Deacon
Saint John was born in 1878 in the village of Shetevo, Udomlsky district of Tver province, in the family of peasant Peter Melnitsky. In 1899, he graduated from the third class of the Tver Theological Seminary, after which he helped his father with the household. In 1907, he was appointed as a psalmist to the church of the village of Vorotilovo in the Bezhetsk district, and in 1908, he was ordained as a deacon.
He served as a teacher and law expert in the church-parish school and the zemstvo school. His ministry continued until 1918. In the summer of 1918, he was transferred to the church of the village of Ilova, where he served until the beginning of persecutions in 1929. In 1930, he was deprived of his household and sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a corrective labor camp for tax evasion.
After his release in 1932, he submitted a request for appointment to one of the churches of the diocese, and in 1933, he received a position in the village of Taltzy. On October 15, 1937, he was arrested and accused of counter-revolutionary agitation. During the interrogations, he denied all accusations, asserting that he called people to prayer and church attendance.
On November 1, the Troika sentenced him to death by shooting, and on November 3, 1937, he was executed. He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for public veneration.
