Qualla: John the Russian https://qualla.com/john-the-russian en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: John the Russian https://qualla.com/john-the-russian John the Russian: Introduction https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Jebulon, CC0. He was not yet twenty when the war that would define his life ended his freedom. Captured during the Russo-Turkish War that ground on between 1710 and 1711, the young soldier from the Cossack Hetmanate was sold like livestock to an officer of the Ottoman cavalry and marched south into Cappadocia, to a town the Greeks called Prokopion. There, in a stable he shared with horses, he would spend the rest of his days. And there, against every expectation, an enslaved foreigner would become one of the most beloved saints of the Orthodox world.

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full John the Russian: A Soldier of Peter the Great https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. John was born around 1690 in the Cossack Hetmanate, a frontier land of the Russian Tsardom. He came of age in the era of Peter the Great, when Russia was reaching south and east, and like countless young men he was drawn into the army and into a war he did not start. When his uni...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-a-soldier-of-peter-the-great.mp3 0:06 2 full John the Russian: The Man in the Stable https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. When John would not convert to Islam, he was beaten and mocked, branded a gavur - an unbeliever. The cruelty was real, and the sources do not soften it. Yet according to the tradition preserved by those who knew his story, John met contempt with a quiet steadiness that slowly dis...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-the-man-in-the-stable.mp3 0:06 3 full John the Russian: The Plate of Pilaf https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0. One story above all carried John's name beyond Prokopion. While the Ağa was away on the Hajj to Mecca, his wife hosted a feast and, half in jest, remarked how her husband would love the steaming pilaf on the table. John, serving as waiter, asked for a portion - promising, to the ...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-the-plate-of-pilaf.mp3 0:06 4 full John the Russian: Death and the Long Journey of His Relics https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. John died on 27 May 1730, still a young man, after a final illness. Too weak to rise, he received communion from a priest who - fearful of being seen entering a Muslim household - is said to have hidden the Eucharist inside an apple. He was buried at the church of Saint George in...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-death-and-the-long-journey-of-his-relics.mp3 0:06 5 full John the Russian: A Shrine on Euboea https://qualla.com/john-the-russian/ Photo credit Jebulon, CC0. Today the relics rest in the Church of Saint John the Russian at Prokopi (Neo Prokopion), in the hills of northern Euboea, where thousands of pilgrims arrive each year - many seeking comfort for sick children or for those facing cancer, the needs with which tradition most closely...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/s/john-the-russian-wp/swbs-john-the-russian-a-shrine-on-euboea.mp3 0:06 6 full