Quiz on Saints’ Lives

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt was born on 19 October 1829 into the family of a poor priest, Iliya Mikhailovich Sergievand Feodora Vlyaevna Sergiev, in the village of Sura, Pinezhsky district, Arkhangelsk province. His father's family had been priests for 350 years. The boy was weak in health, often ill. His mother prayed for her son for a long time, and Vanya, seeing his mother praying, learnt soulful prayer by himself. His father from early childhood constantly took him to church and fostered in him a special love for the divine service.
John did not do well in school. He prayed a lot for the granting of reason to comprehend the learning, and the Lord heard him: one night, when John prayed especially fervently, divine grace overshadowed him, and, in his own words, ‘instantly, as if the veil fell from his eyes’. From that time he began to make great progress in his studies. After the parochial school he graduated from the Arkhangelsk Theological Seminary as the first in academic achievement and from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy with the degree of Candidate of Theology.