Archimandrite
Saint John (in the world Ivan Alekseevich Dmitriev) was born in 1875 in the village of Zavodskie Khutory in the Tula province to a peasant family. From childhood, he showed piety by attending church and reading spiritual books. In 1903, he came to Optina Pustyn, where he was accepted as a novice. On November 27, 1911, he was tonsured into monasticism with the name John, and in 1914 he was ordained as a hierodeacon. From 1917, he served as the economist in the archbishop's house under Bishop Theophan of Kaluga. In 1921, he was ordained as a hieromonk and sent to serve in the village of Sukhinichi. In 1928, he was elevated to the rank of igumen and appointed the rector of the Georgievsky Monastery in the city of Meshchevsk.
After the monastery was closed in 1929, Father John became the rector of the Meshchevsk Cathedral, where he assisted the monastics. In October 1932, he was arrested and imprisoned in the city of Bryansk. During interrogation, he denied the accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. On March 15, 1933, he was sentenced to exile for five years in the Northern Territory. After his return, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and sent to serve in the Nikolai-Kozin Church in the city of Kaluga. In the autumn of 1937, he was arrested again along with Archbishop Augustine and a group of clergy.
On November 19, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced Archimandrite John to execution. He was shot on November 23, 1937, and buried in a common grave.
