On Friday, July 31, while the Brotherhood chanted Matins in the Monastery chapel, our ever-memorable brother, our beloved Father John, reposed in the Lord after a battle with cancer. He was 68 years old.
The future Archimandrite John was born Carl Theodor Erickson on January 5, 1952 in Brooklyn, NY to the family of Carl Theodor and Carol Mildred Bates Erickson. At the age of 24, he was received into the Orthodox Church and, rather than pursuing a secular education in a Physics program to which he had been accepted, chose to embrace the spiritual life. He entered St. John of Rila Monastery and was tonsured a monk at the age of 28, receiving the name John, in honor of the Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom.
Fr. John studied Ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek, and Byzantine Chant, and touched many lives in his 20 years of secular employment as a High School Physics teacher.
On May 10, 1982, the Monk John was ordained a deacon; on the following day, he was ordained a priest. Many have known him as a much-beloved liturgist and confessor, and an integral part of our monastic brotherhood. Please keep the soul of our beloved Archimandrite John in your daily prayers and Church commemorations.
May his memory be eternal!
