of virtues and faith. At the age of maturity he was engaged
in commercial business, mostly on the banks of the Black Sea, where together
with the merchandise handle he used to preach the Christian faith. During these
travels he made not only friends, but also enemies. One of them, named Reitz
(of Germanic ancestry, from Vienna) was seeking for an unknown reason to
revenge on John. In a moment than both of them were in the port of Cetatea Albă (“White City”), situated at the entrance of the River Dniester in the
Black Sea, - then occupied by the Nogai Tatars – Reitz send a message to the
governor of the city, according to which, John would like to accept the faith
of the Tatars. The synaxarion doesn’t mention that the Tatars would have been Muslims,
and according to the troparion (hymn of the saint), these would have been
Persians, that is Zoroastrians, or adepts to an astral religion. I would rather
believe that this was the ancient religion of the Mongolic Tribes, because in
the middle of it was the cult to the blue sky. Anyway, the governor was happy
for the supposed wish of John and invited him to his court. The saint realized then
the situation that will be happening, if he refused to change his faith.
Despite of the imminent death, he remained Christian. He addressed to the
governor: “Oh, mighty Governor, these words that have been said about me are
false and simple temptations. I do not want to despise the kindness that you have
showed to me, but I cannot deny Christ, the Light of the world”. The governor
became angry and considered John’s words as insults against the Tatars’ faith,
so he ordered John to be subjected to some terrible tortures.
Under the torture,
John has strengthened his faith and his face was bright, beyond the normalness.
After a while, the governor promised him that in change of his conversion, he
will become the best medical care, in order to be healed, but John replied:
“Don’t care for the wounds of my body, for through the perishable I wish to
acquire the imperishable, and only the one who endures to the end shall be
saved”. The stubbornness of John angered the governor even more, and he
commanded that the “unfaithful” to be bound on the tail of a horse and dragged
on the pavement of the city. Although he was strongly hurt, he prayed
incessantly to God, and that prompted one of torturers to cut his head with the
sword.
The governor didn’t
allow the Christians to take his body from the road and bury him. But a Tatar
from the City had a vision in which some men in golden clothes were officiating
the funeral service to John. He thought that the Christian priests disrespected
the order of the governor, so he took the bow and an arrow and tried to shoot
them, but then his hands remained stuck on the bow and he was delivered only
after he confessed what he intended to do. These miracles scared the head of
the city, which has allowed the Christians to stand up John's body and bury him
after the customs, in the graveyard of the town.
It appears that Reiz decided
to dig up and profaned the grave, or according to the synaxary, he wanted to
take the already wonderworker body of the saint in his country, which seems
improbable to me, but he was discovered by the Christians in the city, who in
this way discovered the incorrupt body
of the new martyr.
The Veneration of the
Relics
The Life of Saint John
the New appears to be with nothing more spectacular than of any other martyr.
But the history of his relics reflects the entire history of the Principality
of Moldova, which in the same manner as its sister Romanian Pricipates
(Wallachia and Transylvania) had a very hard situation in the Middle Ages, being
a theatre of conflicts between the neighbors.
The relics of Saint John remained in a church
in Cetatea Alba about 70 years, and his popularity among the pilgrims grew up
to a moment when the owners of the city were the Moldavians. At the beginning of
the 15th century the Voivode Alexander the Good of Moldova hears
also about the miracles made at his coffin. In that period Moldova obtained
from the seat of Constantinople the right to organize itself as an autonom
Church, having its own metropolitan of Moldavian ancestry, namely Joseph Muşat.
Following to this change of the church organization, the Voivod wanted the
metropolitan seat to coincide with the capital city of Moldova, which was at
that time at Suceava, today in the northern part of Romania. Also the Voivod Alexander ordered that the
holy relics of the saint to be moved in Suceava, in order to grow the prestige
of his city. That happened in 1402, when the voivodal cortege met the
procession with the relics in a place named Poiana Vlădicăi („The Bishop’s Glade”), near Iaşi. The
cortege accompanied the relics about 100
kilometers up to Suceava, which remained in a church named Mirăuţi until 1589,
when they were moved to the new cathedral in Suceava - dedicated to St. George.
 |
| Voivod Alexander meeting the Cortege with the Relics |
The tradition registered
some miracles performed by the relics of Saint John the New and one of them is
mentioned by Peter Movilă, the metropolitan in of Kiev. On June 2, 1622 Suceava
was threatened to be overrun by the Tatars, and the people was obliged to
refuge in some other towns. At that time, the priests wanted to take the shrine
inside the fortress of Suceava (the church where they were housed being outside
the walls), but they couldn’t pick them up. So they prayed to the saint to
protect them and a heavy rain started suddenly and prevented the Tatars to
siege to the city.
The relics remained
here until 1686, when the army of the King Jan Sobieski of Poland entered in
Moldova. Being beaten by the Turks, in retirement, the Poles took as a hostage
the Metropolitan Saint Dosoftei, and because he was afraid of the robbery the
Turks could do, he took with him the relics of Saint John the New in Jolkiew,
where the Metropolitan died in 1693. The Relics remained here until 1783, when the
bishop of Radauti, Dosoftei Herescu, managed to bring them back home, in the
restored cathedral dedicated to St. George. Their arrival was possible because
at that time the northern part of Moldova (Bucovina), with the city of Suceava,
and the southern part of Poland were incorporated into the Austrian Empire. A
new resettlement took place during their World War, when they were taken to
Vienna in the Romanian Orthodox chapel, but in 1918 they were brought back.
Saint John the New was considered for many
centuries the protector of the entire country of Moldova. But because of the
political changes, Suceava being occupied by the Austrians, he “lost” gradually
his popularity in favor of Saint Parasceve. Her saint Relics were brought in 1641
by the Voivod Vasile Lupu in Iaşi, the new capital of the
country, and her cult grew, so that even today millions of pilgrims come at her
shrine in her celebration day, in October 12. She is now known as the
“Protector of Moldova”.
Saint John the New in the iconography
The scenes of the Passion
of St. John the New were represented in the painting of many churches in
Moldova. His face appears for the first time in the church narthex from Dobrovăţ,
near Iasi, in 1529. A few years later, in 1546, his life and martyrdom were
portrayed in 12 scenes, on the south wall of the monastery church Voronet,
founded by the Saint Voivod Stephen III the Great and similar scenes appear in
the paintings of the Cathedral of Roman. Finally, at the monastery church
Suceviţa appear 14 scenes of his life and passion, and
also at the monasteries of Neamţ and Secu.
 |
| The Maryrium pf St. John the New. Fresco at Voronet |
Hymn (Troparion) of the Saint
You have well governed
your life on earth, working charity and incessantly praying with tears, you who
suffered passions with courage, rebuking the Persian unfaith. Therefore you
made yourself strength for the Church and praise for the Christians, oh John, you
shall ever be remembered.
No comments:
Post a Comment