Section 03: Tubabao and the Exodus

The 1949 exodus of St. John’s Shanghai flock from communist China to the IRO camp on the Philippine island of Tubabao, where some five thousand stateless Russians built a “little Russian city” under his care — with the refugees’ testimony that his nightly blessing warded the typhoons from the camp — and his journey to Washington to win, by personal lobbying of Congress, the amendment of the American displaced-persons law that opened resettlement in the United States and Australia by 1951.

Tradition: ROCOR (glorified 1994; Moscow Patriarchate veneration affirmed 2008)

Section Contents

• Tubabao Refugee Camp — the evacuation from Shanghai beginning January 1949; the IRO tent city with its fourteen districts and three Orthodox churches; St. John on the island from May to July 1949 with the orphanage children; the attested nightly four-directional blessing and the typhoons that spared the camp; and the storm that destroyed the abandoned site in 1953.
• Washington Lobbying — the 1949 trip to the United States; his lobbying of Congress; the 1950 amendment of the Displaced Persons Act (Public Law 81-555, June 16, 1950) that made the Far Eastern Russians eligible; the Washington parish of St. John the Baptist founded during the trip; and the resettlement to the US and Australia by 1951.

How to Use

• Read Tubabao Refugee Camp for the camp and the typhoon tradition; Washington Lobbying for the legislative change and resettlement.
• The exodus closes the China chapter of Section 02 — Shanghai and precedes his 1951 reassignment to Section 04 — Western Europe.

See Also

• Bishop of Shanghai — the fifteen-year episcopate whose flock he led into exile
• Paris and Brussels — the archdiocese to which he was assigned in 1951
• Orthodoxy Guide — ROCOR Exile Period — the stateless diaspora context

References

• “From Shanghai to Tubabao: The Enduring Legacy of St. John Maximovitch in the Philippines.” rocorstudies.org, June 28, 2025.
• “When the Philippines Welcomed Russian Refugees.” orthochristian.com/80526.html.
• Canadian Orthodox History Project. “Saint John (Maximovitch).” orthodoxcanada.ca.
• “Displaced Persons Act.” en.wikipedia.org (Public Law 81-555, signed June 16, 1950).
• Perekrestov, Archpriest Peter (ed.). Man of God: Saint John of Shanghai & San Francisco. San Francisco: Holy Virgin Cathedral, 1994/2015.