Сила чудодейственной молитвы о. Иоанна Кронштадтского. Многочисленные факты заочных исцелений. Прозорливость великого молитвенника и чудотворца

LIFE of dear Father Fr. John with his incessant “burning” before God is already a miracle in itself, but the Lord Jesus Christ honored His chosen one with a special miraculous gift to heal illnesses of body and soul of all who flow to him with faith. In this chapter we will talk about miracles performed in the area of ​​bodily ailments. The facts of correspondence healings are especially striking. In the far East, on the borders of China, in the city of Kyakhta, there lived a family in whose midst a remarkable miracle of God’s mercy occurred, requested by the prayers of the Kronstadt shepherd (Fr. John). The sister of the consul, who was in the Russian civil service, suffered for a long time and deeply from a serious illness, from which, apparently, there was no hope of ever getting rid of it. The illness was so severe that the sufferer even planned to poison herself, and under the influence of this terrible thought, she had a dream. She sees herself on the edge of a dark and terrible abyss, she would like to get away from it, but some fatal force pushes her forward and drags her into the abyss, from where there is no salvation, and where inevitable death awaits her. Horror takes possession of the sufferer, cold sweat appears on her face, her heart trembles with mortal fear, but the ground shakes under her, and she feels that her feet are sliding to the very edge of a bottomless abyss, over which an ominous darkness spreads, and in the depths a whole hell seethes and bubbles. Finally, she loses the ground under her, and her body hangs in the air in order to quickly rush into the arms of death, which has opened its terrible mouth wide... There is, apparently, no salvation, and the last thought that flashed in her mind was about the Savior crucified on the cross... At the same moment, as if in the clouds, a priest appeared before her, with the seal of meekness and mercy on his forehead... “In the name of The life of our Savior is given to you! - he said, and grabbing her with a powerful, firm hand, he again put her on solid ground. Then he showed her a previously inconspicuous path along which she could move away from the abyss, and admonished her with these words: “Go and give thanks to God for the salvation given to you!” Having woken up, the sufferer told her brother and all her loved ones about her wonderful dream, and described in detail the priest she saw in the dream, whose image was sharply imprinted in her imagination; who the priest she saw was, no one could give an explanation for this. Some time passed after this dream, all strangers forgot about it, and the sufferer herself remembered it less and less, although she harbored in her soul the conviction that her prophetic dream must have some special meaning. And suddenly, quite by accident, she happened to see a portrait of Fr. John of Kronstadt, about whose appearance until that time she had no idea, although she had heard a lot about him, since the whole Russian land was full of rumors about him. Imagine her and all those close to her surprise when in the portrait of Fr. She recognized John as the very priest who saved her from death in her dream. She immediately telegraphed Fr. John to Kronstadt, asking for his prayers and intercession before the throne of the King of Kings; O. John did not hesitate to fulfill her request, to serve a prayer service for her health, of which he notified her in a timely manner. Since then, the incurable disease, which threatened the sufferer with inevitable death, took a favorable turn, and soon the patient finally recovered. She was so grateful that after her recovery, she was not afraid of the long, long and difficult journey, and together with her brother she came from Kyakhta to Kronstadt to personally thank the good shepherd, who had asked her for healing with his prayers 11 . One companion about. John, on his trip to the north, reports the following about the miraculous healing that she was honored to receive from the great prayer book of the Russian land. One day, in the morning, for some reason my right leg started to hurt, and in the evening the pain intensified, and my foot was swollen like a log. Frightened by this sudden illness, I told one of my dear father’s companions about it, but he could only advise that when I arrived in Yaroslavl, I should quickly see a doctor, because the illness was dangerous. And I thought: I’d better turn to my free doctor, and with difficulty, due to severe pain, I got up to the control room. There, showing about. John has a sore leg, I say: “Father, my leg hurts a lot, what should I do?” And he just lightly patted the sore spot and walked away. Imagine my surprise: the pain instantly disappeared, so I couldn’t even believe that my leg was hurting so much now. A few minutes later, water gushed out of the foot, and that was the end of it. Only a small scar that remains to this day indicates that the leg really hurt. This incident reminded me of an almost identical incident that happened to me last year. When dear father returned from Arkhangelsk, we had to travel for three days by mail from Ustyug to Vologda. The constant shaking gave me a terrible headache. When we approached the last station, from unbearable pain I fell into some kind of semi-conscious state and only thought: Lord, will we arrive at the station soon? I’ll ask dear priest there to put his hand on my head. Arriving at the station house, Fr. John quickly left the wagon, people rushed to the porch at once, and I barely made my way to the station. When I entered the room, the miracle worker, Fr. John looked out the window. Before I had time to open my mouth to make a request, he quickly turned to me, took my head and shook it hard - it amazed me so much that I, having forgotten what I came for, instead of asking, I told him: “Father, death shook me,” and he again shook my head, then I remembered what I came for and told him: “That’s why I came to you, to ask you to put your hand on my head, it hurt a lot.” And he just smiled at that. So what? the pain immediately disappeared, so that when 3 hours later we arrived in Vologda, I not only felt pain, but even almost no fatigue. So strong is one touch of the hand of a person who is devoted to God with all his being - to those, however, who treat him with sincere trust. In the family of Mr. M-va, as a home teacher, there lived one person who had the artist’s son-in-law - A.K. The latter was prone to heavy drinking and, by the way, had long ago lost faith in all that is holy. On February 23, 1886, the great righteous man Fr. John of Kronstadt. The teacher, having experienced the failure of all remedies against her son-in-law’s illness, decided to take this opportunity to present Fr. A note to John about the health of the patient, and she did this secretly from the latter, afraid to even mention any prayer or priest in his presence. Father John prayed. The teacher went to her son-in-law that same day and found him half sober, gloomily walking around the room. “You know,” K. turned to her, “I am so disgusted with myself with my weakness that I don’t know how to save myself from it.” I feel so disgusting at the moment that I even drank warm water in order to cleanse my stomach. Should I go to Father John? Struck and delighted by such an unprecedented and unexpected desire, the teacher, of course, approved of the good idea. K. went to Kronstadt and repented. John in unbelief and asked to pray for deliverance from his shameful vice. Father John, through the simplest reasoning, dispelled all his doubts, and it ended with K., who had not fasted for ten years, confessed and received Holy Communion. Tain cried with emotion, like a child, imbued with the consciousness of the greatness of the perfect sacrament, which could not have been expected from him before. Convinced, joyful, calm, he returned home and stopped drinking. For two years he resisted temptation, but then some family troubles occurred and his illness returned to him. But faith in God and God’s mercy never left him. A short time ago, he was admitted to the hospital; the priest who was present during his last minutes saw that he was dying with prayer and with the name of his dear father, Fr. John on the lips. His last dying wish was that Fr. John prayed for him. The young wife of Mr. V-ga, suffering from typhoid fever, lay in bed in an unconscious state. Doctors recognized her situation as hopeless, expecting death any minute. The husband was awake in the room nearby. Suddenly he hears his wife calling him. He goes to her call. In an almost firm voice she tells him: “Something extraordinary happened in the house... come and find out.” The husband goes out onto the stairs and sees it filled from top to bottom with people. It turns out that Fr. John of Kronstadt at that time was in one of the apartments of that house with a patient. Having learned this, Mr. V. rushes headlong into the apartment where Fr. John runs up the back stairs and, having waited for him, asks to go to his sick wife. The dear father agrees with his usual friendliness and goes to Mr. V.’s apartment. Having entered there, he goes straight to the patient’s room, as if he had been in this apartment several times before. The patient greets him without surprise, as if this was supposed to happen, but with some extraordinary reverence, as she herself later said. Great miracle worker, Fr. John approached her and after a few words of consolation and encouragement, said: - Well, what then? Let's pray to God, stand up. Having not risen from her pillow for several weeks, the patient sat up in bed. Father John, placing his hand on her head, began to pray. In a fit of faith and reverent emotion, the patient knelt in bed; her hands, until then devoid of movement, folded loosely on her chest... Her face was burning... tears flowed in a stream. Father John, having blessed her, gave several instructions on how a true Christian should believe and hope in God. After the prayer, the patient felt cheerful and, like a housewife, turned to Fr. John asking if he would like to refresh himself. And so the good shepherd says: “If you give me a glass of wine, I’ll thank you, I’m very weak and tired... but, according to Russian custom, the hostess herself must serve the guest wine.” Hearing this, the sick woman rose from her bed, lowered her feet to the floor, her relatives threw a dress over her, and with firm steps she headed to the dining room to the buffet, took out wine and served it to the blessed guest. After taking a few sips and blessing the patient and family, Fr. John headed towards the exit. As the patient herself said, at that moment two feelings began to boil within her: gratitude to God and the desire to live. Will she live? – she wanted to ask Fr. John, but she did not dare. As if reading this question in her soul, Fr. Almost at the door, John turns around and says to her: - God help you, get better. Believe that everything is in His power. A few days later she completely recovered. The doctors, of course, called it a crisis, etc., recognizing the accomplished fact as a matter of chance. It is impossible not to add that the patient’s husband is a Lutheran, and she herself is Orthodox. An incident happened to the sister of the now deceased V.G. Beneova, who lives on the Petersburg side, on Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street, near the Church of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the beginning of Lent in 1888, V.G. fell ill with acute rheumatism, which was later complicated by pneumonia. It should be noted that V.G. is already quite advanced in age, that is, at an age when pneumonia is extremely dangerous and in most cases fatal. Doctors declared her situation hopeless. The patient could not move a single member. Then she decided to invite Fr. John. From the first words, the dear priest invited her to join St. Tain, to which V.G. immediately readily agreed, although her relatives were partly opposed to this. “Unite with the Lord,” said the venerable shepherd, “and the Lord will restore you.” “Where can I get better, father, I’m old... God forbid, at least I can die peacefully,” was the patient’s answer. – Sister in Christ! - Fr. objected. John, it is not our business to know the times or dates that the Father has set in His power, I will answer you with the words of the Lord to the Apostles. Unite with Christ, and in His power all things are possible. With these words Fr. John took off the monstrance and, placing it on the table prepared for prayer, said, pointing to it: - Behold, in this monstrance is the most pure Body and Blood of Christ, and under the guise of Them, He Himself, the All-Good One, entered your house. Believe, unite with Him through heartfelt repentance, your faith will save you, despite the years. He also raised the daughter of Jairus, who had died; How can he not restore you, who are sick? Having said this, Fr. John knelt before the icon and began to pray fervently, after which he confessed and communed the sick woman. Then he reproached those around him for why they hadn’t brought her in earlier, and when the latter said, “she, father, was fasting,” Fr. John objected: – The first Christians communed with St. Mystery every day, but you don’t even want to give it to the sick. Running away from Christ is not good. Having blessed everyone, the venerable shepherd left. The next day the patient felt better, and a few days later, to the surprise of the doctors, she completely recovered and after a week and a half she was able to go out of town for a final recuperation. One of the very wealthy St. Petersburg merchant B-va, one of his three daughters E., fell ill with paralysis in her legs in 1887. The invited doctors recognized her illness as completely safe. Treatment began, and, to everyone’s surprise, the patient’s situation became worse and worse. Finally it got to the point where the patient’s legs were completely paralyzed, although she didn’t feel any pain. The doctors were stumped and could not explain such a strange course of the disease. Heartbroken, the father decided to seek help from Fr. John, who soon arrived at the invitation. After serving the prayer service, Fr. John addressed the patient with a word about the purpose of the organs and senses given to man and about the abuses of them that modern man allows himself. The touched patient, with tears in her eyes, immediately and completely sincerely expressed her firm intention to never dance, not attend theaters, etc., if only God would have mercy on her. Upon departure Fr. Joanna, both the patient and her family felt encouraged and no longer despaired of recovery. The patient began to feel better and little by little, with God’s help, she completely recovered. In the same year, 1887, U.T., who lived in St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island, had the prayer of Fr. John's next healing. She had a 12-year-old daughter who was blind from birth. T. went with her daughter to Kronstadt to visit Fr. John, and there, after prayer, the blind woman for the first time felt a glimmer of light, and after a few days she completely regained her sight, so that she now attends school. In St. Petersburg, on Pryadilnaya Street, the St. Petersburg merchant S. M. P. lives in his own house. Several years ago, a dearly loved relative close to him fell ill with an incurable disease. The doctors' efforts were fruitless; the patient was fading away and slowly approaching death. When the doctors admitted that medical help was powerless in this case, the dying woman expressed a desire, as the last consolation in this life, to invite Fr. John to serve a prayer service. Never refusing his help to anyone, dear priest visited the sick woman at her first call. Looking at her with his kind gaze, he said: With tears of hope, the patient began to repeat along with Fr. John said the words of prayer, and almost immediately felt relief. I visited Fr. several times. John P.’s family, and with each visit the patient felt better and better. Currently, to the surprise of the doctors who treated her before, she is completely healthy. She attributes her miraculous healing from an illness from which she suffered for 14 years entirely to the prayer of Fr. John. An inhabitant of Kronstadt, G. A-ev, reported in the Kronstadt Bulletin (for 1890) the fact of healing through the power of prayer of Fr. John, and stated that this fact of healing could be confirmed by the residents of the German school building, on the corner of Vladimirskaya and Posadskaya streets. In 1888, from a severe cold, I became so seriously ill with rheumatism throughout my body that I could not move a single finger and lay in bed for 6 months, and bedsores formed on my body. All the medical means used did not lead to any favorable result, and I was already preparing for death. At this time I decided to invite Fr. John and sent his wife to ask him, who followed him for several days. Father only told her: “I will.” The wife also caught a cold and went to bed. My little daughter had whooping cough at that time, and she was lying down. In this situation, we have already lost hope of seeing Fr. John, when suddenly the priest arrives unexpectedly, and, seeing that no one is moving, he himself lights the lamp in front of St. icons, lit candles for the prayer service and began to perform the Divine Service, after which he came to my bed, blessed me, touched the sore spots with his hands and said: “Don’t be sad, you’ll get better,” then he left my apartment. On the first night after visiting Fr. John, I felt worse, and we sinners were already in despair, and the last hope for my recovery had disappeared. But on the third night I saw in a dream that the priest came up to me and said: “Why are you lying there? It’s time to get up and go, they are waiting for you there,” and at the same time I woke up. Copious sweat poured from me so that my underwear and bed became wet. After this, I felt significant relief, sat down on the bed, changed my clothes and fell asleep again. The next day he began to walk and completely recovered. At the same time, my wife and daughter recovered. Many similar messages were published in periodicals and from other cities of Russia. Here we were reminded, by the way, of a letter from a resident of the city of Voronezh, a certain E-ta Zaitseva, which was once published in the periodical press. Receiving written requests for prayer and invitations not only from Kronstadt and St. Petersburg, but from everywhere, Fr. John, in addition to St. Petersburg, sometimes travels to other cities of Russia. He visits Moscow once a month for a day or two; in 1885 he was in Voronezh, and in 1890 he visited Kharkov. And so, after Fr. John in Voronezh, a letter from Ms. Zaitseva appeared in print, which, for the sake of its high edification, we consider it necessary to publish verbatim. “The infinitely merciful God,” she writes, “worshipped in the Holy Trinity, visited the city of Voronezh in the summer of 1885 with great grace in the person of Fr. John, Archpriest of St. Andrew's Cathedral in the city of Kronstadt. Father John prayed for many sick people in Voronezh, and through his holy prayers the Most Merciful Lord healed many from serious illnesses, including one such patient who lay motionless for 4 years and 9 months, and whom all doctors recognized as incurable, and the local surgeon offered her amputation of both legs, saying that she would then be able to sit. But she did not agree to this. – Former patient O-da Stupina, a washerwoman who fell through the ice, suffered severely, so that throughout her entire body, from head to knees, she constantly felt terrible pain, and from the knees both legs were anesthetized (insensitive), so they were pricked with pins, and the patient did not feel any pain. Father John was so kind that he came to the sick Stupina three times to pray for her healing... After the first visit, everything stopped hurting her except her back and the terrible bedsores on her back, and she began to sit up little by little. Father John, leaving the sick woman, blessed her and said: “May the Lord God return you to the bosom of your family.” After the second visit and prayer from Fr. John, the patient’s back stopped hurting, and the bedsores healed almost overnight, so that there were no traces of wounds left. For the third time of his visit, according to his St. prayers, severe pain appeared in her previously insensitive legs, but she still could not move them. I witnessed the healing from beginning to end, and I felt ashamed to bother Fr. John with a request to come to the sick woman, since it was pouring rain that day. Therefore, going to Fr. I asked John, who was visiting the then Archbishop Seraphim, to be so kind as to bless Stupina in absentia to move. Then Fr. John, in front of a large crowd of people in the bishop’s courtyard, where I met him, said: “I bless her to move in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.” Having said this, he went to the Bishop, and I, going to Stupina, told her that now she must get up, because Fr. John, in the name of God, blessed her to move, and, wanting to help her get up, I took her leg to put it on the floor. Here, before my eyes, a real miracle happened: her legs, which had been numb until then, became sensitive, and the patient first stood on her feet, and then on her knees, and began to pray with tears to God for the healing sent down to her. Her children, her aunt, and I, who was present at her healing, could not help but follow her example. I will never forget this solemn and joyful moment. The mercy of God is infinitely great, showing such great mercies to us, many sinners. Stupina, now completely healthy, lives with her 4 children in Voronezh, on Dubinskaya Street, in a house she inherited after the death of her brother. I suffered from severe rheumatism for many years, and when Fr. John arrived in Voronezh, then I had the remnants of severe pneumonia. According to St. prayers to Fr. John, the merciful Lord healed me, a sinner, both from pneumonia and from rheumatism, without any consequences, so that I am now completely healthy.” On December 29, 1889, the wife of the St. Petersburg merchant V.I. K-va, who had a manufacturing trade on Malaya Italianskaya Street, was safely delivered of her first child. The circumstances leading up to the birth of this child are truly remarkable. The invited obstetrician, having carefully examined the patient, insistently demanded that an operation be performed 2 months before the normal end of the illness, since otherwise he could not vouch for either the life of the mother or the life of the child. The expectant mother flatly refused the operation, deciding to die sooner. The critical moment was approaching. The young couple decided to turn to the Kronstadt shepherd. Father John, having arrived, prayed, approved the patient’s refusal to undergo surgery and added: - Trust in the Lord. According to your faith, everything will go well. The eve of a terrible day for a woman in labor has arrived. The obstetrician came to examine the patient again, and reproached K-va for being indecisive about the operation, saying that he was acting unreasonably who decided to risk his wife’s life. The next day he arrived alarmed, angry, brought a lot of tools and again noticed K-vu: - Well, now you will see that you will have to repent if your wife dies. Chilled from the journey, he asked for a glass of tea to warm up, and before he had time to drink a few sips, a scream was heard in the next room, and a minute later the midwife who came out announced that everything had ended well. The obstetrician threw up his hands in bewilderment and, attributing everything to chance, left. Based on the above story, as well as some of the above-described cases of grace-filled healing and preservation of life, let the reader not think that the Kronstadt shepherd rebels against the use of natural means to preserve health and life and forbids resorting to medical aid. Gifted with the highest grace-filled gift of knowledge and insight, Fr. John sees when and where human efforts can not only not be beneficial and fruitful, but also turn out to be harmful and destructive, and when and where they, with God’s help, can serve for the benefit and good of man, and therefore in one case he rejects the use of medical remedies, and in the other he approves and blesses the means created and given by God for preserving health and life. So, in the story just given, having approved the patient’s refusal to undergo surgery, Fr. On another occasion, John approved and blessed the operation. In July 1887, Fr. John was invited by a carriage driver, S., whose sick wife was facing a complex and extremely dangerous operation. Having confessed and communed the sick woman with St. Tain, o. John advised her not to shy away from the operation, which was performed soon after by Dr. Baikov. The results of the operation were most favorable, so that the patient recovered in a short time. There are many miraculous healings performed by Fr. John, published, but how many of them are still waiting for their publication!.. We will now note only the miracles of later times, mainly those that were published in the magazines: “Kronstadt Lighthouse”, “Vedom”. St. Petersburg Gradonach." and others. There is nothing secret that would not become obvious, nor hidden that would not become known and would not be revealed. So watch how you listen; for whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has is taken away from him (Luke 8:17,18). I urge you to place this letter in one of the upcoming issues of your respected magazine. Thirty years ago, I lived in different places. I was tired of this life, and I wanted to get married. Arriving at the Kazan Cathedral, I fervently, with tears, prayed throughout mass, asking the Queen of Heaven for a husband, whether a drunkard, a dissolute person, of any profession, but only that he be handsome. Returning from mass, on the same day I met my real husband and soon married him. My husband really turned out to be a drunkard, but handsome; I experienced a lot of need and grief from him... I endured and endured until I heard about dear father Fr. John of Kronstadt, who helps in all needs. I went to Kronstadt, to St. Andrew’s Cathedral, where I fervently mentally began to ask the priest to pray, so that the Lord would give me peace, so that my husband would no longer offend me. And when I arrived in St. Petersburg, I saw a dream: “I’m walking with a religious procession and carrying a wooden cross, I turned back and saw a dear priest walking with a cross. Then I began to hug him and ask him with tears: “Dear father, pray for my husband, a great sinner, he hates me and does not love me!” Father then crossed me and said: “Go in peace and calm down, your husband will love you!” Since then, our life has taken a sharp turn for the better... I really wanted my husband to be a singer. My desire soon turned into a cherished dream. Despite the fact that my husband was completely illiterate, I was firmly convinced of the miraculous power of the prayer of the great righteous man. Since then, I began to visit my father more and more often. I used to stand in the cathedral and mentally ask him: “Pray, dear father, that my husband will be a singer!” Everywhere and everywhere I mentally asked him, but I didn’t dare to bother him out loud... And suddenly one day I have a dream. I come to the priest, kneel before him and begin to express to him, with tears in my eyes, my secret desire. The priest looked at me so kindly, tenderly and said: “Well, let’s pray, your husband will be a singer!” I must say that my husband had not fasted for more than 5 years. He immediately went to Kronstadt, confessed to the priest and received Holy Communion. Secrets, and during confession he was told by Fr. John: “Go in peace, learn and teach”!.. At this time, pedagogical courses were opened in St. Petersburg under the Duma, with musical singing, free of charge. My husband entered these courses, his studies went well... After a while, my husband was already a choirmaster in the Kazan Cathedral... Several years passed like this. A passionate desire arose within me to see him as a psalm-reader. Knowing the power of prayer, Fr. John, I again began to intensively visit Kronstadt and mentally ask the priest for the fulfillment of my desire. Finally, I have a dream. Dear priest is serving a prayer service in our apartment. I kneel before him and ask him to pray. Then the priest asks me: what do you want? - “Dear father, pray that my husband will be a psalm-reader... - Let it be your way!” was his answer. A short time later, a psalm-reader dies in the Kazan Cathedral and my husband is chosen to take his place. But soon there was an uprising against him. Those around him began to grumble that he had become a psalm-reader instead of a tailor. Then my husband went to Kronstadt to consult with our dear father. The priest listened to him and ordered him to tell the abbot that he should be left, at his personal request, in his old place. But the abbot did not listen to him. My husband was refused, and a year later the abbot also died. Then we moved to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where my husband began to serve as a singer. So two years passed, and I wanted to see him as a deacon. And what do I see in my dream? Father. "What do you want"? he tells me. I explained, “Look, what did you want... Well, okay, it’s your way!” Seven years later, a vacant position as protodeacon became available in Krasnogorsk, Siberia. My husband began to bother, but all his efforts were in vain. At this time it so happened that the priest served in St. Petersburg together with Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk Euthymius, who still hesitated and did not receive us. And suddenly I see him in a dream together with Fr. John, who tells him: “take it, it will be useful to you”... After this dream, I was completely calm. A few days later my husband was ordained protodeacon. And at present we live as God grants to everyone. My husband continues to serve under the archbishop. So great is the power of the prayer of our great prayer book, Fr. John of Kronstadt. And there is nothing that the Lord could do through his holy prayer for us, the unworthy. The editors of “Russian Pilgrim” report the following 12. “On August 30, 1901, at the end of the liturgy in the Konchansky stone church, which had just been consecrated by Father John of Kronstadt, the Suvorov Commission, represented by its representatives professors of the Academy of the General Staff, generals: Orlov, Myshlaevsky and Colonel Sulima-Samuillo, offered the clergy and honored guests breakfast at the local Suvorov Zemstvo school. During this breakfast, the unconscious wife of the peasant Rumyantseva Gorka, Avdotya Afanasyeva, 32 years old, who had been married for more than seven years and was possessed by an evil spirit, was brought to Father Ivan Ilyich in her arms. Father John Ilyich asked the local abbot: “What, is this a demoniac?” After an affirmative answer, Father John ordered the patient to look at him. The patient, who was in an insensible state, did not seem to hear the order, which was repeated a second and third time in a soft but commandingly insistent voice. And only when the shepherd slightly raised the patient’s eyelids, those present saw her dull and wandering gaze, gradually clearing up and rushing into the face of Father John. Father told her to get up. Those who brought the patient objected that she could not stand, obviously attributing this impossibility to the state in which the patient was at the moment. Father nervously raised his voice and said: “Leave her, she will stand.” The patient remained on her feet, at first somewhat unsteady and as if seeking balance, and then completely firmly and confidently. “Cross yourself!” - said Fr. John. One could see hesitation and, as it were, disobedience to this order. The patient's eyes began to close. “Cross yourself, cross yourself, I tell you, cross yourself!” This time a powerful and commanding voice was heard. At first with difficulty, but gradually the sick woman made the sign of the cross over herself more freely. There was lethargy on his face, his eyes were half-closed. “Open your eyes, cross yourself again!” Eyes open. With a confident movement of her hand, the sick woman crosses herself and kisses the shepherd on the mouth. Father John takes two steps away from the patient and orders her to come to him. The first hesitant step - the eyes half close again. Again the order is to look at the priest and cross yourself. The patient obeys. Eyes open. The gaze is completely clear. The sign of the cross is solid. The hand movement is smooth. The step is firm. “Hold me!” the patient falls to the priest’s shoulder and kisses him on the mouth. The priest bows over her in prayer. In the dead silence of the numb spectators, those closest to the priest can barely hear his word: “Go away.” Then Father John nervously shakes his head and says loudly to the patient: “Go and pray to God.” Noticing the movement of the healed woman’s relatives who wanted to support her, Father John said: “Leave her alone, she will go on her own.” The patient herself turned to face those present. This face beamed with some kind of unearthly joyful smile. The nervous tension of those present burst into sobs. Everyone, with some isolated exception, was overcome by a single and general feeling of tenderness. Common people cried and intellectuals cried. The eyes of the general, who a few months before this incident had covered all of Manchuria on an eagle flight, eyes that had seen all the horrors of the Chinese War, were moistened with tears. Efforts of self-control are futile. This tender and at the same time treacherous tear slowly rolled down my cheek.” The author of this message, priest Lev Matveev, firmly believes that in this case an exorcism of an evil spirit took place. This faith, first of all, is based on the gospel, and then on those facts that are personally known to the author of the message. A parishioner of Father Matveev, who has been healed for eight years now. During all this time, she could not consciously kiss the Holy Cross or partake of the Holy Mysteries even once. When she was brought to the Cross or Holy Communion, she seemed to become dead. And when the exhausted relatives turned to the local priest with a request to read incantation prayers against demons over the patient, Father Matveev, despite his seventeen years of pastoral experience at that time and the many cases of hysteria and epilepsy he had seen before, was directly horrified by what was happening to the patient during the reading of incantation prayers. The patient hissed like a snake, meowed like a cat, barked just like a dog and screamed like various birds, whistled, and screamed inhumanly: “I’ll come out.” At the same time, her stomach swelled by three-quarters of an arshin, forming an incomprehensibly acute angle, having a conical shape. Then the patient rolled with a log on the church floor, and this spinning stopped only at the barrier of the pulpit. The last two phenomena were especially terrible for those present. The author of the message knows that Charcot's fans consider these phenomena to be classical forms of hysteroepilepticia (grande hystérie), but the last two phenomena are not described in courses of neurologists. In the treatment of hysteroepileptics, it is indicated that some special cases of this disease are sometimes cured by suggestion, but there is no mention of the significance of suggestion for classical cases, which are considered extremely rare. However, in the described case there can be no talk of suggestion because the healing event itself took place extremely quickly - from the moment the patient was brought in until she left on her own, only two or three minutes passed. Before answering the editor’s question, Father Matveev received the blessing of his archpastor, His Eminence Archbishop Gury of Novgorod and Old Russia, to testify everywhere about this truly miraculous healing of a serious and painful illness for those around him through the prayer of Father John Ilyich Sergiev. After this event, the healed woman became, according to Father Lev Matveev, a completely normal woman. On September 8, on the local patronal feast day, in front of a mass of people, including fellow villagers who had been healed, she confidently approached the cross for the first time after eight years at the end of the liturgy, was sprinkled with holy water, listened to a prayer of thanks and venerated the Holy Cross a second time. But you, when you pray, go into your room and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly (Matthew 6:6). I humbly ask you to place the following in one of the upcoming issues of your soul-saving magazine. I, the undersigned, Elena Ottovna Borisova, a Kaluga bourgeois, tearfully repent before God that I still hid the miracle of God that happened to me on February 13, 1901. At that time I was working in St. Petersburg at a rubber factory. On one unfortunate day for me, a block was dropped on me, which pressed my leg so hard that a wound formed on it. At first I didn’t pay attention to it, but when the pain started to feel, I went to the doctors, ran around the whole city, but did not get any relief - the wound was declared incurable. My despair knew no bounds. Enduring terrible torment, I decided to resort to the help of the great prayer book and miracle worker, Fr. John of Kronstadt, to whom from then on I began to mentally offer up my sinful prayers, asking him to at least relieve the unbearable pain in my leg. So what? The Lord heard my tearful prayer and through His great saint showed me His mercy. “Soon after I decided to pray,” the pain in my leg decreased, “and now I feel completely healthy, bringing a tearful, grateful prayer to the Lord for the great miracle sent to me, a sinful slave.” To confirm my words, I cite the names of three witnesses: Evd. Iv. Chumireva, her son Alexander Konstantinovich Chumirev and Ivan Demyanov. I hope that you will not refuse my most humble request. st. Glubochitsa, 91, apt. 4. Beware, therefore, lest what is spoken of by the prophets come upon you: Look, you despisers, marvel and disappear; For I am doing a work in your days, a work which you would not believe if anyone told you. (Acts 13:40,41). Do not refuse to report a recent case of healing from an illness, which God was pleased to show to me through the prayer of the Kronstadt priest Father John. During hostilities in the Far East, I received a wound that made me unable to work and incurably ill. When medical remedies did not help, I went to Kronstadt to ask for help from above, and as soon as the priest touched my head, I felt relief and soon completely recovered. I consider it my duty to testify in print about this case and enclose a medical certificate as proof. The certificate issued to N. Kamaev from the St. Eugenia Community Hospital, by the way, states: “During the examination of Kamaev while in the hospital, the presence of a foreign body (bullet) in the occipital part of the brain was reliably determined. As for the seizures observed in Kamaev, they were expressed, in addition to some weakening of mental abilities, mainly by partial loss of memory and gait disorders that appeared from time to time. Taking into account the severe nature of the injury received by Kamaev and the possibility of developing further complications of his illness in the future, one cannot but admit that Kamaev is not capable of carrying out any kind of proper work that could serve as a means of subsistence for him.” The believers more and more joined the Lord, a multitude of men and women, so that they carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and beds, so that even though the shadow of Peter passing by would overshadow any of them. Many from the surrounding cities also converged on Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those possessed by unclean spirits, who were all healed (Acts 5:14-16). I ask you to publish in your respected magazine a wonderful incident that happened before my eyes. It was in December 1906. I was traveling from Kronstadt to the Caucasus in the city of Ekaterinodar. On the way, when there was a stop in Rostov-on-Don, I decided to visit my friends. After my stay, which lasted several days, I went to Ekaterinodar. I arrived at the Rostov station, bought a ticket and went through the carriages to look for seats. Finally, after a long search, the place was found. I sat down in an empty seat and waited for the train to leave. There were about 40 people in my carriage. One of the passengers remarked to me that it was impossible to sit in this carriage, because it was bought by them, who were traveling from Kyiv home to the village of “Novaya Maryevka”, Stavropol province, but due to my misunderstanding, I did not pay attention and continued to sit. They left me alone. I must tell you that I brought portraits of Fr. with me from Kronstadt. John, blessed water and several prosphoras that were lying on my lap... Suddenly one of the passengers (as I later found out - she was a demoniac, named Matryona), turns to me and begins to reprimand: “Why did you come here, go away, you are carrying portraits of Fr. John, Holy water and prosphora, it’s very hard for me, go away!” I was stunned. She continued to shout: “I’ll run away from here, the portrait of Fr. John"! She was about to run, but the strong arms of the men hastened to hold her back. Several people could hardly restrain the unfortunate woman, she struggled so much, breaking out of their hands. Seeing the terrible torment of the sick woman, I, being deeply convinced of the possibility of a miracle, untied my knot, took out a portrait of my dear father and placed it on the head of the unfortunate woman. The patient somehow shrank, became haggard and screamed even stronger, in some inhuman voice: “Take off these chains from me, this weight that is too much for me, take off the portrait, it’s very hard for me, take it off, I can’t see it!” There was deathly, dead silence in the carriage. All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the unfortunate patient. I took out the blessed water and with great difficulty poured several sips into her mouth. The patient jerked violently and fell to the floor. She had a severe seizure, during which the patient did not stop screaming: “Oh, how hard it is for me, take off the portrait, I’m going out, I can’t be, they gave me Holy water to drink!” I continued to hold the portrait of my dear father above her head. The attack continued, during which it was difficult to watch her suffering. Finally she felt so bad that she fell into unconsciousness and lay unconscious for half an hour. After a while, a miracle happened: the patient stood up freely and said: “Give me Holy water, how easy, joyful, good it is for me, I feel that now I am completely healthy!” The hands of those present involuntarily somehow reached out to make the sign of the cross in order to thank God for His revealed mercy. There were the controller, the conductors and many of the passengers who had come from other cars to hear the former screams of the unfortunate woman. They all believed in the miraculous power of Fr. John. But many of them did not know the exact address of the dear priest; they immediately wrote it down, harboring the hope of personally seeing the great shepherd and constant prayer for us sinners. I confirm all of the above with my personal signature. St. Petersburg bourgeois woman, Ekaterina Andreevna Matis And Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every disease among the people. And rumors about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all the weak, those possessed by various diseases and seizures, and the demon-possessed, and the lunatics, and the paralytic, and He healed them. And a multitude of people followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan (Matthew 5:23–25). On January 1, 1907, I became seriously ill with a nervous disorder. Every day my seizures increased, I lost sleep and appetite, my strength weakened, and I had to lie in bed. But all the time I mentally asked for prayers about. John, and then she was forced to send him a telegram, asking for his blessing to come to Kronstadt, and as soon as she received his blessing, she went straight from bed on a railway train. My path was so difficult and painful that I can’t even describe it, all the time without sleep and without taking anything to eat - I became even weaker, but with strong faith and hope in the prayers of my dear priest I resignedly endured my suffering. And a miracle! On February 15, having confessed to my dear priest and received Holy Communion of the Life-giving Mysteries of Christ, I began to feel better, so that by March 5 I was completely recovered, as if I had never had such a serious illness. Having arrived in Kronstadt on the thirteenth of February, as Sofia Merkulova says in Kotlin, and having lived there until the fifth of March, I, as a traveler from Kazan, wanted to live in the monastery of Fr. John, in St. Petersburg, and so, from March 5th, I settled in a house on Pesochnaya next to the monastery building. Every day I tried to visit the church of God. What a wonderful service in the monastery! What does our great shepherd mean? His care is visible in everything, and his holy blessing blows over his young, recently created monastery! What a holy joy and spiritual joy it is when our dear priest, our great shepherd, arrives at the monastery! There is no strength to describe all this, to express all the delight! And it is difficult to describe the impression that the Divine Service of Fr. John. I, a sinner, had to experience all this after living for five weeks in the Ioannovsky Monastery. How much you hear various slander, malice, untruths against our great prayer book, highly revered shepherd, dear Father John, how bitter and difficult it is to endure, and therefore you turn to the Lord God with the words of King David: “Let the malice of the wicked cease, and strengthen the righteous, for You test the hearts and wombs, O righteous God!” (Ps.7). Yes, wonderful Father John, angel and wonderworker! Through fasting and unceasing holy prayer, he received heavenly gifts - to heal the sick, to calm everyone in sorrow - who resorts to Him! I myself, a sinner, experienced how strong the influence of his holy prayer is, how strong and great the grace of God is in him! Being very ill, through frequent communion of the Holy Life-giving Mysteries of Christ and through the frequent holy prayer of our dear priest, she received healing from her serious illness! Glory to the Lord, glory to Him who gave strength to our dear father! Glory to the active Lord who gives healing to everyone through the holy prayers of dear Father John! I offer my deep gratitude to my dear priest and offer a sincerely fervent prayer to the Creator, may the Lord prolong his life and preserve him for many years to come for us sinners! And having descended with them, He stood on level ground, and many of His disciples, and many people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the seaside regions of Tire and Sidon, who came to listen to Him and to be healed of their illnesses, also those suffering from unclean spirits, were healed. And all the people sought to touch Him, because power came from Him and healed everyone (Luke 6:17-19). At the beginning of this year, 1907, the following truly amazing case of healing took place in Kronstadt through the prayers of the venerable Kronstadt shepherd, Fr. John, a violent patient, possessed by an epileptic disease. A peasant of the Irkutsk province, Nizhneudinsky district, Kimelch volost, Stepan Mikhailov Mineev was obsessed with epileptic fits for many years. His illness was expressed in very frequent and severe seizures, during which the patient reached the point of rage and completely looked like a violent madman. With wild screams and roars, Mineev rushed at his relatives and those present, crushing everything in his path, and his relatives, when Stepan’s seizures occurred, had to quickly call their neighbors for help in order to use them to tie the patient with ropes and thereby protect themselves from his rage. During seizures, Stepan's strength increased to extraordinary proportions, so that several hefty men could barely cope with him. The patient suffered terribly from his illness, being in a painful, unconscious state for days on end. His relatives were equally exhausted: on the one hand, they were worried about their relative’s illness, on the other, they were constantly in a tense state, waiting for the manifestation of his frantic seizures. Finally, Mineev’s illness intensified to the extreme; Not a few days passed without him, in a fit of epilepsy, rolling foaming at the mouth on the ground, banging his head on it, sometimes jumping to his feet and throwing himself at people, and falling to the ground again. The family turned to doctors for help. Even earlier, they had turned to various healers and healers, asking to “drive the demon out” of the patient, but the home-grown magicians were unable to help the patient, and then the relatives went to medicine for help, but it turned out to be completely powerless and, as they say, gave in to the stubbornness of Stepan’s illness, which took the unfortunate victim firmly into its tenacious clutches. But Stepan got worse and worse, and he melted like a candle. His relatives were in despair; It was absolutely impossible to keep such a violent patient at home; They were not able to send him to some hospital, since they would have to pay money to the hospital, and considerable money at that, and the Mineevs do not have the means to do this. At this time, so painful for them, the saving thought came to their minds to take the sick Stepan to Kronstadt and beg the Kronstadt priest Fr. John to pray for the healing of the sick. And indeed, as the future has shown, hope lies in the prayers of Fr. Joanna did not deceive them. Since Stepan alone could under no circumstances be allowed to go on such a long journey, his brother Anton, taking with him Stepan’s comrade, Grigory Ryutin, decided to carry the patient himself. And so, in February of this year. Anton Mineev and Grigory Ryutin brought the patient from distant Siberia to Kronstadt with great difficulty. Having arrived there, they stopped at the House of Diligence and arranged for the priest to visit the patient on February 18th. On the eve of this day, Stepan had a severe seizure. He, as usual, rolled on the floor, raged and became so frantic that he had to be tied up again with ropes. At the appointed time, Fr. John, with his quick, easy gait, entered the room where the sick man was staying, and, having listened to the request of the sick man’s brother to pray for his health, he willingly agreed to it. After serving a prayer service “for the recovery of God’s servant Stephen,” the priest gave Holy Communion to the sick man. Tain and turned to him with the words: “May the Lord God heal you.” After this Fr. John spoke kindly to the sick man, calmed and consoled him and his companions, and blessed Stepan to receive communion a second time the next day, but not in his room, but in St. Andrew’s Cathedral. The next day, Stepan and his companions went to St. Andrew's Cathedral. Everyone who had seen him the day before, enraged and entangled in ropes, was indescribably amazed at the change that had taken place in the patient; In the church, Stepan behaved quietly and decorously, prayed fervently and completely calmly approached St. Communion. In the following days, Stepan felt excellent and, having lived for several days in Kronstadt and feeling completely healthy, he went home with his companions, warmly thanking the venerable Kronstadt shepherd for his healing. Several months had already passed since then, when one day a letter from Stepan Mineev from the Irkutsk province arrived at the office of the House of Diligence. In this letter, Stepan again warmly thanks his dear father for his prayers, by the power of which he got rid of his illness, and adds that he currently feels completely healthy and that since his arrival from Kronstadt he has not had a single attack of his illness. This letter was signed by many local residents, testifying that they knew Stepan Mineev as a violent madman before his trip to Kronstadt, and now, after the trip, they see him completely healthy. This is also confirmed by the village headman of Bargaday (Irkutsk province, Bolshoi district), with a seal attached. As mentioned above, this case of healing through the prayers of Fr. John of Kronstadt occurred in Kronstadt on February 18, 1907. At the same time, the companions of the healed Stepan Mineev were present: his brother Anton Mikhailov Mineev, a peasant of Irkutsk province, Nizhneudinsky district, Kimelch vol. and Grigory Leontiev Ryutin, peasant of Irkutsk province, Ball. uez., Amekhabat volost. God performed many miracles through the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were placed on the sick, and their illnesses ceased, and evil spirits left them. (Acts 19:11–12). In February of this year, the daughter of a private of the 6th company of the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment, Mikheya Bezborodov, suddenly fell ill and lost her sight. At first the girls’ family didn’t want to bother their father, thinking that the blindness would go away. But since the illness did not go away, they finally decided to write to him. This was in July, the 11th. Having received the letter, my father almost went crazy... His despair knew no bounds. Suddenly a thought dawns on him - to turn to his dear father for help, Fr. John of Kronstadt, about whom he had heard more than once from his comrades. Wasting no time, he wrote a letter home, enclosing a card from the venerable shepherd, and explained that he was sending it to bless his sick daughter. In the letter, he asked to write a letter to the dear priest asking him to pray for the sick woman and wait for an answer with firm faith in the miraculous power of the prayer of the great righteous man. He himself, moreover, wanted to go to Kronstadt in person, which he soon did. On September 10, he and 10 other people from the same company went to Kronstadt, where they stayed in Machigin’s house, at 13 Sergievskaya Street, apt. 7. The next day they went to early mass at St. Andrew's Cathedral and received the Holy Mysteries from the dear priest. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Fr. arrived at the apartment where they were staying. John. Bezborodov gave his dear father a note about the health of his sick daughter... “My faith, writes Bezborodov himself, in the righteousness of my father, at the sight of him, increased more than before. I saw people flocking to him from everywhere. There were petitioners who came for consolation in their sorrows and sorrows even from Little Russia. Father came up to us, looked at us with his radiant, soul-penetrating gaze, and blessed us. Then he sprinkled us with Holy water. Arriving in St. Petersburg, Bezborodov began to calmly wait for the desired answer. After 10 days, a letter arrived from which the happy father learned about the healing of the patient. The healing took place on September 11th, at 2 pm. This is how the Lord showed His miracle through the miraculous power of the prayer of the great righteous man, Father John of Kronstadt. The Holy Supreme Apostle Peter says this: You know what happened throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism preached by John: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. And we are witnesses of everything that He did in the land of Judea and in Jerusalem. (Acts 10:37–39). We humbly ask you not to refuse to publish in your respected journal the following certificate of ours about the event that happened before our eyes, through the prayer of the shepherd of the flock of Christ, Father John (of Kronstadt). On Tuesday, February 13 of this 1907, the venerable priest, Father John Ilyich Sergiev (Kronstadt), was invited to serve a prayer service at the apartment of Ivan Averyanovich Lebedev (Petersburg side, Plutalova street, no. 7, apt. 11). By the time the priest arrived, at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, those who wished to receive a blessing from the unhypocritical intercessor and good shepherd of the flock of Christ, Fr. Joanna: noblewoman Sofia Fedorovna Adler, peasant of the Tver province, Kalyazinsky district, Taldom volost, village of Dulova Ivan Davydov, peasant of the St. Petersburg province, village. First Pargolovo Agafia Andreevna Burova, the janitor of the above-mentioned house Ivan Dmitriev Gribkov, and the janitor’s brother Tikhon Dmitriev Gribkov. Exactly at 4 o'clock, Father John arrived and, with his characteristic affection, greeted everyone, he began to bless all those present, whom the wife of the landlord Ivan Averyanovich, Anna Nikitichna, explained to the priest the requests and needs that he had for the prayer book, Father John. Having blessed everyone present, the priest suggested that they pray to the Lord and, kneeling before the icon, began to pray fervently. He prayed for a long time and asked the Lord for the required help for those praying, and when he finished his prayer and blessed the water, we all began to approach the cross. At this time, the 13-year-old son of the landlord, Ivan Averyanov, Alexander, approached the priest and said: “Dear father, one of my eyes hurts very much.” Father John takes the boy by the hand, leads him to the table on which the holy water stood, takes some of this holy water and washes the boy Alexander’s eyes with it twice, saying: "May they be healthy." The words of the dear priest: “May they be healthy” made a stunning impression on all of us present, and everyone in this room began to whisper about something supernatural. After this event, Father John, having blessed us with the cross, was invited to a meal. At this time, the above-mentioned janitor Ivan Dmitriev Gribkov and his wife entered the room in which the priest was sitting, the latter (Gribkov’s wife), seeing Father John, fell to the floor, and if she had not been supported, she could have broken - she furiously moaned and screamed to be taken back and, as if she did not want to be with Father John, and then with all her efforts began to crawl back out of the room, uttering incomprehensible words. Father John, rising from his seat, asked her to be taken to another adjacent room, where the dear shepherd himself followed her, at the same time the three children, seeing their mother furiously screaming and beating on the floor, raised a strong cry, but Ivan Gribkov immediately removed them from the apartment. When the dear shepherd entered the room where the sick woman was lying on the floor, still continuing to fight and shout out incoherent words, and who was with difficulty restrained by her husband and several women, Father John, taking the sick woman by the head, said in a commanding voice: “The Lord Himself commands you to go out” (it must be understood that he was addressing an evil spirit) and added: “The Lord is with me, and you, God’s servant Athanasius, be healthy,” and forced her to cross herself - at first she did not obey, and then, when Father John repeated his words, she fulfilled the priest’s order, crossing herself, accepted the holy water given by the shepherd and, getting up from the floor, went with those present to eat. Returning to the room, Father John blessed the tea served, and he himself, putting sugar in a glass, forced us to stir the tea with spoons. The incident that occurred through the prayer of dear priest Father John made a stunning impression on everyone present, and everyone’s heart, without exception, beat with joy - that to this day there are saints of God, through whose prayer the Lord condescends to Orthodox Christians and eases their sorrows. Having talked with us and consoled us, the great shepherd of the flock of Christ approached the image a second time and prayed fervently, and then left our premises in front of a large crowd of people. All of the above, we, the persons named below, who were eyewitnesses of this incident, certify the fact of this event, to which we have a hand. The landlord where this event took place is Ivan Averyanov Lebedev, his wife Anna Nikitichna Lebedeva, Kr. Ivan Davydov, Ivan Dmitriev Gribkov and Tikhon Dmitriev Gribkov. Rabbi! we know that You are a Teacher who came from God, for no one can do such miracles as You do unless God is with him. (John 3:2). Dear Sir, Mr. Editor! Do not refuse to publish the following in your respected magazine “Kronstadt Lighthouse”: I, a Sloboda resident of the Preobrazhennoy Sloboda, Kharkov province, Kupyansky district, Lower Duvan volost, Lavrentiy Nikitich Dimchenko, on November 14, 1906, suddenly fell ill with a daughter, 8 years old, whose illness was expressed in the following: all her limbs were relaxed to the point that she could not calmly walk, stand, eat, or sleep and almost screamed all the time from unbearable pain throughout the body. We, the parents of the unfortunate girl, were in despair. Our grief was indescribable. The torment of the little sufferer resonated deeply with us and poisoned our peace of mind. We resorted to home remedies, turned to the help of doctors, served a prayer service at the neighboring Assumption Monastery, but nowhere did we find healing for our dear daughter. Our grief has reached its highest limit, when people are already waiting for death as a benefactor, as a deliverer from physical torment; we began to blasphemously ask God to take our beloved daughter from us to Himself. But then the Lord brought a kind man to our settlement, who saw a sick girl and advised us to go with her to Kronstadt to see our dear father, Fr. John and pray with him for healing to be sent down to her. Seeing our daughter’s suffering, with deep faith in the help of our dear father, we went to Kronstadt on March 20, 1907. On the way, the girl felt so bad that her mother wanted to return home to at least let her daughter die at home. But even here there were good people who began to advise not to lose heart, but to trust in God and go to Kronstadt, because the priest would not refuse his help. Finally, we arrived in Kronstadt and stayed at Borisov’s house, on Andreevskaya Street. Soon the Lord brought us to see the universally respected great righteous man, Fr. John. Soon after our arrival, our dear priest served a prayer service at the bedside of the sick woman and prayed for her healing. After the miraculous prayer of the venerable shepherd, our dear daughter immediately felt better, her health began to quickly improve, and now... now our girl is completely healthy, as evidenced by the healed woman herself, claiming that after Kronstadt she does not feel any pain. Since that day, we thank God every day for His miracle sent down to us, revealed through the great righteous man Fr. I. Kronstadtsky. Confirming all of the above, we ask you to send us your respected magazine, for which we attach the following annual fee - 4 rubles, to the following address. May the glory of our dear father and great miracle worker penetrate our settlement and make all lost Orthodox Christians think about the mercy of God and the will of the Most High, done through our dear shepherd Fr. John of Kronstadt. We remain, respecting you together with our dear daughter, devoted to you L.N. and F.M. Dimchenko. Our address: Sloboda Preobrazhennaya, Kharkov province, Kupyansky district, Nizhneduvan volost, Lavrentiy Nikitich Dimchenko. The woman, seeing that she had not hidden herself, approached with trembling and, falling down before Him, declared to Him in front of all the people for what reason she touched Him and how she was immediately healed. He told her: dare, daughter! Your faith has saved you: go in peace (Luke 8:47, 48). The Lord is good and merciful to those who with hope resort to His help. There is no request that the Lord will not fulfill. An example of this is the incident that occurred on July 9, 1907 in the village. Vaulovo, Yaroslavsk. gub., with a certain A.A. Bykova, who came from Moscow, despite her serious illness. The said Bykova suffered from stone disease in the liver and gout for 18 years. Her illness was so painful that she spared no expense just to get rid of severe suffering. She visited almost all Moscow specialist doctors and even many out-of-town celebrities, but nowhere did she find the desired relief. Hope in the “powers of this world” began to leave the poor sufferer, but the disease made itself felt more and more strongly. Feeling that no one could help her, she turned to God with fervent prayer, and the Lord heard her. At the inspiration of God, she had an irresistible desire to visit the dear shepherd Fr. I. Kronstadt, placing all my hope and hope in the miraculous power of his prayer. The venerable priest was on a trip to his homeland at that time. Despite this, neglecting the terrible torment, the patient went after her dear father and reached him in the village. Vaulov. “Soon after my arrival, Bykova herself writes, I saw the bright personality of my dear father and from his lightning glance I fell to my knees before him, because I was unable to stand on my feet. Some force unknown to me pulled me to bow before the great, worthy righteous man. Dear father commanded me to get up in an authoritative voice, but I could not. Then the priest said a second time: “I tell you, get up!” – Feeling how, according to his word, strength was arriving in me, I mentally thanked God and freely rose to my feet. He, dear father, began to ask me: what is my name, how many years have I been sick. Then I told him about my torment, said that all the doctors refused to treat me. “Yes,” my dear father told me, “they can’t treat you, they don’t understand this disease; “be healthy,” the priest added, “the Lord will help you; Look, talk, and tomorrow you and I will commune with St. Mysteries of Christ! From that very moment, Bykova writes, she felt relief throughout her body, spent the night in a peaceful sleep, which had not happened before, and in the morning she got up without outside help, completely freely. I must say that earlier Bykova got up with the help of a servant. This is how the Lord comes to the aid of those who come to Him with hope. The healed Bykova spent another whole week in the monastery, until the priest’s departure, receiving holy communion with him. The Mysteries of Christ every day, and she left on the very day when, as she put it, “the healer himself,” the luminous and prayer book, our dear father, left. All of the above is confirmed by a handwritten letter from the healed A. A. Bykova (Moscow, 1st Meshchanskaya, Trifonovsky lane, personal d.). From the editor. Included in the said letter is a request, along with an annual fee, to send our magazine to the above address for the person who received healing. And they went out to see what had happened: and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and were horrified. Those who saw them told them how the demoniac was healed. (Luke 8:35, 36). On August 5, 1907, after the early liturgy in St. Andrew's Cathedral, the Lord God was pleased to show His glory abiding in Fr. John, to show His glorious miracle - the healing of a demoniac, performed by the dear priest in front of many random witnesses. It must be said that this demoniac had been suffering for 3 years. The demoniac was brought in at a time when the dear priest began to leave the cathedral and was already leaving the altar through the northern doors. Seeing Fr. walking. John, he began to break free from the hands that 4 strong men held him tightly, began to bark like a dog and shout in some squeaky, inhuman voice: “Let me go, he scorched me, burned me all over, I’ll come out”!.. Father John, as if not seeing or hearing him, continued to walk towards the carriage, blessing those present on the way, who, hearing the wild screams and cries of the possessed man, began to say to him: “Dear father, heal him, he is suffering greatly!”.. But oh. John, thoughtfully fixing his gaze somewhere into the distance, continued on his way, as if not hearing their requests at all. And only when the voices of those present (Wonderful are Your deeds, Lord!) seemed to merge into one common ardent request, breathing with deep faith in the miracle that was about to happen, dear priest, suddenly turning to the crowd, asked: “Where is he?” The demoniac was let down. You should have seen the face of the unfortunate man, full of horror and suffering, when he was brought to the dear priest; you should have seen at that time the especially beautiful, stern, shining with some kind of unearthly, truly divine light, the face of Fr. John, in order to accurately feel the state of mind that everyone present experienced. I will only say that at that time everyone experienced sweet, rare moments of existence, clearly feeling the closeness of God, for the Lord is “the same and His years will not end.” (Ps. 101:28). When they brought the demoniac to him, the dear priest began to blow in the shape of a cross in his face, laying his hand on his head, and said: “The Lord Himself will heal you!” At these words, the demoniac stopped screaming. Father John continued: “I tell you, Satan, come out of him. The Lord Himself commands you! He answered him somehow hoarsely: “I won’t go.” “I’m telling you,” the dear father repeated in a commanding thunderous voice, “get out of it right now. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself commands you to do this. I say, come out!” Then he seemed to add: “what is your name, what is your name”? The demoniac was silent. Father John resumed the question. Then the possessed man, without looking into the face of the dear priest, cried out wildly: “Why are you asking? You know what to call him. You expelled me in the Leushinsky courtyard and now you are persecuting me. Don’t drive me away, I’ll stay there for another year... I won’t go”!.. Those present, hearing this, stood in some kind of fear, feeling the presence of the enemy of the human race, who was possessed. It was unbearably creepy. The silence was complete. All that could be heard was the gusty heavy breathing and screams of the demoniac, and a calm, even voice, full of pleasantness and some kind of unearthly, divine power, conquered the involuntary fear from the presence of the spirit of malice. Someone from the crowd said: “Dear father, his name is Alexey,” but the demoniac interrupted him, shouting wildly: “What are you telling him, he knows it himself, he knows it himself!”.. The dear father looked sternly at him with his meek gaze and said: “Alexy, open your eyes!” But the demoniac, somehow wildly waving his hands, shouted, repeating incessantly: “You, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Nikolai the Wonderworker!”.. At this time, something stinking, an unclean spirit smelled from the demoniac, who continued to shout: “I won’t go, I won’t open it... You, Nikolai the Wonderworker”... - but somehow quietly, barely audible. “Your words are false,” the dear father calmly objected, “open your eyes and look at me.” The demoniac somehow immediately calmed down, began to open his eyes little by little and finally looked at the dear priest with a calm, clear gaze. It was clear that a miracle had happened. All those present devoutly made the sign of the cross, looking with tears of tenderness at the miraculous Healer, who at that time said to the healed person: “Cross yourself, Alexy, and thank God, the Lord Himself has healed you!” Having said this, the dear priest pressed the head of the healed man to his chest and, hugging him, let him kiss his cross. The healed one, smiling happily, looking with boundless love into the eyes of the dear priest, fell to his chest, saying: “Dear father, deliver me, so that he does not return to me again, bless me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ!” “Take him to my apartment,” were the last words of the dear father as he left for home. - “I’ll give you Holy Communion in half an hour, come!” - he said, already turning to the healed man. And in his eyes there shone so much kindness and love for the suffering, the sick, burdened with the sins of life, so much concern for his flock that tears of tenderness involuntarily asked for everyone’s eyes. The people looked after the departing shepherd for a long time, carrying in their hearts the long-ripened faith in the miraculous power of the dear priest’s prayer, firmly believing that the Lord Himself abides in him, working His great mercy on the world. God is marvelous in His Saints! Having read in No. 34 of your respected magazine an accurate, truthful and wonderful description of what was accomplished by our dear Father Fr. John of Kronstadt's miraculous healing of a demoniac, we, as witnesses of it, consider it our moral duty to confirm what Mr. Voronov stated with our signatures. Accept, etc. (signatures follow). Watchman of the Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral, S. Dalnykov; St. Petersburg bourgeois, Ekaterina Andreevna Matits; Cossack of Poltava province, Kobelyansky district, Vasily Yakovlevich Shpitalny; cr. village Martynikhi, Raduhovsk. vol., Bezhetsk. u., Tver province, Nik. You. Tsarkov; cr. village Vygolovichi, Knyagininsk. vol., Vilna province, and u., Onisim Kondra. Baslak; cr. Rozhdestvenskoye village, Terebilovsk. vol., Urzhul district, Vyatka province, Timofey Vas. Zabolotsky; cr. sl. Undug beam, Izmailsky district, Bessarabsk. Governor, Pavel Ignatievich Gaidenko; cr. Tiskoluncha village, Chernyavsk. vol., Baltic district, Kamenets-Podolsk province, Feodosius Fedosievich Vasiliga. From the editor: Healed is a mountain tradesman. Efremova, Tula province, Alexey Vasilyevich Shmarov, 20 years old. God performed many miracles through the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were placed on the sick, and their illnesses ceased... (Acts 19:11,12). I ask you to publish in your respected magazine the following miraculous incident that happened before the eyes of many. My wife, Paraskeva Vasilievna Babaeva, went in the last days of March 1907 to Kronstadt to receive a blessing from our great righteous man and prayer book, Fr. John of Kronstadt. Upon arrival in Kronstadt, she went to St. Andrew's Cathedral, where Fr. John celebrated the liturgy, during which she was honored to receive the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of Christ from the generous hands of her dearest shepherd. After the church service, the great healer, without feeling tired, goes to the hospitable apartments, where numerous pilgrims from all over the world are always eagerly awaiting him in order to be worthy of receiving consolation and pastoral blessing from him. Late in the evening that same day, my wife was honored to receive the grace of the Lord through the holy saint, took holy water and blessed wine and set off on the way back to Smolensk. While my wife was in Kronstadt, in the Kartseva house where I live, our janitor, Khariton Petrov, his wife Fekla Methodievna fell ill with female diseases. Terrible abdominal pain and severe bleeding left the unfortunate woman bedridden. Her screams and moans were heard throughout the house, touching the neighbors, who could do nothing to help the unfortunate woman... True, doctors came, but their means and knowledge could not stop the suffering of the unfortunate woman. From the outside it was hard, it was pathetic to look at the patient’s suffering. But then my wife arrives. It was 6 pm. Believing deeply in the miraculous power of Fr. John, with the blessing of the Lord and the grace of our dear priest, we combined holy water with blessed wine and gave this remedy to the sick woman to drink. At 8 o’clock in the evening, the unfortunate woman, making the sign of the cross, drank this miraculous medicine, uttering the following deeply significant words: “You are our prayer book, dear Fr. John, ease the suffering of your sinful servant Thekla!.. and fell asleep in a sound, deep sleep. The next morning the patient got out of bed without feeling any pain. Now the healed woman is in good health and thanks God, glorifying the great man of prayer for us sinners, dear Father Fr. John. The veracity of the above is confirmed by the handwritten signature of the husband of the healed woman, district of the village. Frolov, Chizhova village, Nikonovsky volost, Dukhovshchinsky district, Smolensk province. - Khariton Petrov. With utmost respect, Mikhail Babaev. Healing the violently insane We cannot help but say what we saw and heard. (Acts 4:20). From the words of Fr., who was healed through prayers. John of Kronstadt, we hasten to announce a new case of manifestation of the miraculous power of the prayer of the venerable shepherd. Mikhail Vasilyevich Storonilov, 35 years old, living as a senior janitor in house No. 17 on Bolshoy Prospect, Petersburg side, in December 1907, suddenly fell into a state of acute violent insanity. This disease threatened the safety of those around him so much that he had to be sent to a proper hospital located on the 4th line of Vasilyevsky Island. According to the local doctor, the patient was one of the most violent, although he did not say anything, and did not even eat or drink for weeks. On January 10, 1908, the patient became so ill that his death was expected from hour to hour. The saddened relatives, who had lost all hope for the patient’s recovery, relied on the will of the Almighty and sent a letter to Fr. John, full of fervent prayer, to pray for the unfortunate patient. A week later, the patient became even worse... The doctors no longer doubted the sad outcome, giving him two subcutaneous injections, not hoping for salvation... But God judged otherwise... On this day, the relatives wished to give the patient communion... And then something miraculous happened. When the priest appeared with the Holy Gifts, the sick man, who had not yet spoken a word, stood up and went to meet the priest, saying in the calm, intelligible voice of a healthy person: “Father Fr. John of Kronstadt is coming to me to give me communion!” (The patient had seen Father John before, but did not know about the letter sent to him). Before communion, the patient clearly and clearly read the “Our Father”, “Theotokos” and all the necessary prayers, without at all giving the impression of being violently insane. The healed man is now completely healthy, cannot remember these moments without tears of emotion and assures everyone that the dear father himself came to him. Remembering the days of suffering he experienced, which forced him, in a state of insanity, to wear a crazy shirt and bite his body, the grateful healed man is going to go to the dear shepherd Fr. John and personally thank him for St. prayers. The venerable elder priest who administered communion to the sick is also worthy of attention as a worthy and rare example of self-sacrifice. It should be noted that he is well known in the hospital, always coming with the Holy Gifts, but no one knows who he is. It is interesting to add that other shepherds do not dare to visit the violently sick and avoid this hospital in every possible way, despite their direct duty to accompany the unfortunate ones departing into eternity with a kind word of consolation and reconciliation with God. So great should be the love of a shepherd for his spiritual children! God performed many miracles through the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were placed on the sick, and their illnesses ceased. (Acts 19:11, 12). In the city of Kostroma, on Palevskaya street, Druzhinina village, in the Strizhov family, on September 3, 1907, the only, dearly beloved 6-year-old son fell ill with scarlet fever. The grief of the parents knew no bounds, they fell into deep despair, since all the best medical forces of the above-mentioned city were completely unable to help the sick child, who was melting and melting every day, being unconscious all the time... His life was barely supported by artificial nutrition... Death was expected from minute to minute, according to the doctors' predictions... But now, one of those present reports that book carriers have arrived from Kronstadt, who have with them consecrated and blessed by Fr. John of Kronstadt icons (medallions), and advised to invite booksellers, which was done. When the booksellers placed the icon on the sick man’s neck, a miracle happened... The boy quickly began to come to his senses, opened his eyes, looked around those present with brightened eyes, and after a moment of silence, asked for food and drink... From that day on, the healed man began to noticeably improve and now, to the great joy of his parents, he became completely healthy. The happy parents became zealous admirers of the dear shepherd. Humble yourself, atheist; humble yourself, scientist; humble yourself, opponent of the faith of Christ. – Listen to what they write from the country of believers. I humbly ask you not to refuse to publish in your respected journal the miracle of God’s mercy, performed by the Lord, who dwells in the dear lamp and tireless worker Fr. John of Kronstadt. I, a reserve lower rank, served in the mountains. Dvinsk in military service, during which he spent his life depravedly and went straight to the bottom of hell; finally, I became an unfortunate victim of a contagious venereal disease, from which I began to feel aching in my bones; My arms and legs were tightening and some parts of my body were rotting. Soon I went to bed completely and lost heart greatly. I turned to doctors for help, who, although they undertook to treat me, the illness was prolonged, and therefore could not give me help. I began to consider myself already sentenced to death. I didn’t want to return home to my family, and I was afraid that I might make them as unhappy as I was. The following thought came to my mind: to retire somewhere to the ends of the world among strangers and there to await the end of my ill-fated life. My friends, knowing about my fate, completely abandoned me, and I had no time to think about them. I repeated one thing and thought that there was no one in the world more unfortunate and sinful than me. But the Merciful Lord - not wanting the death of his sinner, will turn and live to be him - He Himself came to meet me, like a father to the prodigal son, sent to me his faithful servants, true followers of the teachings of Christ, zealous preachers of the word of God and fearless glorifiers of the light-filled and divine man Fr. John of Kronstadt, spiritual brothers, whose names I did not ask, and I did not want to call them anything other than servants of God. They advised me to immediately go to Kronstadt and ask dear Father Fr. John about healing from his nasty incurable illness and the forgiveness of countless sins. I gladly accepted this offer and after 3 days I was already in Kronstadt, but dear father that day he left for St. Petersburg, where I also hurried. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, I found dear priest in his Ioannovsky convent, having already celebrated the Divine Liturgy. I stood near the monastery gates and waited for the dear priest to go, so that I could at least touch him with something, which I succeeded in: I jumped onto the carriage and kissed his priceless hand, after which I felt such strength and joy in myself that I ran to the pier (about 3 miles), to which my joy, dear priest, went, despite the fact that before I could hardly move my half-bent legs. Father was traveling on the same ship with me, I made my way onto the deck where he was sitting, and with tears in my eyes, I threw myself at the feet of my merciful comforter, handing over a letter that outlined all my grave sins, a painful illness and a heartfelt request for mercy. He graciously accepted the letter, after reading which he raised his brightest gaze to heaven and said a prayer to himself, after which he turned to me with the words: “Get up and calm down. Everything will be yours.” I stood up, but I was burning all over, as if on fire, then my whole body was drenched, and I believed that along with the sweat all my torment would disappear; so it was. Upon arrival in Kronstadt, I went to St. Andrew’s Cathedral for a whole week, receiving Holy Communion daily. Christ's Mysteries from the hands of my merciful healer and, having received a parting blessing from my dear father, I went home with such joy that I cannot express with my weak mind. Currently I live in the mountains. Dvinsk, I occupy a decent place in a government institution and feel as strong and vigorous as I once did before the ill-fated illness. But I will never forget the words spoken to me by the dear, merciful and all-knowing elder Fr. John: “Get up and calm down. Everything will be yours.” Gor. Dvinsk, Vitebsk province. When evening came, many demoniacs were brought to Him, and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick (Matthew 8:16). Let me describe in your respected journal the following miraculous case of healing through the prayers of the venerable shepherd Fr. John of Kronstadt. About three years ago, my two-year-old daughter fell ill with scrofula to such a severe degree that in a short time she risked losing her sight. My despair knew no bounds. Out of cowardice, I began to turn to all kinds of medical help, but... I did not get the desired result. On the advice of the priest Fr. John K., serving in the Bolsheokhtensky branch of the Society for Religious and Moral Education, I also turned to specialists, and still no improvement... I was already beginning to lose heart when the blessed thought came to me - to turn to the universal prayer book and intercessor before the throne of the Almighty... I firmly believed in grace-filled help and was only looking for an opportunity to see my dear priest... Finally, my desire came true. It so happened that the dear priest was serving a prayer service with my friends, to which I hurried with my sick daughter... The dear shepherd did not refuse his miraculous help and sprinkled the sick woman’s eyes with holy water... Since then, the illness began to diminish and has now completely abandoned our beloved daughter... So great is the power of the prayer of our great shepherd. The miracles of God are incomprehensible. Who are you who dare to reject the truth? - Answer me. Allow me to describe in your respected journal a miracle that took place through the prayers of Fr. John of Kronstadt 12 years ago. My son Nikolai, 16 years old, was sick; he had pneumonia; the illness was so severe that he was near death. He was given Holy Communion. I asked him to write a letter to Fr. John asking him to pray for his health. I myself took this letter to Kronstadt to my dear father. Arriving there, I stayed at Bykov’s house, and when Fr. John arrived at the courtyard, I asked him to visit my room. Coming to me, he blessed me with St. cross and asked where I was from. I said that I am a native of the Vladimir province, and live in Tambov, in the mountains. Kirsanov, and am engaged in trade. Father John said to me: “May the Lord God help you in your affairs.” Then he asked me why I had come. I replied that I had come to ask him to pray for my son, who was dangerously ill. “May the Lord God help you and reward you according to your faith,” said Fr. John began to pray. After finishing the prayer service, he gave me St. water and blessed St. cross. I told my dear priest about my illness: I had pain in the pit of my stomach. ABOUT. John touched the sore spot with his hand and said: “Trust in God and ask Him, the Lord will help you.” At this time, I experienced the power of the prayer of the righteous Fr. John; I felt so joyful in my heart as I had never felt before. I accompanied Fr. John in the courtyard, and he himself went back to the court. I arrive in my city, enter the shop, my son Nikolai, who was lying in bed and could not get up, is standing at the desk. This really made me happy, and I thanked the Lord and Fr. John for his fervent and holy prayer. Forgive me for not writing about this for a long time; There was definitely something holding me back; several times I wanted to write about. John, but was afraid that he would be disturbed, precisely because the righteous do not like praise. But lately I could not resist writing, because I see, reading your magazine, how enemies from all sides are attacking the righteous Fr. John, and the thought came to me that it was not a sin to write this, because the Savior said in the Holy Gospel: “So that the candlestick should not stand hidden, but on the candlestick, so that it would give light to everyone,” and Fr. John shines for everyone with his faith in God. G. Kirsanov, Tambov province. Please do not refuse to publish in your esteemed journal about the healing I received through the prayers of my dear father, Fr. John of Kronstadt. Recently I suffered from prolonged pneumonia, was hospitalized three times and was finally sentenced by doctors to death, which was supposedly inevitable in two days. My husband took me home to prepare me for the afterlife with my family of six children. I cried bitterly, prayed fervently, parting with my life, and the Lord sent me consolation. One of my friends visited me and advised me to turn to my dear priest for help, promising to write to him immediately. I happily agreed and slept soundly the first night, and the next day, when I was destined to die, I felt an extraordinary surge of strength and relief, and soon, to everyone’s surprise, I completely recovered. I completely attribute this mercy of God to the holy prayers of our dear priest. Forgive me for bothering you with my letter, but I’m afraid to remain ungrateful by hiding such a great miracle. Praskovya Semenovna Ananyeva Gor. Nikolaev, Kherson province, God performed many miracles through the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from his body were placed on the sick, and their illnesses ceased, and evil spirits left them. (Acts 19:11, 12). I humbly ask you to place in one of the next issues of your respected magazine the following case of miraculous healing through the prayers of Fr. John of Kronstadt, the great man of prayer and intercessor before the throne of the Most High for us, the unworthy. I had breast pain for more than 3 years and no matter how much I was treated by private doctors in Helsingfors and St. Petersburg, I did not get the desired outcome. True, they offered me to undergo a complex operation - to remove two ribs, but I did not agree to such a risky step for me. Having lost all hope of recovery and help from doctors, I decided about a year ago to place all my trust in the Lord God. And the Most Merciful Lord soon heard my fervent prayer. On January 14, 1908, a bookseller unexpectedly came to me, distributing books of the Holy Scriptures, as well as the writings of our dear father, Fr. John of Kronstadt. This book-carrier told me about the great and many miracles of the great shepherd and so convinced me of the miraculous power of the prayer of this righteous man that I decided to reveal my grief to him. The bookseller, seeing my tears, offered me a medallion with a portrait of Fr. John, for which I gave him 50 pennies, i.e. 20 kopecks. He took the medallion, devoutly crossed himself, kissed it and put it on me, ordering me to wear it without taking it off. When I put it on and kissed it, I immediately felt significant relief in my chest and now I feel completely healthy, offering up a tearful, grateful prayer to the Lord God for His mercy sent through the great righteous man and miracle worker, Fr. John of Kronstadt. Wishing that my healing would be known to your dear readers for the greater glorification of the great righteous man and true shepherd, I ask you to place it in your respected journal, and at the same time I express my gratitude to the book-seller I.E. Semenyuk for his works and good advice. I consider it my duty, feeling completely healthy, to make three bows every day, morning and evening, to our great righteous man and wonderworker Fr. John, who even during his earthly life showed such wondrous grace of God resting on him. I'm sure I'm not wrong about this. Hoping that you will not refuse my most humble request, I remain with complete respect. And behold, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up from behind and touched the hem of His robe, for she said to herself: If I only touch His robe, I will be healed. Jesus, turning and seeing her, said: Be of good cheer, daughter! Your Bepa saved you. From that hour the woman became healthy. (Matthew 9:20–22). Please do not refuse to publish the following in one of the next issues of your venerable magazine. My friend V., who serves as a candle maker at the Church of the Society for Religious and Moral Education, located on Bolshaya Okhta, happened to have his wife delivered of childbirth, but so unfavorably that she had to be sent to the Elizabeth Hospital. The patient was found to have blood poisoning. The disease progressed. A consultation was needed, but there were no funds, since, besides him and his wife, there were seven more children - a little less... There was no hope for salvation... I advised, knowing from experience, to turn to our dear priest, Fr. John of Kronstadt. To this the wife objected that Fr. John K. is the same shepherd... But then something miraculous happened. A few weeks later, an excited V. comes running to me and asks me on behalf of his wife to go to Kronstadt. It turned out that the patient saw Fr. John. The will of the patient was sacred to me. On October 20, 1907, we, that is, me and her husband, visited Kronstadt and visited Fr. John, asked for the sick, took with them a prosphora and St. water. A month has passed since the patient ate and drank what was brought, and a miracle happened that made a stunning impression on everyone. The patient left the hospital completely healthy. Interesting details. Priest O. John K., who knew about the perfect healing, did not find it necessary to mention it to the parishioners when preaching about the healing of the bleeding woman. Why is unknown. One way or another, many can testify to this wonderful incident. Here is a letter from Hierodeacon S., received by the editors of the Kronstadt Mayak magazine. “Forgive me for daring to distract you from more important matters. I received your magazine on October 19, it seems, on the day of the dear father’s angel, Fr. John of Kronstadt. Thank you very much! Now I’ll briefly tell you what prompted me to get acquainted with your magazine. From my earliest childhood, thanks to my wicked upbringing, I was subject to drunkenness and the vices inseparable from it. A dissolute and riotous life deprived me of health and willpower. Having come to my senses, I made a promise, if I recovered, to enter a monastery, which I fulfilled. But the sinful habit of wine did not leave me even in the monastery. At every opportunity I got drunk and did all sorts of outrageous things while drunk. Persecuted from everywhere for drunkenness, wandering from monastery to monastery, I was still addicted to wine. Thus, many difficult times have passed for me. Despite the clear awareness of the hopelessness of my situation, despite the mental torment that brought me to tears and complete despair, I could not overcome my vicious passion and, having decided to drink only one glass of vodka, I was no longer able to deny myself another, and then without counting, until I lost consciousness for several days. Even after accepting monasticism and the rank of hierodeacon, I could not stop drinking wine. Finally, I felt myself on the verge of complete destruction: my health was broken, my soul was grieving, my mental faculties were dulled... and yet I was drawn to wine. What should I do?.. Suddenly an unexpected thought struck me - to turn to Fr. for prayerful help. John of Kronstadt. I immediately sent a letter to him; I didn’t receive an answer for a long time, and I didn’t even think that my dear father would write to me, but only hoped that he would pray if he received my letter. Time passed. I continued to drink and get drunk until I myself noticed how I had completely lost the desire for wine and fell behind it. After a few days of feeling so happy for me, I received from Fr. John of Kronstadt letter in which he promised to pray for me. Now it occurred to me that it was not I who left the vodka to drink, but she left me through the holy prayers of the great righteous man, Fr. John of Kronstadt. It’s been six months now that I haven’t felt the slightest desire to drink, which has never happened to me before. At present, although I feel bad, having lost my physical health, I am always sober and my soul is at peace. I believe that the long-suffering Lord, through the prayers of His saint, who delivered me from drunkenness, will grant me healing from the consequences of a drunken life; I believe that the Lord always hears the prayer of His chosen one, and through this prayer every believer receives what he asks for. May the Lord prolong, for the good of the people, the life of our dear father, Fr. John of Kronstadt, mediator between God and suffering, sinful humanity! Father John's love for his neighbors is remarkable, especially because he does not limit himself to the satisfaction of a simple feeling of compassion. There are many cases where, out of a simple feeling of compassion, one should immediately eliminate the causes of a neighbor’s suffering, and yet Fr. John intensified these sufferings, of course temporarily, knowing well that the salvation and happiness of the sufferer does not lie in the elimination of temporary real suffering. It happened more than once, for example, that Fr. John refused confession or blessing, although the one who turned to him with tears begged him not to persecute him. Sometimes the pleas bordered on despair and were accompanied by groans, crying, and sobs; however, Fr. John remained steadfast and endured the struggle. Why? Because he saw that the petitioner came to him not with sincere heartfelt repentance, but rather out of superstition, due to mere ritual; a blessing or confession under such conditions will not be beneficial for the salvation of the soul of the petitioner or his moral correction, and meanwhile, some pangs of excitement and fear, manifested in tears and prayers, are more likely to be beneficial; the one who received a refusal, if he has a spark of repentance, will not stop there, will continue the internal struggle with himself, and will return again to Fr. John, and then, if he receives what he asks, he will achieve his goal. It is known that one Moscow merchant, who traded in the outrageous kulaks, and to “calm his conscience” decided to go “talk” to Father John, although the most unscrupulous plunder and exploitation continued as before; O. John not only refused confession, but spoke many bitter truths. Prayers and oaths did not help; the merchant went back without receiving the St. Communions. Six months later, he appeared again and still left with nothing. Only the third time, when he stopped his criminal activities, settled accounts with the offended and made many donations, deciding to engage in honest work, Fr. John kindly approved of him, admitted him to confession, and, blessing him, sent him home in “peace”... The facts already stated testify to the extraordinary grace-filled gift of clairvoyance with which Fr. John, as well as the unusually great power of his prayer. But many events have been reported in the press, testifying even more strikingly to the supernatural insight and power of prayer about. John. Here are some stories from the press about these events. Once, when leaving one house, where Father John was invited to a sick woman for prayer, the tenant of this house, X., stopped him and, throwing herself at his feet, asked him to come to her apartment. Father John stopped and looked at her. “I won’t go to you, leave me,” he said sharply, pushing her aside and quickly went down the stairs. According to the guess of the residents of this house, he was not invited by the sick, but by people who probably wanted his prayers for some financial matter. Two young men decided to ride from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt to “chat” with Father John. - But it’s interesting! Well, let’s say something there: Father, we’ve come to strengthen our faith. “They heard about your holiness and wanted to ask for pastoral guidance. Let's go. The walk turned out to be a fun one. There is a railway with dachas and places of entertainment to Oranienbaum, and there is a steamboat to Kronstadt; Everywhere there is a mass of public, an abundance of people walking. The travelers stopped at a cheerful hotel and, having enough courage, went to the gray house of Fr. John. A large crowd surrounded the shepherd's monastery... The young people looked at them mockingly and said loudly: - We came to be healed! one of his comrades picked it up. They roughly pushed through the crowd and rang loudly at the door of Fr.'s apartment. John. - They came to heal the soul; They came to ask for instructions. Here are our cards. The maid went to report, and the young people quickly took off their outer coats and went into the modest living room of the Kronstadt shepherd. “He doesn’t live like a lord,” one remarked, stopping in the middle of the room and turning on his heel in all directions. - Yes! It would be possible to turn around with his income... The friends chatted for about an hour. – However, it doesn’t work out for a long time, it makes you wait like a minister. - Shouldn't we send it again? Yes, there is no one - and the maid is not visible. Again we had to “chat” for more than an hour. - This is too much, however. So, is Father laughing at us? - Let's go look for the maid... At this time the maid appeared on the threshold. The young people expressed surprise that the priest did not come out. - Well, he asked us to wait? - Did you give us our cards? - I gave it away. They looked and threw them into the basket... The friends looked at each other and asked to report again, to say that they had been waiting for almost three hours. About five minutes later the maid entered the living room again; in her hands she had a tray with two glasses of water and in each glass a teaspoon... - Father sent you... You came to chat, so use spoons in glasses and chat. But the priest has no time to chat with you; They've already gone to the cathedral... Silently and silently, on tiptoe, the friends retreated to the front hall, grabbed their coats from the hanger there and disappeared behind the doors. It seemed to them that everyone already knew about their embarrassment, and everyone was laughing; all the pilgrims look at them either with horror or with laughter. But the boys are running behind, laughing, pointing; the people they meet are all looking at them... The young people ran to the ship, demanded tickets, and then they just came to their senses... It turned out that they had run out from Father John without their hats, and had thrown their coats on inside out. They were shaking as if in a fever, and for a long, long time afterwards they remembered their trip to “chat” with Father John. In St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island in 1887, there lived a merchant Z., who repeatedly invited his dear priest, Fr. John. For some reason, the latter could not come on any of the arrival days he himself had appointed. Finally, Fr. John arrives on one day not appointed by him (which sometimes happens to him), during a feast, which completely confused the rather large company that had gathered at this merchant. Having calmed those present, Fr. John invited the owner into another room to pray, and asked the guests not to be embarrassed by his presence. Despite this, the guests stopped the entertainment they had started and followed Fr. John and the owner for common prayer. After praying, Fr. John, as usual, sat down to share the proposed meal, but then suddenly suddenly stood up, approached one of those present, merchant I., and, placing his hand on his shoulder, looked at him intently for a long time and finally asked him how long he had been fasting? The merchant was somewhat embarrassed by the unexpected question and could not answer immediately. “For a long time,” Fr. himself answered. John: “You need to receive Holy Communion. Tyne; come and fast with me.” This conversation seemed strange to many; but almost a month later everything became clear; A week later I fulfilled the advice of Father John, and two weeks after that he died of a stroke. Dear Father, Fr. John quite often visited the merchant family S., who also lived on Vasilyevsky Island, along the 12th line, near Maly Prospekt. In the same house lived three young men from the students, who often laughed at the incomprehensible fame of the great righteous man, Fr. John, who gathers crowds wherever he appears. One day the idea came to them to “laugh” at the healing power of the prayers of the Kronstadt shepherd, and they came up with the following: K-y, the most lively young man, went to the S. family to convincingly ask Fr. John, when he is with them, to visit his dying comrade; S. will pretend to be seriously ill, and M. will pretend to be a crying brother at the bedside of a dying man. No sooner said than done. Father John, having listened to K’s request, looked closely at him and said: – I don’t refuse anyone’s prayers and I will come to you, but remember that you are joking with God!.. K-y was embarrassed, but still, insisting on the request, assured that his comrade was dying. “Not even 10 minutes had passed when a bell rang at the door of the young people’s apartment. S. slipped into bed, covered himself with blankets and began to moan weakly. M. knelt down at the head of the supposedly ill man, and K. rushed to open the doors. -Where is your patient? – the shepherd asked abruptly, emphasizing the word “your”. “Please, father, please,” K-y fussed and led the guest into the adjacent room. The patient continued to moan, and M. sobbed. Father John stopped in the middle of the room and looked for the image with his eyes. There was no icon in the room. Then he knelt down in the middle of the room and, crossing himself, began to pray... - Lord, send them according to their faith... Father John quickly stood up and, saying goodbye, headed towards the exit. K-y and M-n ran to accompany him to the stairs... With loud laughter they returned to the sick man's room. - Vanya, Vanya, get up, oh. John left... - Come on, get up, stop pretending, because he left... Alas! The unfortunate man was not pretending. He lay in complete paralysis: his tongue, arms, legs - everything was gone, and only the intense blinking of his eyes showed that the young man was alive and wanted to say something. Tetanus of horror fell on the young people who decided to laugh at the shepherd. They did not understand what was happening around them, and when they came to their senses, they looked at each other and cried bitterly over the living corpse. - Vanya, Vanya, we wanted to laugh at God... forgive, forgive us! They sent for doctors. Three experienced doctors spent the whole night at the patient’s bedside and decided that he had the kind of paralysis that could take years to heal, if only it could be cured. “Perhaps a terrible grief has struck your comrade: his entire nervous system is broken,” the doctors said. The young people only cried, not daring to tell the doctors the truth. On the first train the next morning both young men went to Kronstadt. Father John could not receive them until the evening, and when he was informed about them, he sent them to tell them that he was unable to do anything for them. M and K spent the whole night at the little gray house and when in the morning Fr. John showed up and threw themselves at his feet, begging him to forgive them. The good shepherd raised the young men and told them to go to church. There, after the liturgy, he took them to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and here the instruction lasted for about two hours. The venerable shepherd began by pointing out the indecency of their act, that they had no right to laugh at people older than them, and then proceeded to present the gospel teaching. “Now let’s pray,” said Fr. John, when the instruction was over. Needless to say, the young people had never prayed as much as they did at that moment. The holy icon of the Wonderworker seemed to them a living face, at first formidable, and then more and more merciful. – Travel with God and praise Him. It was as if a weight had been lifted from the young men’s shoulders. They felt a joy incomprehensible to them: their souls rejoiced, and everything around them seemed to them in some kind of rainbow light. The comrades arrived home in the evening. S. opened the door for them. - Vanya, is that you? You are healthy!! – friends rushed to him. - Almost healthy. My head is just heavy and there is some kind of fatigue all over my body... It turned out that at that very hour when Fr. John prayed with the young men at the icon of St. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, S. stood up, and gradually the ability to control his numb members began to return to him. The right hand was the first to come to life, and its first movement was the sign of the cross... The venerable Abbess of the Leushinsky Monastery, Abbess Taisiya, who had the good fortune for more than 35 years to be in the closest spiritual relationship with the late Archpriest Fr. John Sergiev, after the death of her dear priest, she published the following memoirs about the gift of clairvoyance, which was gifted from God to the great prayer book of the Russian land. 1) It was in the late 30s; At that time, our Leushinsky monastery did not yet have its own courtyard in St. Petersburg, where subsequently we often and conveniently saw each other and talked with the priest. I had great difficulty in finding an opportunity to see him and at least briefly talk about what was needed. So, one day, having wasted several days in search of such an opportunity with the urgent need to talk with him, I decided to go to the Baltic railway station. etc. and personally ask him to allow me to travel with him to Oranienbaum for the aforementioned purpose. The good father not only readily agreed, but also told me: “I’m very, very glad to talk with you, because we haven’t seen each other for a long time.” The train started moving, and only the two of us were left in the compartment. He showed me a seat on his right hand, but opposite us, there was no one in the compartment at all. A cordial, spiritual, frank conversation began. Suddenly the priest impulsively, quickly rose to his feet (without leaving the place where he was sitting) and, raising his right hand up, shook it in the air, as if threatening someone, fixed his gaze straight into the distance (not to the side), and said loudly: “May the Lord God forbid you!” Having said these words, he crossed himself, sat down in his place and looked at me with his usual gentle smile and, putting his hand on my shoulder, said: “What, mother, weren’t you scared?” “I was scared, father,” I answered, “but I immediately understood that you forbade the demons: “Can you really see them?” “Yes, mother, yes! But what to say about this, it’s better to continue our conversation.” “Thus, in this conversation we reached Oranienbaum; The priest headed to the ship going to Kronstadt, and I, with the same train, without leaving the carriage, returned to St. Petersburg, consoled and encouraged by the conversation with the great man who has “power over the spirits of evil in the heavens.” I can give the following second similar case. On the day of our courtyard church's feast of St. ap. John the Theologian has always served with us, Father Fr. John; For this purpose, he came to the all-night vigil the day before, went out to the veneration, and read the akathist and canon himself. Then he stayed overnight with us and on the feast day celebrated (conciliarly) with other priests the late liturgy at 10 o’clock. He always got up early, sometimes at 4 or 5 o’clock, wrote a sermon or his notes, and at about 7–8 o’clock he went to freshen up in the air, and he always took me with him to accompany him. We usually went to the islands, where in the morning it was always empty and secluded, which, with the clean fresh air, really provided rest and joy for the shepherd, surrounded throughout the whole day by people and bustle. The priest used these hours for secret contemplative prayer, and I, knowing this, never disturbed it with any conversations, except if he himself spoke to me. So, one day we drove out to the Nikolaevsky Bridge, from where the coachman was ordered in advance to turn left along the embankment. When our carriage reached the chapel on the bridge, a dead man was being carried past along the embankment on the left side; The drog with the coffin was pulled by one horse, and there were no more than 8 or 10 mourners, which is why each of them was clearly visible. Father suddenly changed his face; he gazed intently at the funeral procession, and since it walked along the embankment parallel to our carriage on my (left) side, he had to lean towards my side, and I could not help but see the change in his face. Finally, the procession turned into the 1st line; and the priest, having calmed down somewhat, began to be baptized. Then, turning to me, he said: “How terrible it is for drunkards to die!” Assuming that the priest was talking about the deceased, having recognized those accompanying his coffin, I asked: “Do you know him, father?” He answered me: “Just like you.” Still not understanding anything, I explained my proposal to him, adding that I didn’t know any of those accompanying him. “And so do I,” he said, but I see demons rejoicing over the death of the drunkard’s soul.” Father, oh. John, over the past 18 years, from the very first year (1891), when he began to travel to his homeland in Sura, he began to visit us at the Leushinsky monastery, which lies on the way, not far from the bank of the river. Sheksna, which he followed, leaving the Mariinsky system canal, to the Volga. Having reached our monastery pier “Borki” with his small steamer “St. Nicholas”, he usually sent his ship back to his homeland, went to our Leushinsky monastery to visit or, as he put it, “to rest” and spent a week or more with us. To follow his further journey, he was given a large passenger steamer (local companies), and the priest annually traveled on one along the Volga, at least to Nizhny Novgorod or further, at his personal request and direction. I have always been with him on such trips; and I confess in all conscience that these days were the best of my life spiritually, despite many external inconveniences. But about these travels, as well as about the time spent during his stay in our monastery, I will describe, if the Lord pleases, separately. Now I will return to my intended goal - to tell about the following incident, which clearly speaks of the high contemplation of this great shepherd. At the same time, I consider it not superfluous to ask readers to believe me, for, on the one hand, what motivation could guide me to speak a lie against a deceased person who is already standing before the face of God; if I had written this during his lifetime, then one could still suspect me as an admirer and supporter of the priest, but even that would be completely incongruous, because I myself, a 70-year-old old woman standing on the verge of the grave, am too careful in my words, especially regarding such serious cases. So, I want to tell you the following. Once my father and I were traveling on a steamboat along the Volga. According to his custom, he sat on the ramp with the Gospel in his hands and read the psalter placed at the end in the Russian translation. I was also on the ramp, but far from him. Suddenly the priest, seeing me, made a sign with his hand for me to come up to him, which, of course, I willingly did. “Listen, mother,” he turned to me, sitting me down next to him, “what is the wrong translation: “I died in my frenzy” - translated: “I said in my madness,” - because this is not at all the same”? I replied that it was necessary to translate: “I said in admiration, in a delight of feelings, as the subsequent words are consistent: “that I will repay the Lord for all that I have repaid.” Father approved of my words and, lowering the book, sat in silence. Taking advantage of his calm mood and idle moments, I decided to express to him my disturbing thoughts about the afterlife of my mother, who, being a completely religious Christian, at the same time strongly opposed my going to the monastery and did not want to give me her blessing for this. I was worried about whether the Lord would count her stubbornness as a sin. And so, at the moment described, I asked the priest about this. He told me: “pray for her” and, continuing to sit motionless with the Gospel in his hands, intently looked somewhere into the distance. I no longer repeated the question, and we sat with him in silence for about a quarter of an hour. Suddenly the priest, turning to me, said firmly: “she has been pardoned”! I did not dare to understand these words as an answer to my question, considering it already over and, looking at the priest in misunderstanding, I asked: “Who was pardoned, about whom did you say this?” “Who were you asking me about, your mother?” - he objected; “Well, I’m telling you that she has been pardoned.” “Father, dear,” I continued, you speak as if you have received a message from above.” “How could it be otherwise? After all, you can’t talk about such things without notification—it’s not a joke.” Who does not recognize the deep degree of insight in this shepherd, the boldness of his pure, exalted soul towards the Lord? Abbess Taisiya of the Leushinsky Monastery And a great multitude came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them. (Matthew 15:20). Letter from D. A. Agrenev-Slavyansky to the editors of the Revel Bulletin. “Traveling around Russia for decades and always cherishing the idea of ​​​​implementing folk theater and folk spectacles, I identified several surviving singers with their primitive melodies and instruments, and one of them was the blind man Ivan, whom I found by chance in the city of Belaya Tserkov, Kiev province, on the street, playing his kobza and singing ancient poems of spiritual content. The unfortunate blind man, no more than 27 years old, sat in rags with his kobza or lyre not far from the church and, among other beggars, shouted spiritual songs, thereby attracting the attention of the passing public, who sometimes threw a penny into a small wooden cup, which was held in the hands of a ragged 10-year-old boy, his leader, and with a pleading look he held out to those passing by. I called this Ivan to my hotel, promising to feed him and give him pennies. Without raising his naked head and without opening his eyes, Ivan somehow strangely smiled at me and said: “Okay, lady; I’ll come, thank you.” This is how my acquaintance with Ivan began, who sang me several secular songs and thoughts about the Cossack Ivan Konopchenko and others. Remembering Ivan the kobzar at this moment in St. Petersburg, I instructed one of my friends in Kiev to find him and immediately send him to St. Petersburg. Before my departure from St. Petersburg, I had to visit Fr. John and serve a prayer service. Father John blessed me for my new artistic journey, which I was going to make this winter. When visiting me Fr. John at the hotel where I was staying, and after the prayer service, in a conversation with him, I expressed my desire to come to Kronstadt to give a concert in favor of the fallen battleship "Rusalka". Father John approved of my desire and expressed that he would like to listen to my choir in the church while they were performing the liturgy. I was, of course, happy to fulfill Fr.’s wish. John, because I heard a lot about his worship. The first mass was sung on September 22, and Fr. liked our singing so much. John that I promised to come to Kronstadt again in order to participate with my choir in its services for the second time. This took place on September 29, and I cannot describe the reverent impression that I, my whole family, and all my singers took from St. Andrew’s Cathedral. This day will remain unforgettable for all of us. After mass I asked Fr. John to himself to bless my family and all the singers. After the prayer service with the blessing of water, we all came up to venerate the cross and receive a blessing; including I brought him to Fr. John and his blind man Ivan, telling the priest that the blind man was asking for his blessing and to pray for him. “How long have you been blind,” the priest asked Ivan. – Yes, for more than 12 years now, I haven’t seen anything since I was a child. - Why did this happen? You were sick, or what? - Yes, I had scrofula, and I went blind; apparently rushed to the head. I went to the doctors, nothing helped, they said there was dark water in the eyes. “Well, nothing,” said Fr., smiling tenderly. John. I myself was sick with scrofula and have difficulty hearing. Let's pray to the Lord God. And at these words, he took consecrated water from the vessel with a spoon and, pouring it onto his hand three times, as if washed Ivan’s eyes, patted him on the cheek, caressed him, so to speak, and blessed him, saying: - Well, the Lord will have mercy on you, go with God! In the evening of the same day, I gave a concert in the hall of the Kronstadt commercial meeting, and before the start of the concert, my singing boy, who was assigned to lead Ivan, enters my dressing room, and, smiling, says to me: - How does he see?! – I asked, surprised and not trusting the boy’s words. - Bring him here! - Is it true, Ivan, what you see? Ivan looked at me with wide open eyes and answered: - Yes, master, I see; It’s just like being in a fog! “Well, well, until today you haven’t seen anything, nothing positive!” - No, I didn’t see anything, I’ve been blind for more than twelve years, since I was a child. It was impossible to doubt: Ivan stood in front of me with open eyes and smiling cheerfully. More than three weeks have passed since then, and every day Ivan began to see better and better. Nowadays he sees everything well, and he walks everywhere alone. From being sad with his head down and his eyes closed, Ivan became cheerful, talkative, raised his head and is already singing more cheerful songs.” But even more so, the fame of Him spread, and a great multitude of people flocked to Him to listen and to be healed of their illnesses by Him. (Luke 5:15). The newspaper “Russian Parisian” reports the following case of healing through the prayer of Fr. John. A resident of Le Havre, Mr. Curret, suddenly went mad and was placed in a mental hospital in Paris. No treatment helped, and the doctors finally announced to his saddened wife that she should give up all hope. Mrs. Curret once read in French newspapers about Fr. John and in desperation decided to turn to him. She wrote a letter in which she asked the priest to pray for her husband. Soon there was a response for No. 689 from the secretary, Fr. John, Kostina. Ms. Curret brought this answer to the editorial office of “Russian Parisian” with a request to translate it. It read: “I inform you that the priest gives you his pastoral blessing and prays for the immeasurable goodness of God to extend his mercy to you, pray and trust in the mercy of the Most Holy Theotokos. Father fulfilled your request and personally wrote a letter to your sick husband, which he sent to him along with the icon.” Letter about. John was given to the sick man. He, of course, could not read Russian, but, nevertheless, an improvement soon appeared in his condition, and after a month the doctors considered it possible to release him from the hospital, and Mr. Curre resumed his previous activities. Sample sent by Fr. John, he now wears it constantly on his chest. She came up, bowed to Him and said: Lord! help me. He answered and said: It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. She said: So Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered her: O woman! great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour. (Matthew 15:25–28). In the city of Taganrog, in one Jewish family, V. was seriously ill, for whose recovery the doctors had already lost all hope. When the patient became very ill, the doctor, also a Jew, answered the family’s questions whether there was any way to save the patient, and replied that now all hope was in Fr. John of Kronstadt, without attaching any meaning to his words. That same evening, however, a telegram was sent to Fr. John with a request to pray for the patient’s recovery, and the next morning the latter showed signs of improvement, and three days later the patient completely recovered. Another Jewish woman, X., turned to Fr. John in writing from Rostov-on-Don. She suffered from pain in her legs and lower back for more than twenty years. Over these twenty years, the patient consulted many doctors, visited professors in Kharkov, but everything was useless, there was no cure, and the poor woman suffered for many years, receiving no help from anyone. Finally, someone advised her to turn to Fr. John and ask him to pray for her. Mrs. X immediately sent a letter to Kronstadt, in which she asked for his prayers for her, despite the fact that she was Jewish. So two weeks passed, and recently the patient began to feel much better, and the pain in her legs, according to her, completely stopped. It is clear that when this became known among local inhabitants and acquaintances, everyone was amazed, and following the example of Mrs. X. to Fr. More letters were sent to John from other patients. So it is for the infidels that Fr. John's warm prayer and unremitting help. In one of the synagogues He taught on the Sabbath; there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not straighten up. Jesus, seeing her, called her and said to her: woman, you are freed from your illness. And he laid his hands on her: and she immediately straightened up and began to praise God. (Luke 13:10–13). The following message from Archpriest was once published in the Gazette of the St. Petersburg City Administration. I. Ornatsky. “On March 14, 1902, during the service of the liturgy, Fr. John, in the church of the Leushinsky Metochion, on Basseynaya Street in St. Petersburg, an event occurred, which would be useful to report in the current time of impoverishment of faith. Recently a sick woman, a peasant from the Tver province, arrived in St. Petersburg. Staritsky u., Dorskoy vol., village of Nalizova - Feodosia Sergeeva 24 years old. Her illness is expressed in the fact that Sergeeva, as soon as she hears the ringing of a bell, no matter where she is, immediately falls, screams in a terrible wild voice, sweats and beats in terrible convulsions to the point of exhaustion. The same thing happens to her during every religious procession. She rarely goes to church, citing some kind of illness, mostly imaginary, and if she was in church, then at the most important moments of the liturgy, the attacks described above were repeated with her, after which she did not remember what happened to her. Based on all these signs, her illness should be called demonic possession, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Gospel. Having suffered in this way for the third year, recently Sergeeva became very weak physically, could not work, tied up others, requiring care and supervision of herself. Finding no relief for her, her relatives decided to use the last resort - to ask for prayers for the sick woman. John of Kronstadt, for which they brought her to St. Petersburg. They managed to fulfill this zealous desire on March 14, when Fr. John served the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the church of the Leushinsky Metochion. During the communion of the laity at the end of the liturgy, the sick woman was brought to the Holy Chalice. She immediately closed her eyes, screamed furiously, her face became scary, three strong men held her. Father John stopped communion, put his sore hand on his sore hand and, fixing his gaze on it, said in a stern and loud voice: – In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command you, Satan, to come out!.. These words about. John repeated several times. In the church, crowded with pilgrims, such silence reigned as if there was no one in it. Everyone waited with intense attention to see what would happen next. Only the authoritative words of the highly revered shepherd were heard: “Come out now, come out quickly.” All this lasted for about three minutes. Then the screams stopped, the patient, still with her eyes closed, sighing heavily, sank into the arms of those who were holding her. Father John, turning to her, said three times: “Open your eyes.” The patient slowly and with great effort fulfilled this order. Further about. John made her cross herself several times. The first time she made the sign of the cross with great difficulty, reluctantly, then she began to cross herself more freely. - Feodosia! - the patient answered. - Well, cross yourself again. This time Feodosia crossed herself completely freely. “Let her go,” said Fr. John to those who were holding her, and when they did not dare to do this, he repeated: “Let her go, she is now completely healthy.” When those who held him released, Fr. John invited her to partake of the Holy Mysteries, and the sick woman calmly and reverently accepted the Holy Mysteries without outside help. After the liturgy, when Fr. John was in the abbess’s apartment, and the healed woman was brought there too. The loving shepherd caressed her and her family, asked where she was from and how long she had been sick. When the relatives said: “she is spoiled,” Fr. John corrected: she is possessed.” When asked by one of those present whether her previous seizures would be repeated, Fr. John replied, “She is healed.” Before leaving the compound, Fr. John once again addressed the healed woman: “And your face has become more pleasant now,” he said, “otherwise you were so scary.” Always thank the Lord and be healthy. Needless to say, how strong the impression was made by this miraculous healing on all the many witnesses to it! Here everyone saw with their own eyes that the Lord, who promised to be with the believers until the end of the age, is now working earthly miracles in His church through His chosen ones, strong in unshakable faith and fulfillment of His holy will.” “Russian. Pilgrim" 1891, No. 15. See Russian. Pilgrim, 1901, No. 38, p. 656.