Man and Church
The Priest Who Came Home Without His Shoes
St. John of Kronstadt’s habit of giving away his own shoes confronts our instinct to practice a generosity that leaves our comfort untouched.
In the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, November 1 marks the feast of a great saint – the Righteous John of Kronstadt. It might not be accurate to call him “a saint of our times,” as he reposed over 100 years ago, but his memory is certainly not ancient. St. John lived in a time of electricity, locomotives, newspapers, photography, and telephones. And, interestingly, these things made him one of the first modern “celebrity” saints.
John (Ivan) Sergiev was born October 19 (October 31 on the Gregorian Calendar), 1829 in the village of Sura in the far north of Russia, near Archangelsk. His father was a church cantor/caretaker and his ancestors had been priests in the region for nearly 300 years. As a newborn he was sick and weak, and his parents had him baptized the very day he was born, in honor of St. John of Rila.
