When it is said
The Church sings it on his feast day, 12 November, beginning at Vespers.
Anyone may say it to ask his prayers, before giving or while serving the poor.
Where it comes from
No author known
More than 7,000 on his list
John was born on Cyprus in AD 555. He married and had children, and he became a monk after his wife and children died. In AD 608 he was made patriarch of Alexandria. Early on he had his stewards list every poor person in the city. There were more than 7,000, and he ordered that all of them be provided for each day from the church’s treasury.
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, St John the Merciful; Orthodox Church in America, St John the Merciful
“Perhaps he is Christ”
John was visiting the sick when a beggar asked him for help, and he had the man given six silver coins. The beggar changed his clothes, ran ahead and asked again, and John gave him six more. When the beggar came a third time, the servants began to chase him away. John ordered that the man be given 12 silver coins, saying, “Perhaps he is Christ putting me to the test.”
What the words mean
The Merciful, or the Almsgiver
His Greek title is Eleemon. The hymns in English call him both John the Merciful and John the Almsgiver. The other short hymn of his day, the kontakion, plays on the name. It says he scattered his wealth among the poor and received the wealth of heaven in return. Then it hails him as “namesake of almsgiving and of mercy”.
The Greek Menaion for 12 November (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America); Orthodox Church in America, troparion and kontakion for 12 November; Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, St John the Merciful
The Scripture in it
By your patient endurance you will gain your souls.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ἐν τῇ ὑπομονῇ σου ἐκτήσω τὸν μισθόν σου Πάτερ, Ὅσιε,
ταῖς προσευχαῖς ἀδιαλείπτως ἐγκαρτερήσας,
τοὺς πτωχοὺς ἀγαπήσας, καὶ τούτοις ἐπαρκέσας·
Ἀλλὰ πρέσβευε Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ, Ἰωάννη Ἐλεῆμον μακάριε,
σωθῆναι τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.