He lived a life of strict asceticism, dedicating himself to prayer, fasting, and serving Orthodox communities worldwide, including in China, France, and the United States.

[1][2] Mikhail Maximovitch was born in 1896 in the village of Adamovka of the Izyumsky Uyezd of the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (in present-day eastern Ukraine).

He studied and attended church in Kharkiv, where he was inspired by metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky to deepen his spiritual learnings.

[5] In 1929, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him as a teacher of the seminary in Bitola under principal Nikolaj Velimirović.

In 1934, he was ordained a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by Metropolitan Anthony and assigned to the diocese of Shanghai.

[7][6] In Shanghai, John found an uncompleted cathedral and an Orthodox community deeply divided along ethnic lines.

He worked to restore church unity and establish ties with local Orthodox Serbs and Greeks.

[4] When the Communists took power in China in 1949, the Russian colony was forced to flee, first to a refugee camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines, and then to the United States and Australia.

Portions of his relics are located in Serbia, Russia, Mount Athos, Greece, South Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, the United States, Canada, England, and other countries.