We Orthodox love and venerate our saints as fathers, shepherds, and martyrs. Throughout the centuries, Christians gave their lives for Jesus Christ, our Love and Light. They passed through deep valleys of tears shed for their fellow humans, and for their own transgressions. They cared for abandoned children, prayed for all humanity, endured slander and persecution, even unto death. Yet they kept their Christian Orthodox faith. And when the love of God and the light of knowledge filled their heart, they themselves became beacons of light in this world, a world which more than ever has entered darkness.

Such a man of God in the 20th century, Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, as well as other saints who cross

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