Meyendorff was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, into the émigré Russian nobility as Ivan Feofilovich Meyendorf (Иван Феофилович Мейендорф).
[1] In France, Meyendorff was an assistant professor of church history at the St. Sergius Institute, and a Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
He frequently represented the Orthodox tradition in ecumenical gatherings, such as the Uppsala Assembly held in 1968 by the World Council of Churches, during his tenure as chairman of its Faith and Order Commission (1967-1975).
His books have been published in a number of languages, including French, German, Italian, Russian, Greek, English, Finnish, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Serbian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian and Chinese.
Committed particularly to inter-Orthodox unity and cooperation, he was one of the founders[7] and the first general secretary of Syndesmos (World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth Organizations), and served later as its president.
Meyendorff held honorary doctorates from the University of Notre Dame and General Theological Seminary, and was a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
In June 1991, Fr John was awarded the Order of St Vladimir, 2nd Class, by Aleksy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.