Writings and Teachings of St. John of Shanghai

St. John Maximovitch is remembered above all as a wonderworker and ascetic, but he was also a theologian and preacher whose corpus, though modest in volume, is substantial in weight. This section gathers his one principal theological work, his conciliar reports, his sermons, and the recurring themes of his teaching — Marian doctrine measured against Christology, the vocation of the Russian diaspora, the veneration of the Royal Martyrs, and the universality of the Church.

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

Section Contents

• The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God — his principal theological work: its origin in a 1933 émigré calendar, its English translation by Fr. Seraphim Rose and St. Herman Press publication, its structure, and its threefold refutation of Roman Catholic over-definition (the Immaculate Conception), Protestant minimization, and the over-exaltation of Mary as a “fourth hypostasis” that touched the condemned Sophiology.
• Sermons and Reports — the rest of the corpus: the 1938 Second All-Diaspora Council report on the spiritual state of the Russian emigration and its “two paths” diagnosis; his decades-early advocacy of the Royal Martyrs; the published sermons; and his teaching themes of the Church’s universality, strictness with clergy, and mercy in pastoral economy.

See Also

• The St. John–Seraphim Rose Connection — the disciple who translated and transmitted these writings
• Place in ROCOR — the ecclesial context of St. John’s theology
• The Theotokos: Marian Theology in Orthodoxy — the dogmatic background to his Mariology
• Bulgakov and the Sophiology Controversy — the teaching his Mariology opposes
• St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco — the saint’s life

References

• Maximovitch, St. John. The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God. Translated by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1978 (4th ed. 2012).
• Maximovitch, Bishop John. “The Spiritual Condition of the Russian People in the Diaspora” (1938 report to the Second All-Diaspora Council of ROCOR).
• Rose, Fr. Seraphim, and Damascene Christensen. Blessed John the Wonderworker. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1987.
• Holy Trinity Monastery. Orthodox Life, special issues on St. John. Jordanville, NY.