The Holy Great Martyr John the New of Sochi, lived in the fourteenth
century in the city of Trebizond. He was a merchant, devout and firm in
his Orthodoxy, and generous to the poor.
Once, he happened to be
sailing on a ship while pursuing his trading activities. The captain of
the ship was not Orthodox, but got into an argument about the Faith with
St John. Having been vanquished by the saint’s words, the captain
resolved to make trouble for him when they got to Belgrade. During the
ship’s stay at Belgrade, the captain went to the city ruler, a
fire-worshipper, and suggested that on his ship was a studious man who
also desired to become a fire-worshipper.
The city ruler invited St John to join the fire-worshippers and renounce his faith in Christ.
The
saint prayed secretly, calling on the help of Him Who said, “When they
shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you
shall speak, neither do you premeditate; but whatsoever will be given
you in that hour, speak that, for it is not you that speaks, but the
Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). And the Lord gave him the courage and
understanding to counter all the claims of the impious and firmly
confess himself a Christian. After this, the saint was so fiercely
beaten with rods that his entire body was lacerated, and the flesh came
off in pieces. The holy martyr thanked God for being found worthy to
shed his blood for Him and thereby wash away his sins.
Afterwards
they put him in chains and dragged him away to prison. In the morning
the city ruler ordered the saint brought forth again. The martyr came
before him with a bright and cheerful face. The intrepid martyr
absolutely refused to deny Christ, denouncing the governor as a tool of
Satan. Then they beat him again with rods, so that all his insides were
laid bare.
The gathering crowd could not bear this horrible
spectacle and they began to shout angrily, denouncing the governor for
tormenting a defenseless man. The governor, having the beating stopped,
gave orders to tie the Great Martyr to the tail of a wild horse to drag
him by the legs through the streets of the city. Residents of the Jewish
quarter particularly scoffed at the martyr and threw stones at him.
Finally, someone took a sword and cut off his head.
St John’s body
with his severed head lay there until evening, and none of the
Christians dared to take him away. By night a luminous pillar was seen
over him, and a multitude of burning lamps. Three light-bearing men sang
Psalms and censed the body of the saint. One of the Jews, thinking that
these were Christians coming to take up the remains of the martyr,
grabbed a bow and tried to shoot an arrow at them, but he was restrained
by the invisible power of God, and became rigid.
In the morning
the vision vanished, but the archer continued to stand motionless.
Having told the gathering inhabitants of the city about the vision and
what was done to him by the command of God, he was freed from his
invisible bonds. Having learned about the occurrence, the ruler gave
permission to bury the body of the martyr in the local church. This
occurred between the years 1330 and 1340. There is some question about
the year of the saint’s martyrdom. St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
gives the year as 1642, while others say it was 1492.
The captain
who had betrayed St John repented of his deed, and decided secretly to
convey the relics to his own country, but the saint appeared in a dream
to the priest of the church, and prevented this. After seventy years the
relics were transferred to Sochi, the capital of the Moldo-Valachian
principality, and placed in the cathedral church.
Source-Oca.org
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