“I sincerely mourn the tragic death of a much respected and high-value hierarch, his eminence archbishop John.” Metropolitan Eleutherius of Lithuania and Vilna (Bogoyavlensky) on the death of the holy martyr John (Pommer) and other events of church life. (The introductory article, publication and notes)

The publication includes two letters from the head of the Lithuanian and Vilna dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Eleutherius (Bogoyavlensky). The addressee of the letter is the deputy patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky). In the first letter, Metropolitan Eleutherius reports on some problems of the Lithuanian diocese. As the head of the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Western Europe, he also writes about some of the events that took place at the Three Holy Metochion in Paris. A special place is dedicated to the events in Latvia in October 1934. The Metropolitan reports on the murder of Archbishop John (Pommer), discusses the further path of the Orthodox Church in Latvia. Metropolitan Eleutherius believed that the path of Archbishop John, who created the independent Latvian Church, was not entirely canonical. According to the author of the letter, after the death of Archbishop John, the Latvian Church should enter the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The second letter sent by Metropolitan Eleutherius to Metropolitan Sergius is a copy of the response to the Latvian Synod to the invitation to take part in the funeral service of Archbishop John (Pommer).