Embrace the Russians

From them will come the Christian renewal the South and all the world are in such desperate need of.  Quoting from Father Andrew Phillips's essay 'The Spiritual Renewal of Russia and the End of the World':

In his report to the Diaspora Council in Yugoslavia in 1938, St John of Shanghai and Western Europe wrote: ‘The catastrophe which has come to Russia is the direct result of terrible sins, and the rebirth of Russia is possible only after being cleansed from them...In chastising, the Lord is at the same time also showing Russian people the path of salvation, making it into a preacher of Orthodoxy all over the world. The Russian diaspora has made all the ends of the world familiar with Orthodoxy; the mass of Russian exiles are mostly unconsciously preachers of Orthodoxy...It has been given to Russians outside Russia to shine the light of Orthodoxy all over the world, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father Who is in heaven, and thus obtain salvation for themselves. The diaspora will have to be converted to the path of repentance and, obtaining forgiveness for itself through prayer to God and spiritual rebirth, will also be enabled to regenerate our suffering homeland’ (The Orthodox Word, 1973, No. 50, pp. 92, 94).

St John ended his report with a prophecy and the hope that there would be a true Feast of the Resurrection in Russia, that would shine forth to the whole world before the end and the beginning of the universal Kingdom of God: ‘Shake off the slumber of despondency and sloth, O sons of Russia! Behold the glory of her sufferings and cleanse yourselves; wash away your sins! Be strengthened in the Orthodox faith, to be worthy to dwell in the house of the Lord and to settle on His holy mountain! Leap up, leap up, rise up! O Russia, you who from the Lord’s hands have drunk of the cup of His wrath! When your sufferings are over, your righteousness shall go with you and the glory of the Lord shall accompany you. The peoples shall come to your light, and kings to the radiance which shall rise on you. Then lift up your eyes and see: behold, your children come to you from the West and the North and the Sea and the East, blessing Christ in you for ever. Amen’ (ibid., p. 94).

And earlier in the essay:

In the darkest days of persecution, when everything seemed hopeless, Elder Seraphim (Vyritsky) (1865-1949) spoke of impending rebirth, of the opening of churches and monasteries, and that the gates of hell would not overcome. . . . He also spoke of a time when Russia would flourish again spiritually, when even heterodox would sail to Russia to be baptised. But this period would not last for long, for fifteen years, and then Antichrist would come. He also warned that the end would come not through persecution, but through the temptations of money and the attractions of this world (Bishop Alexander of South America, Easter Message 2005).

Many more such prophecies of holy men and women are likewise quoted.