This excerpt was taken from the
newly-circulated book about Crazy John, a modern-day ”Fool for Christ”
"Foolishness for Christ"
was always appreciated as one of the most moving chapters in the voluminous
Book of Saints of our Orthodox Church. One more pebble that was added to this
chapter is the history that a humble levite of the Gospel who lives in the blessed
mountains of Agrafa in Northern Greece narrated to us.
His narration pertained to a
contemporary "fool for Christ", who lived in one of the many
faceless, inaccessible and remote neighborhoods of Athens.
Crazy John - who is the central
character of his narration - lived in a tiny, humble apartment that he had
inherited from his mother; one of 20 apartments that comprised the condominium
building. He worked at the neighborhood
bakery and began work at daybreak. From that bakery where he worked, he would
customarily fill two bags with loaves of bread and bread rolls every day, and
would rush to distribute them to the elderly men, women and students in his
neighborhood.
«Here you are - I thought I might
give you some freshly-baked bread, a gift from mister Apostoly the baker, so
that you will commemorate him in your prayers" he would say.
The truth was that Crazy John would
use up a large part of his wages to provide bread to the poor of his
neighborhood. He would tell mister
Apostoly that he was only helping out some sick friends, and that he was being
paid for his trouble...
But how did he know who the poor in
his neighborhood were?
Well, he made it a habit to
indiscriminately ring the doorbells, not only in his own condominium, but also
in neighboring apartment buildings. He would introduce himself to everyone and
would ask them if they needed anything that he could help them with:
"And how did you wake up this
morning? Has any problem come up so I
can be of assistance to you? How are
your children?"
At first, some snubbed him. Others
slammed their door in his face, refusing to speak to him - obviously annoyed by
his unexpected presence. But there were others who actually waited for Crazy
John to come, so that they could hear a kind word from him. Eventually, he came
to know all of them; he came to know their peculiarities, but also the elements
of their characters.
In the evenings, Crazy John would
retire to his humble home and pray. He liked to recite the book of Psalms,
claiming to someone who asked him why, that "they were intended to drive
away the little critters (demons) from the neighborhood..."
He used to read it out so loud, that
a newly-arrived tenant who didn't know him that well called the Police,
complaining about him disturbing the peace!Also on a daily basis, the fool
would cense all the apartments, beginning from the top floor and working down. He would even go out to the back yards and
cense there also. And when someone was
sick, he would visit them and - after censing them and making the sign of the
Cross over them - he would read haltingly, with his limited education, the
words of James' Epistle...
"Pray for each other, so that
you may be healed", he would say to them.
He would urge them to go to confession, "to get well by the
greatest of doctors, our Christ..."
Quite often, after coming home from
the bakery, he would grab a broom and sweep the entire apartment building,
"to keep it clean", as he used to say.
He enjoyed intervening with a smile
between those who quarreled about political parties publicly, in cafes (in
older times, there used to be heated arguments over political parties):
--"Ah, you guys, why do you
count on and pin your hopes on tin cans and cymbals? Instead of quarrelling,
you should be praying to God to send us a David for a king. He could solve
problems, because his knees had bled from prolonged supplications and prayers.
But what do your wise guys do? Their supplications are only for commission, and
they become one with corruption... They take you for idiots and they mock
you", he used to tell them.
--"Get lost, Crazy John",
they would reply and, to avoid him altogether, they would send him off on an
errand. But he would always say
"Don't pin your hopes on the rulers. Have your hopes in God only."
One day, Crazy John didn't go to
work. Mister Apostoly the baker was concerned. He was never absent from work.
So he sent someone to his apartment. Before arriving at the apartment, he saw
the fool holding a shovel, cleaning out the storm drains in the street and
emptying them of the dirt and litter that was blocking them.
--"Hey you! Have you really lost
your mind?" he shouted. "Mister Apostoly is waiting for you at the
bakery and you're cleaning storm drains? Did you think the City Council would
hire you that way?"
To which he replied:
--"I have been trying to find
two coins that I lost, since this morning. But I can't remember which of the
five drains they had fallen into, so I opened all five of them. And, since I
had opened them, I though I might as well clean out the dirt while I'm at
it" the fool said, laughing. "So, go back to Mister Apostoly and tell
him I will work extra tomorrow, to make up for the hours I was absent
today. Hey, they were two whole coins...
that's no small amount" he added.
One can only imagine the baker's exasperation.
As soon as he learnt of the fool's prank, he threatened to fire him. Five hours
later, John the fool had completed his mission and returned home, very pleased.
--"Well, did you find your
coins?" The grocer asked him mockingly. "You should go to the Mayor
and ask for them, for having cleaned the storm drains" he said, laughing
at him.
But later on that afternoon, the sky
began to darken. Black clouds gathered
threateningly, followed by lightning and thunder and a heavy downpour. The streets quickly turned into rivers,
sweeping away everything in their path - including cars on the street. Many
catastrophes were recorded in the largest Municipality: Houses, shops, warehouses were flooded.
Properties were lost. The Fire Department couldn't handle all the emergency
calls for rescues...
The Mayor visited the stricken areas
of his jurisdiction the next day, to personally gauge the damages. All the citizens of his municipality
confronted him about the blocked storm drains.
He eventually went to Crazy John's neighborhood. There was no flood
damage there. The grocer who spotted the
Mayor, went up to him and said:
--"Mister Mayor, you should go
and thank Crazy John who has been cleaning out these storm drains from this
morning. That fool's craziness saved us, thanks to his persistent search for
two lost coins!"
But the baker also said the same
things to the Mayor:
--"It's fortunate Mister Mayor
that the madman cleaned those storm drains, otherwise we would have drowned
after a rainfall like that. His madness saved us from a worse fate."
--"It looks like madmen can be a
necessity too", the Mayor said with a smile.
John, the fool for Christ, used to
wear very worn-out clothes. Many would
feel sorry for him, seeing him in that state, and they would give him money.
"Here, take this you fool, and buy yourself some trousers and a decent
shirt to wear." He would thank them
and take the money. He would then place the money in an envelope, add some more
from his own wages, then would secretly go and toss the envelope under the
doors of those whom he knew were in need.
Whenever he went to a supermarket, he
would purchase very unusual things. He would even place various women's items
for example in the shopping cart, and that would get the cashier girls giggling.
The owner of the supermarket would feel sorry for him, and had even given
instructions to accept only half of the total value of the items that he
purchased.
One day, someone's curiosity got the
better of him, and he decided to find out what the fool did with all that
shopping. So he secretly followed him one day. Crazy John went to a remote
corner of the tiny square so that he would not be watched by passers-by, and
began to separate and group the shopping items.
He would then begin to ring doorbells (as he was accustomed to doing)
and would leave the bags with the shopping items on the doorsteps.
The women's articles that he used to
purchase he would take to a poor student, Katerina, one of a large family of
many children; one who was in great need.
On the day of his death eight years
ago, everyone in the neighborhood had a story to tell about the fool's
"pranks": Anastasy, the janitor of the building where the fool lived,
began to tell about the love he had for the Church.
He would go to church almost every
day. On Sundays he would arrive even before the Priest. He would light his
candle, kneel before all the holy icons and then go to his place at the
entrance of the church, pretending to be a beggar. Whatever money he collected - as the Priest
revealed to me - he would secretly go and deposit in the charity box for the
poor and the elderly.
One day, the caretaker saw him at the
charity box and thought he was trying to steal the money. So she ran to notify
the priest. "Father, Crazy John has got his hands on the charity
box!" she cried out. The priest
then went cautiously over and secretly observed what he was doing. He saw the
fool pulling money out of his pockets and depositing it the charity box.
--"What on earth are you doing
there you fool?" the priest shouted.
And Crazy John replied "Well father, you see a hole opened in my
pocket, so to prevent the money from falling through the hole and losing it, I
put it in the box for the Panaghia to guard, and to give it to others poorer
than me!"
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