During her trip to Russia recently, the wife of US President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, visited the St. Dimitry Orthodox Sisterhood in Moscow. The sisterhood’s spiritual father and rector of St. Dimitry Church, Archpriest Arkady Shatov, greeted the First Lady and gave her a brief excursion of the church: “This church was visited by three Russian Emperors (Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander III) and by four Empresses. Since that time you are the first wife of a head of state to come here.”

Then Fr. Arkady and Mrs. Obama stopped next to an icon with the relics of St. John (Maximovitch), Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco, a saint of Russian extraction, but American in that he lived and served in the United States. St. John was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church 15 years ago. “When you were two years old, this great saint reposed in America” said Fr. Arkady. Thus, America’s First Lady “discovered” St. John of San Francisco in Moscow.