Chicago, November 4, 2024
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The October 30-31 feast of St. John Kochurov, one of the American saints and the first martyr of the Bolshevik yoke in Russia, was especially festive this year at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago that he built during his ministry in America in the 19th-20th centuries.
For the first time, relics of the hieromartyr were greeted at the cathedral and placed for veneration, reports the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America.
The All-Night Vigil on Wednesday evening was celebrated by His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of Chicago, cathedral dean Fr. Alexander Koranda, and clergy from the OCA, the Antiochian Church, and the Serbian Church.
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The Vigil litiya was served outside, with a procession around the church that St. John built in 1903. During the Polyeleos, an icon with relics of St. John was carried to the center of the church for the singing of the Magnification.
“This was the first time St. John has physically returned to this city since leaving for Russia,” emphasized diocesan Chancellor Archpriest Herman Kincaid.
The Liturgy the next day was celebrated by Abp. Daniel, again gathering clergy from the OCA and the Antiochian Church.
During his homily, the Archbishop spoke of the importance of St. John for the cathedral community: “We know St. John because his life and testimony reach out to us through the decades since his martyrdom. We know St. John because he intercedes for us. This is certainly a special day, celebrating St. John, especially since we know him and feel his presence here spiritually here at all times. We know that he worships with us in this temple.”
The celebration concluded with a festive meal in the trapeza.
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St. John commissioned an architect in 1899 to construct what is today Holy Trinity Cathedral. It was consecrated by St. Tikhon of Moscow in 1903 and designated a cathedral in 1922.
After his return to Russia, St. John became the first clergyman to be martyred at the outset of the Bolshevik Revolution. He was buried below St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo, Russia. The cathedral was destroyed in the 1930s and not rebuilt until 2006, during which the relics of St. John were believed to have been discovered.
He was glorified as St. John of Chicago and Tsarskoe Selo in December 1994. During the canonization, it was promised to His Eminence Archbishop Job of Chicago that were his relics to be discovered, a portion would be gifted to America. In 2006, St. Catherine’s Cathedral was rebuilt and it was believed that the relics of St. John were discovered. After an extensive complex of anthropological studies, the identity of the relics was confirmed, and a portion were gifted to His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of Chicago during a pilgrimage to Russia this past summer.
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