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Janis; Riga’s Orthodox Saint.

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25 January 2025

A few weeks ago I invited you to witness the Christmas Liturgy in the Orthodox Cathedral here in Riga. Today, I would like to introduce you to Janis Pommers (1876-1934), former archbishop of the Latvian Orthodox Church and latter canonised as a saint both in Russia and in Latvia. Janis was head of the Orthodox Church in Latvia during a particularly tumultuous historical period; his life and death offer us an insight into early 20th century Latvia , and tell us something of the significance of the Cathedral in Riga, which, as you may have noticed, occupies a large and prominent plot of land in the city centre.

Early Life

Janis (Ioann/John) Pommers was born on January 6, 1876, on a small a farm in the Latvian countryside. His parents were Latvian peasants who had inherited the Orthodox tradition from Janis’ grandfather. Janis studied at the Riga Theological School, and was predisposed to a man of the cloth from an early age. He spent the next period of his youth studying at various academic institutions across the Russian Empire including in Kiev and in Chernihiv, and in 1904, at the age of 28, he was ordained hieromonk (priest). He subsequently worked in Minsk, Odessa, and Tver.

Service in Russia

Janis arrived to Penza, a city in south central Russia, in April 1918, to serve as Archbishop. There had been a schism the year prior when a local Bishop began to teach what the Orthodox Church considered heresy. This was a consequence of violent political repressions perpetrated by the Bolshevik Government. Father Tikhon of Moscow, a contemporary of Janis, reflected; “No one feels safe; everyone lives under a constant fear of search, robbery, eviction, arrest, shooting. Hundreds of defenceless people are taken, made to languish in for months in prisons, and executed without investigation or trial, without even a simplified trial. Bishops, priests, monks and nuns are executed, innocent of any crime, simply charged with something vague. These inhumane executions are made worse for the Orthodox Church because, in contravention of the final consolation offered by the Holy Mysteries, the bodies of the dead are not returned to relatives for a Christian burial.”

On Janis’ arrival to the church in Penza where he was to serve, a crowd hostile to him had gathered. They allowed Janis to enter the church, but they did not allow the vestments (the clothing worn by the clergy) to be brought in. Janis determined to go out to the crowd and and to speak to them. His sermon began with the words from the new testament, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35). The sermon enlivened the clergy and some members of the crowd, it is said, reneged and went over to support Janis.

Janis was not, however, safe.

Soon thereafter Chekists entered the Penza monastery where Janis was living. The men managed to find Janis and they shot him at close range. Fortunately, another monk who had been hiding behind the door managed to hit the gun from the shooter’s hand, so that the second bullet only grazed the leg of a third monk. At that moment workers at the monastery entered the cell and, dragging the attackers out into a yard, began to beat them. Janis, wounded but conscious, commanded that they be spared.

In May 1918, artillery was fired at another monastery where John was staying, and in September of that year he was taken and imprisoned. He was arrested again in July 1919, and on each arrest he was subject to torture and listed for execution. This happened more than four times before he was acquitted and, in June 1921, appointed Archbishop of the re-formed Orthodox Church in Latvia, the churches of which, since the Bolshevik uprising, had been looted and partially destroyed (including the Cathedral in Riga).

Janis’ service and death in Latvia

The official website of the Latvian Orthodox Church says of Janis’ service, “His whole life… was directed to the service of the Church, his homeland of Latvia, and the common people. He cared for Latvians, Russians and people of other nationalities equally. For him there were no strangers, only siblings.”

Among other things Janis’ supervised the reconstruction of churches, the re-opening of seminaries in Latvia, and the re-installation of the bells which had been removed in the years prior. He lived in a small room in the basement of the Cathedral in Riga, which he called ‘my cave’ and of which, according to the chronicles of the Cathedral (see the link above) one foreign visitor exclaimed, “Believe me, in my homeland no prisoner lives in such a hole as you, head of the Latvian Orthodox Church.”

Janis died on October 12, 1934. On account of his poor health, he was at the time living alone in the Latvian countryside. There he maintained a garden, and made repairs to the cottage, which belonged to the Church.

Janis’ murder has never been solved. His body was found tied to a bench in the cottage; he had been shot with a revolver, subject to torture, and his body mutilated and burnt.

The Cathedral in Riga could not accomodate everyone who came for Janis’ funeral. It was the same in 2003, when the relics of the since Sanctified Janis were transferred to the main Cathedral in Riga following his sanctification. Over 10,000 people followed the procession, and numerous miracles were reported; illnesses healed, divine apparitions, parting clouds…

As I said in a previous post about the Orthodox tradition in all devotees of Dostoevsky must see something of the humorous, mysterious, and beautiful tradition from which he developed his masterworks in this, and it is, I think, equally beautiful that this tradition is still alive today. If you’ve read Brothers Karamazov, you will, for example, understand the resonance of this comment- a description of a procession in October 2001 to celebrate the glorification of Saint John in the Orthodox tradition- which I found in the official church chronicles;

“It was cloudy all day, sometimes it rained, but the moment that the coffin was taken out of the chapel, the clouds parted and a ray of sunlight fell over the audience, and a subtle fragrance poured into the air.”

The main Cathedral in Riga holds Janis’ relics (his body), and a small shrine is erected in his name in the rightmost corner of the church, near the cross. There is another small icon nearer to where you enter the church and, if you look carefully when it is bright outside, you will see the reflection of the Latvian flag above his shoulder; it flies on the building opposite- the Supreme Court of Latvia- and shines on the glass of Janis’ icon.