John the Hairy of Rostov
Blessed John the Hairy, the Merciful, Fool-for-Christ at Rostov
Fool for Christ · Righteous · d. 3 September 1580, Rostov
Commemorated 3 September — Repose at Rostov; buried by the church of Saint Blaise
Blessed John, called the Hairy for the abundant hair he wore uncut and the Merciful for the healings at his grave, was a fool-for-Christ at Rostov in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Homeless by choice, sheltering sometimes with his spiritual father or with pious widows, he bore the mockery of the town in unceasing prayer, and reposed on 3 September 1580; he was buried, as he asked, beyond the altar of the church of Saint Blaise. The healings that flowed at once from his grave gave him the second epithet of John the Merciful of Alexandria, whose memory the Rostov tradition joined to his; among those his counsel formed was Irenarchus the recluse of Rostov.
Of John's origins nothing is recorded — the fools-for-Christ commonly erased their own histories — and the Rostov tradition receives him simply as he appeared: a man without a roof of his own, wearing the exploit of feigned madness in the streets of the old city, his uncut hair the mark that named him. He passed his nights in prayer; he took shelter, when he took it, with his spiritual father, the priest of the church of All Saints, or with devout widows of the town; and he endured, as the podvig requires, the contempt that guards humility.
A tradition of the Rostov church adds that he kept and read a Latin Psalter — a riddle in a Muscovite holy fool, which has made some suppose him a man of western learning or origin hiding himself in the exploit; the oldest notices do not resolve it.
He reposed on 3 September 1580 and was buried where he had asked, by the church of Saint Blaise beyond the altar. Healings began at the grave and continued — the reason the town called him the Merciful, linking him with the great almsgiver-patriarch of Alexandria; a chapel over the grave perpetuated the veneration. Among the men of the next generation whom his example and counsel shaped was Irenarchus the recluse of Rostov (January 13), the ascetic of the Time of Troubles.
Feast and commemoration
September 3 (church date; Old Calendar civil September 16) — his repose — with a local Rostov commemoration on November 12, the day of John the Merciful of Alexandria whose name he shares. He falls under the common of a fool-for-Christ (served under the venerable heading; see references/common-readings.md).
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O father, was preserved that which is according to the image: for taking up the cross of feigned folly, thou didst follow Christ through the streets of Rostov, hiding thy prayer beneath the world's contempt. Wherefore thy grave pours forth mercy, O blessed John, and thy boldness stands before God, to save our souls.
Original translation from the Slavonic
Iconography
John is painted as a fool-for-Christ of the Rostov type: half-clad or in a simple shirt, barefoot, with long unbound hair and beard — the hair his distinguishing attribute — hands raised in prayer, often with the churches of Rostov behind him; in the composite icons of the Rostov saints he stands among the blessed. No pre-1900 image identified to him has been located; the entry is listed among the wanted icons.