One hundred forty years have passed since the birth of Father John the Stranger, a priest who introduced the Jesus Prayer to the Bucharest-based Burning Bush hesychast movement, as he had learned it from the elders of Optina Monastery.
“John the Stranger” is the name by which Father Ioann Kulygin, born on February 24, 1885, in Yelets (Oryol), Russia, wanted to be remembered in Romania.
Drawn to monastic life from a young age, John joined the renowned Optina Monastery after completing his military service during a time of great social upheaval in Russia. The monastery had a strong hesychastic tradition, and the Jesus Prayer was recited only after a special rite under the careful guidance of a spiritual father.
From Optina to Cernica
He was mobilized during World War I and, after 1917, returned to his beloved monastery. However, with Optina soon closed by the Bolshevik regime, John requested to be ordained as a celibate priest and served in the villages of Rostov for ten years between 1919 and 1930.
Between 1930 and 1937, he experienced the horrors of Bolshevik concentration camps. After his release, he was appointed as a dean and spiritual father of the Bishop of Rostov. This was his position when he was found by Romanian-German troops in 1941. However, the Soviet counteroffensive of 1943 forced him to retreat with his bishop, Archbishop Nicholas of Rostov, alongside the German forces.
Arriving in Transnistria, he was assisted by Metropolitan Visarion Puiu, the head of the Romanian Church Mission. The Romanian hierarch intervened with the authorities and with Patriarch Nicodim to secure asylum for the Archbishop of Rostov, Father John, and their retinue. They were granted refuge at Cernica Monastery, according to Father John the Stranger – from the Archives of the Burning Bush, a book published by Gheorghe Vasilescu at Anastasia Publishing House in 1999.
The Burning Bush Movement
On Pentecost Sunday in 1945, Father John the Stranger met Hieroschemamonk Daniil Sandu Tudor, Alexandru Mironescu, and Archimandrite Benedict Ghiuș. The founders of the Burning Bush movement were deeply impressed by how Father John ceaselessly recited the Jesus Prayer and asked for his blessing to practice hesychastic prayer.
He began attending the Burning Bush meetings at Antim Monastery every Sunday, where he joined intellectuals, clergy, students, and many others interested in Orthodox spiritual wisdom.
Saint Sofian of Antim later described Father John the Stranger as “a very gentle man, extraordinarily joyful”:
“He would sit by the candle stand, praying constantly. And at the same time, he was very attentive to everything happening in the church. No matter what he was doing, he was always praying.”
Return to Russia and His Final Recorded Words
However, Father John’s participation was short-lived, as the Russian occupiers began repatriating their citizens. On October 4, 1946, he was arrested and handed over to Soviet authorities. He was accused of engaging in “agitation for an anti-Soviet group, a subversive organization of wealthy and educated individuals opposed to Soviet ideology” through his participation in the Burning Bush meetings.
Despite Patriarch Nicodim’s attempts to save him, John the Stranger was tried by a Soviet tribunal and sentenced to 10 years of hard labour.
In a letter from January 1947, the Russian spiritual father instructed that his belongings, especially his liturgical items, be given to Elder Sofian Boghiu or Hieroschemamonk Sandu Tudor to distribute to the poor or to churches in his memory. He also requested winter clothing from his Romanian friends and prayers for strength:
“Both the prayers at home and those in church help me, but above all, charity.”
This was the last known correspondence from Father John the Stranger. His fate remains unknown after his imprisonment in Odesa.
Photo: public domain
