Чудесные исцеления на источнике преподобного отца Серафима, саровского чудотворца

Despite the innumerable manifestations of obvious miracles through the medium of the Reverend Father Seraphim of Sarov, I consider it a moral duty and obligation to cite, for my part, a new case of the amazing healing of a patient at the source of St. Seraphim, which I was honored to witness on July 19 of this year. It was the day of the solemn glorification of St. Seraphim, when the entire Royal Family was in Sarov: at this time, hundreds of thousands of people, from all over Russia, filled the Sarov Hermitage: almost 1/3 of them were sick, suffering from various ailments, to which I (by my profession as a doctor) involuntarily paid attention. There were especially many of them grouped at the spring and the bathhouse located next to it, two and a half miles from the Sarov Monastery; and what forms of diseases I have not observed here! No clinic, no hospital could provide even a hundredth of the “material” that I happened to see during the 2-3 hours of my pilgrimage. In the long line of patients slowly moving one by one towards the bathhouse, one old man, about sixty years old, tall, stood out in particular, holding on him an adult, about thirty years old, a man with a face very similar to himself and seemingly completely healthy and strong. Intrigued by this last circumstance, I approached this group closely and only then did I understand the riddle: both lower limbs of the young man, whom the old man had clasped with his arms across his body, were naked to the knees (he was dressed in a shirt and pants) and hung helplessly like whips, as if dead; their skin was bloodless; the bones were clearly marked due to the disappearance of muscles, especially the gastrocnemius; the very feet of the legs, in the extension position, are sharply deformed... When I asked the old man whether he was carrying his son, I received an affirmative answer, and from further conversation I learned that the patient’s legs were paralyzed a year and a half ago after being bruised by a tree while cutting down a forest. “They thought that he had killed him to death, he lay without memory all day, but when he woke up, his legs were definitely not his own: even if you cut them, there’s no possession; Since then, we’ve been toiling, no matter where we took him for treatment, there was no sense anywhere...” Therefore, both of them, father and son, made a vow to go to Sarov. “All hope now lies in the saint of God, our father Seraphim.” During the entire conversation, the old man did not try, for the sake of his rest, to put the patient on the ground, which, however, would have been pointless, since at one glance, without any research, it was necessary to come to the conclusion that the legs were completely unfit for active activity: this was, according to our science, a characteristic type of paralysis with consistent muscle atrophy, due to the destruction of part of the spinal cord from a traumatic cause; the disorder is, without any doubt, organic, not functional, and, moreover, complete, without any hope of improvement in the future. Imagine my feeling of amazement when, an hour later, I again met the old man with his burden. He did not walk, but flew, not feeling the ground under his feet; his face, as well as his son’s, was completely transformed: instead of a depressed, sad expression, it showed joy and bright hope with full confidence for a future recovery. - Well, did you buy it? – I asked. - Glory to You, Lord, you ransomed me, father! And as soon as I bought it, my Petrukha immediately got back on his feet! - How did you get up? – was my naturally perplexed question. - Yes, that’s it! - and the old man, instead of verbal explanations, put the patient on the ground... And I saw with my own eyes how the withered, paralyzed legs steadily supported the patient’s body, without any outside help. A crowd of people immediately surrounded us. Who they were and where they came from, it never occurred to me to ask, and why? The point is not in statistics, but in the indisputable fact of the manifestation of a miracle, to which I hereby testify as an eyewitness. On the night of July 22 of this year, together with one relative, I went to Sarov to pray and venerate the relics of the Venerable Father Seraphim. During normal travel, the road at night and very dusty is especially tiring for the traveler, but this time we did not feel any fatigue and arrived in Sarov completely cheerful. We had never been to Sarov before, but we knew well that there is a spring of St. Seraphim, the water of which is considered healing, and many believers, having bathed in it, received and are receiving healing from illnesses. Stopping at an inn, about two miles from the monastery, we soon went to the places of the exploits of the Monk Seraphim, and as soon as we crossed the Sarovka River and went out onto the road to the source, we saw several people coming out of the bathhouse, while some of them with prayer depicted the sign of the cross on themselves, others commemorated Father Seraphim, who even after his death did not leave us, but lives among us, and everyone had tears of joy in their eyes. It turned out that the children of one mother had now received healing from incurable diseases in the bathhouse. First of all, we paid attention to the mother, who turned out to be from the Voronezh province; judging by her attire, she was a poor woman; and here she brought her children: a boy who was deaf and mute from birth and a blind girl, who received healing. A boy of 13–14 years old, very handsome in appearance, with a clean face, black hair and brown eyes. My relative (a seminary teacher in the city of Mogilev, Archpriest Tutorsky) put his hand on the boy’s head and began to ask: “What is your name?” The boy answered: “Misha.” “Do you hear it now?” The boy thought, and when his mother prompted: “Say: I hear,” the boy replied: “I hear.” They ask further: “Where are your ears?” The boy became lost in thought again; the speech was incomprehensible to him. When they showed him his ears, a joyful smile shone in the eyes of the lucky man. The words were pronounced by someone who was deaf and mute from birth, as if he were beginning to learn to read and write. The girl, judging by her height, is about the same age as her brother. She was spoiled by smallpox: one eye was leaking, and the other had a cataract, and deep traces of the disease were left on her face. With her last eye, she began to see: she walked without a guide and was especially interested in the objects she encountered: she would notice a pebble, a leaf, a twig under her feet, and quickly rush and grab a full handful along with the sand, look and throw again. These miracles made a strong impression on us: it was as if in front of us was the pool at which the Savior healed the paralytic and in the waters of which the blind saw and the deaf heard... (John, ch. 5). Alisteeva village, Nizhny Novgorod district priest Alexander Krylov At the beginning of September this year we had to visit the Seraphim-Ponetaevsky Convent. While examining the monastery buildings, the painting workshop, etc., we went into one building, where the shelter was located, set up at the expense of the famous capitalist, Petrov. Girls of different classes are accepted into this shelter; are supported and educated on interest from capital donated by the benefactor Petrov. All the girls at that time were under 30. Between them, we were shown one girl about 17 years old, but poorly physically developed and appeared to be 13–14 years old. Having been healed of her illness in Sarov in early last August, she wished to stay in the monastery and learn to read and write. The fate of this girl is very interesting, and we decided, from the words of her, as well as the matron of the orphanage, nun Dorothea, to share with readers information about the miracle that happened to this girl recently. This girl comes, according to her, from the peasants of the Perm province of the Solikamsk district of the Verkhnedinsk volost of the village of Verkhnedinsk; her name is Maria Ivanovna Zubova. About eight years ago she fell ill with a fever and after this illness her legs and left arm were cramped, so that for 8 years she could not walk, but could only crawl, but had no use of her left arm at all. In this form she arrived at the Ponetaevsky Monastery and, after living there for about six weeks, with the help of good people she was sent to Sarov. Here, with the help of one kind man, she reached a source, near which she spent four days and nights, praying to God and St. Seraphim for healing; She was brought under the water of the source three times, but there was no healing. Then she, mentally making a promise to the Venerable Seraphim to devote herself to God and enter a nunnery, was brought under the water of the spring for the fourth time. This time, when a stream of water splashed over her, there was a strong shaking, and when she was taken out of the chapel and laid on the ground, she fell into sleep. While sleeping, she felt a strong push in her side, so she woke up. Feeling that something had happened to her, she tried to get up, and she actually got up and began to walk a little; her left hand straightened, and she began to control the fingers of this hand. Great was her joy at seeing the miraculous healing after eight years of suffering. Eyewitness nuns confirmed to me that indeed this girl, before leaving for Sarov, could only crawl and her left hand was cramped and she did not control it; but, having arrived from Sarov, she began to walk and use her hand. She walked freely in front of me, but only said that her legs were still weak. Secretary of the Arzamas Police Statement of the widow A. Bogorodskaya about the wondrous mercy of God to her son, through the prayers of the Rev. Fr. Seraphim of Sarov On the 5th of last September,” reports the priest named below of the Nizhny Novgorod Cathedral, “while I was serving in the cathedral after the Vespers prayer service to St. Seraphim, a woman came up to me with her son, a high school student. She could hardly speak from extreme emotion and tears. In front of all the people who were in the cathedral at that time, she told me that for sixteen years her son suffered from seizures, which recurred 2-3 times a month and tormented him all day long. She, a poor widow, had him treated by various doctors, but the doctors recognized her son’s illness as incurable and advised her to expel him from the gymnasium. Knowing that many miracles were happening in Sarov, the mother of her sick son would like to go there, but not having money for the trip, in great grief she came to the cathedral on July 25th last July and here at 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon she asked me to serve the Rev. before his holy icon a prayer for the health of her sick son. “I prayed,” she said, “with sincere faith that the Reverend, who works miracles in Sarov, can work a miracle here too - heal my son; I prayed simply as best I could. And great is the mercy of God through the prayer of St. The saint of God: a month and a half has already passed, and my son hasn’t had a single seizure after the prayer service and he is still healthy and studying at the gymnasium! Meanwhile, in July, before the prayer service, his seizures were especially frequent and severe. So, shortly before serving me a prayer service on July 25, he continuously had seizures one after another from 6 o’clock in the morning until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Did the holy elder Seraphim really hear my unworthy prayer? How could I, a sinner, beg him!” Upon the widow’s declaration of God’s marvelous help to her through the prayers of the holy elder, in accordance with her wishes, a thanksgiving prayer service was served, and she and her son had grateful tears, tears of joy, rolling down their faces throughout the prayer service. This woman is the widow of the provincial secretary, Antonina Ivanovna Bogorodskaya, and her son is a 3rd grade student at the local gymnasium, Anatoly Vladimirovich Bogorodsky. They live in the city of N.-Novgorod, in Kovalikha, in the village of Sukhorukova. Nizhegorsk Dept. Cathedral priest Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Gazette, 1903, No. 19.