August 3, 2015

Schemamonk John (Dezorzi) who was a member of the brotherhood of the Holy Cross Hermitage in Wayne, WV from 1998 until 2006 returned to the Hermitage on July 28. Fr. John first became a monastic in 1973 and was tonsured into the Great Schema in 1976 at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA, which at that time belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. After his time in the hermitage Fr. John was a member of several other monasteries, but upon being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer he decided he wanted to spend his last days again at Holy Cross, with the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion, as reported on the Hermitage's website.

Fr. John is under hospice care and is the first monk to stay in the new infirmary room located in the St. Panteleimon Dorm. Someone from the monastery is with him at all times, and the monks read the morning and evening prayers, the Akathist to the Mother of God, as well as Scriptural and other spiritual passages to him daily. Fr. John has and is continuing to prepare for the end of his life, and he joyfully received Holy Communion in church on the feast of St. Seraphim.

Fr. John is very weak and according to the hospice nurse has only a short time remaining to live. Therefore, the brotherhood of the Holy Cross Hermitage is asking everyone to please remember Schemamonk John in their prayers.