The Power of the Cross
Dedo Pavlo, the grandfather of Fr.
George Giantsapolous was taken by the Communists and was forced to walk through
a mine field to indicate a safe path for this captures. He made the sign of the
Cross and moved out into the field. He reached the other side unharmed and his
captors proceeded to follow him. They were immediately blown up. The man's
family heard the explosion where at their house where they were praying for his
safe return, and thought that he had been killed. You can imagine the rejoicing
when he returned home unhurt by the power of the Cross.
A Story from WWII
On the eve of the feast of the
Birth of the Mother of God John Kuzmich and Vera Vitalievna Bludymko fled from
there home in Poland and made their way to Germany where they spent the
rest of the war. As I recall the story, they could hear the advancing Soviet
troups from their home and decided that it was time to get out of town,
literally. They came to a bridge guarded by the Germans who had orders to shoot
anyone trying to escape the city. Making the sign of the Cross, they started
across the bridge. The German Guard looked at them out of the corner of his eye
but let them pass. When they reached the other end of the bridge aand sat down
to rest, the bells in the church began to ring for the Vigil of the Feast. John
Kuzmich never forgot that moment and told me the story 50 years later and I am
posting it here so that it will be remembered and repeated after I am gone. God
give rest to our departed friends.
Miracle of St.
John of Kronstadt
This story I
heard many years ago from a woman who lived here in Boston. She was from St.
Petersburg Russia. She had a sister who had fallen gravely ill, and was not
expected to live. She was desperate, but recalling the great wonder worker of
Russia St. John of Kronstadt, she decided to turn to him for help. She with a
friend took the boat to Kronstadt, hoping to approach Fr. John at the Liturgy.
When they finally arrived at the church they beheld in the distance Fr. John
getting into his carriage, with a mass of people between them and the saint.
Poor Natalya was practically in despair, thinking that her sister would surely
die. The carriage began to make its way slowly through the crowd and when it
drew even with the girls, Fr. John had it stop. He beckoned Natalya to him and
patting her on the head told her, “don’t worry. She’ll be alright. ” The girl
was cured of her malady.
Bishop Gury’s Clairvoyance
Just a little story about Vladyka
Guri. This happened in 1994 I think. He was still living in a little village in
a hut with no phone anywhere near. He and his spiritual children had arranged
to have Liturgy in one chapel and they were to pick up Vladyka in the
morning and continue on to the Liturgy. Maria [the woman who told me this] had
promised another lady that they would pick her up on the way to the church.
Early in the morning the driver and Maria got the car and picked up Vladyka.
Then Maria said "Now Vladyko we must go to get Mrs. so-n-so."
"No" said Vladyko, "she isn't coming." "But Vladyko,
we discussed it last night and she most definitely said that she wanted to
attend the Liturgy," said Maria. "Very well"
said Vladyko, "We can go by for her, but I tell you she wont be
coming." Well when they go to the lady's house it turned out that she had
been taken ill in the night and was put in hospital in the wee hours of the morning.
Vladyka could have known this only in the Spirit.
Count Grabbe and Emperor Nicholas I Originally Published on
October 7, 2006
Today being the anniversary of the repose of Bishop Gregory Grabbe
I wish to share this story about his great-grandfather. Unfortunately I don’t
recall his name, if indeed Vladyka ever told it to me.
Count Grabbe was at the head of his regiment for the weekly
review by the Emperor Nicholas I, Pavlovich. During the course of review the
Emperor became dissatisfied with something about the soldiers and began to harangue
them. Count Grabbe felt that the Emperor’s criticism was unjustified and stared
to defend his men. This did not commend him to the Emperor needless to say. The
more Count Grabbe defended his men the angrier Nikolai Pavlovich became and the
angrier Nikolai Pavlovich became the more Count Grabbe defended the soldiers.
Finally the Emperor got into his carriage and started back to the Palace, Count
Grabbe riding his horse beside and arguing the Emperor all the way. By the time
they reached the Palace, Nikolai Pavlovich was ready to hang Count Grabbe and
send the entire regiment to Siberia. However, after a few days the Emperor
calmed down and thinking it over decided that he had been wrong. So he called
the regiment together with Count Grabbe at the head and asked forgiveness form
them all. That is an Orthodox Emperor!
Count Grabbe was killed during the Crimean War. His aide-de-camp
heard him praying in his tent all night on the eve of his final battle, and as
he left his tent in the morning he handed the aide a message which was to be
sent that evening. When the aide opened it, in Count Grabbe's own hand it told
of his death.
Alexandra Feodorovna becomes a godmother
This is one of my favorite short pieces on the Tsaritsa-Martyr
Alexandra Feodorovna. We translated it decades ago from the back of a sheet
from one of those tear-off calendars so popular with the Russians. Now we
cannot find the original sheet, so I cannot provide the original Russian text.
Most likely this is an excerpt from a longer memoir. Perhaps one of the List
members could help us find the original source.
*******************
The following incident from the life of the Empress Alexandra
Feodorovna took place in 1914, before the War. The Imperial Family was spending
the summer in Livadia. The Empress used to like very much to take walks by
herself, and for this reason she would drive out of Livadia in an open
carriage. After going a few miles, she would get out of the carriage and walk
on foot in the company of one of her ladies-in-waiting. Always modestly dressed
— in a plain summer dress, sandals and without a fancy hat — she would
sometimes go down to Yalta, and drop by some church in order to pray unnoticed
by others.
This she also did on the day about which I am now going to
recount. The Empress stopped by the Autsky church, prayed for a while and put
some candles by the holy icons. In the church there stood a group of very
poorly dressed people who had come to baptize a child. The priest had already
put on his vestments, but the people evidently were awaiting someone and thus
he did not begin the service. The Empress had already intended to leave when
the priest approached her and asked her to take the place of the terribly late
godmother. The Empress kindly agreed, and taking the child in her arms she
stood together with the child's father, a poor shoemaker. To the question
directed to the Empress concerning how she would like the little girl to be
called, she answered simply: “Alexandra”. And then, in the course of the
service she performed everything that is required of sponsors, i.e. together
with the shoemaker she walked around the font three times, holding the child in
her arms, in accord with the Church typicon.
After the baptismal ceremony, the Empress jotted down simply in
the metrical book of the Autsky church: “Alexandra Romanova”. In parting, she
shook the hand of everyone who had come for the christening, and having asked
the address of her goddaughter, she set out on foot. The next day, an imperial
coach drove up to the poor house of the shoemaker, the father of the
newly-baptized, which was on the outskirts of Yalta, and the lady-in-waiting
who had accompanied the Empress the day before brought Shurochka (little
Alexandra) an entire trousseau and for her parents a gift of 500 rubles from
the Most-august godmother.
Up to the Revolution the Empress, no matter where she was
living, not only remembered her goddaughter, but also took care for her and for
all her many brothers and sisters, the children of the poor shoemaker. Of
course, when the Revolution broke out, one can surmise that Shurochka — the
Imperial goddaughter — as everyone called her, and her whole family had to
suffer much on account of her father’s spiritual relationship to the Russian
Empress.
This is, of course, far from being the only incident told me by
the eyewitness of it, my sister-in-law, who was that lady-in-waiting who had
the good fortune of accompanying the Empress and being present with her at the
baptism of the shoemaker's child. The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was the
incarnation of modesty and of feminine angelic goodness, and her good deeds she
strove to do unnoticed by others.
N.V. Khvostova, Addis-Ababa 1958
*****************
I sure would like to have seen the look on the shoemaker's face
when that Imperial coach pulled up to his house and he discovered that the kind
lady from church was the Empress of All Russia!
Bishop Nektari
“He that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 10: 22)
Here is another edifying account by Vladyka Nektary (Kontsevich,
+ 1983), Bishop of Seattle:
Vladyka Nektary assisted Archbishop John in San Francisco, where
he also resided. But three or four times a year — on the Great Feasts — he
would travel to Seattle to visit his flock and stay there for several weeks.
Vladyka Nektary would usually make the journey by car with a driver.
Once, while traveling through the countryside of Oregon, they
stopped to buy gasoline in a small town. Vladyka Nektary was quite tall and
imposing, so, of course, the townsfolk couldn’t help but notice the oddly
dressed visitor. Some of them approached Vladyka and inquired whether or not he
might be Russian. When Vladyka answered in the affirmative, the townsfolk
informed him that they had an old blind Russian man living there in town, and
they proposed that Vladyka visit him. The man had come to their town many years
ago with his brothers; the brothers had since all died, and now he was all
alone. Vladyka readily consented to visit the old man, and the party set out
for his quarters.
When Vladyka Nektary introduced himself in Russian to the blind
man, he asked Vladyka to come closer. As Vladyka Nektary drew nearer to him,
the blind man reached out to find and touch first Vladyka’s klobuk, then his
long hair, then his beard, and finally his Panagia and rassa sleeves. Only
after the old man had verified that before him stood a genuine, traditional
Orthodox bishop did he cup his hands and say: “Blagoslovite”!
They spoke for a while, and then Vladyka Nektary informed the
blind man that he had on his person the reserved Holy Gifts, and Vladyka asked
him whether or not he would like to go to Confession and receive Holy
Communion. What an awesome proposal for an isolated Orthodox Christian to hear!
Of course the blind man joyously agreed, confessed his sins and received Holy
Communion from Vladyka’s hands. Then, after saying their good-byes, Vladyka
Nektary and his driver continued on their way to Seattle.
On the return trip from Seattle to San Francisco, Vladyka
Nektary and his driver stopped by the small town to call upon the blind Russian
man again. But the townsfolk informed Vladyka that soon after their first
visit, the old man had died and had been buried by them. All those years the
blind man had kept the Faith; then God sent him Holy Communion and took him to
Himself.
Vladyka Nektary used to say that this incident has several
lessons to teach us:
1) That we must never despair; but always keep the Faith and do
our part, and God will provide for our salvation in ways known unto Him.
2) That the externals of our Faith *do* matter, and they are
expressions of that Faith, despite what the modernists may try to tell us.
3) And Vladyka would counsel clergymen to carry the reserved
Gifts with them when traveling, in order to be prepared for any sort of
unforeseen circumstances: wars, revolutions, providential encounters, etc.
Vladyka Nektary was enlightened to do this by the well-known episode when his
own mother was arrested by the Bolsheviks while visiting Optina and was given
Holy Communion by clergymen, her fellow prisoners, who happened to have the
reserved Gifts with them.
(See the “Life of the Elder Nektary of Optina”, published by the
St. Herman of Alaska Press, in order to learn how the Kontsevich family came to
know the Elder and draw close to Optina.)
May God grant us all to remain faithful to the end and to attain
salvation. Amen!
God’s Judgement
Fr. Rodion told me this when we
visited him a couple of weeks ago. Met. Innocent of Moscow and his deacon
were at table on day and the deacon said to him, "Vladyko, How can a good
God condemn a person to everlasting torment?" Vladyko said "Father
deacon I notice that you are squirming in your seat. Why is that?"
"Well the sun is in my eyes and is causing some discomfort, Vladyko."
he replied. The Metropolitan said, "Well the sun is on my back and I find
it quite pleasant, yet it is the same sun. It all depends on your position."
A Miracle by St. Phanurius
This morning as I was leaving the monastery I lost the key to
the car I had intended to take. I took one of the other cars and looked for the
lost key off and on for the rest of the day. Now this key has a computer chip
so that replacing it is both expensive and time consuming. I was praying to St.
Phanurius. After supper I thought to look in the trashcan, thinking I may have
thrown the key away by accident when I tosse3d the old shopping list. As I was
looking Fr. Theologos came by and asked what I was up to. After I had
explained, he said, "I owe St. Phanurius a cake do want me to put the key
on that one?" Well I said I did of course and went up stairs a
promptly found the key where it had fallen out of my pocket, in the one room I
had not thought to look in before.
Archbishop Philotheus
Archbishop Philotheus of Hamburg was living in NYC for much of
1964 so as to be present at the interim synod meetings. He loved the services
very much and often served the daily cycle as a priest. I recall one particular
Vigil for St. John the Theologian [I think it was the Fall feast but I can’t be
sure]. Vladyka Philotheus was the celebrant, and we had two choirs entirely of
bishops except for the right choir which Fr. Anthony Grabbe joined about half
way through. It was an amazing service. At that time a number of the bishops
had very good voices and the Russian monastic chant with all-male choir was
quite inspiring.
Vladyka told us this story when he visited HTM for the
cheirothesia of Metropolitans Callistus and Epiphanius. As the German troops
moved into western Russia it was possible for Russians to return to visit their
home land for the first time in decades. The Synod having in mind the duty to
see to the spiritual needs of the flock in the areas now osccupied by the
Germans, sent Archbishop Philotheus [with others I am sure] to attend to this
work. I’m sure he told us what city he was in, but I can not now recall the
name. At any rate he was there for Theophany and asked the German authorities
for permission to hold a procession to and blessing of the river in the town.
He was asked how many people were likely to attend, and he estimated about 500.
Permission was given. In the end thousands took part. Traffic was stopped for
the better part of an hour, and the Germans were flabbergasted. They approach
Vladyka about the possibility of performing the rite again the next day so that
they could film it. Vladyka told them that they would have to wait a year for
the next Theophany, but by that time they had already been driven back.
As an aside Met. Callistus and Archbp. Philotheus reposed on the
same date Sept. 12/25
This miracle of St. Nicholas was recounted by Matushka Nina
Kochergin
When we lived in the army barracks at the Fischbeck camp in
Germany, in 1947, I was at the time 7-8 years old. We had an acquaintance who
visited us frequently, Symeon by name. He was 30 years old. He wore a small
black bandage or patch on the back of his head. Like those worn by some people
who have lost an eye. He had been hit by a piece from a bomb which cut out part
of his skull.
He told us that he lived with a very pious mother who had a
large Icon of St. Nicholas. He went to school and became an unbeliever. There
was very strong atheist propaganda in the schools. He always demanded that his
mother remove the Icon.
Well he found himself in the army and he was given a portfolio
with secret papers to transport by motorcycle to a different headquarters. He
was from the region and knew the area well. On the road he had to stop to
relieve himself and to his horror he saw that the portfolio was open and empty.
Evidently all the papers had been blown out. He knew that he faced certain
death by firing squad. Then he remembered St. Nicholas and kneeling he said,
“St. Nicholas, if there is a God, and if you exist, then then you will help
me.” Suddenly a wind began to blow and all the papers were gathered together by
his motorcycle. After that miracle he became a believer.
May Symeon inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. I remember that Met.
Vitaly had organized a men’s monastery in our camp which had daily services
which Symeon attended without fail.
He met a woman who he wished to marry and so as not to have to
wear the patch he decided to have an operation on repair his skull. But he died
on the operating table.
Miracle of St. Philaret of New York
Miracle of Blessed Ksenia
Miracle of St. Hermogenes of Moscow
Thank you, vladyka! I am happy you are writing these stories down. + Gr.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDelete