Russian Students, like Russian professors, differed from Serbs. The majority of the latter graduated from seminary and prepared to become priests. They regarded the study of theology as a step facilitating their ability to move up the hierarchical ladder. Their relationship to the Church was more casual, although many of them were also sincere believers. We Russians, however, were preparing to serve the persecuted Church; no secure career, but total uncertainty awaited us.
Among us were a significant number of rare and gifted people, who left their mark on the life of the Russian emigration. Undoubtedly the most remarkable of them was Mikhail Boriso-vitch Maximovitch (1896-1966), later Archbishop John. Of slight stature, with massive, broad shoulders, puffy cheeks, and red lips protruding from a reddish, Little Russian-style moustache, he made a great impression of concentrated inner strength. As he did not associate much with other students, it was only toward the end of the course of study that I got to know him a bit better, and we had a few friendly conversations. He was very poor and earned a living selling newspapers. Belgrade in those years would be covered with impenetrable mud during its rainy season. Maximovitch wore a heavy fur coat and old Russian boots. He would tumble into the classroom rather late, thickly covered with street mud, take out a soiled notebook and chewed-up pencil, and start taking lecture notes with his large handwriting. Soon after that, he would fall asleep, but as soon as he woke up, he would immediately resume his writing. Many of us were curious to find out what sort of notes Maximovitch managed to come up with, but no one had the gumption to ask if they could read his notes. This unusual student became the most remarkable bishop of the Russian Church Abroad.
After graduating from the university, he entered monasticism and became a priest. For a time he taught at the seminary in Bitol. In 1934 he was consecrated bishop and was sent to Shanghai. There Bishop John led the life of an austere ascetic: he denied himself food and sleep, wore sandals without socks in winter as well as in summer, and his cassock resembled more the attire of a beggar than that of a bishop. His behavior would provoke a feeling of embarrassment among those around him because of his foolishness. Some considered him to be abnormal, but this did not stop him from carrying the responsibility of seeing to the material and spiritual needs of his flock, or from being untiringly helpful to all those in need. He started an orphanage for homeless children, whom he managed to evacuate, first to the Philippines and then to America. Many Russians are indebted to him for their deliverance from the Communists, when the latter occupied Shanghai. After leaving China, Bishop John settled in France, and in 1962 he received the cathedral post in San Francisco, where he died on July 2,1966. Many now revere him as a saint.
N. & M. Zernov, from the book Russia Abroad