Miracles of Saint Seraphim of Sarov.

*A story recorded by doctor S.Apraxin.

 On March 8, 1903, I was invited to Andrew Vasilievitch Vinokurov’s house. After a talk about his own illness, I was asked by the parents to see their daughter, a thirteen-year-old girl. They told me that just before Christmas, Manya, who was a pupil in a college, became ill with acute arthritis. This illness was soon complicated by chorea (an involuntary movement disorder) in its worst stage, so that the patient could neither sit, on account of a motor trouble of the tongue. She could only lie down while her body kept tossing from one side to the other on her bed.

Saint Serphim of Sarov.

After some time, this serious illness was aggravated by a still graver one-namely, endocarditic." Besides the twitching of the limbs caused by chorea, the girl began to have fits of convulsions at night. The neu­ropathologists who treated her pronounced her case very serious and warned the parents to be ready for anything. After five weeks of un­successful treatment, the parents of the girl, on the advice of a relative had recourse to God's help through His Saint, Seraphim of Sarov.

Abandoning all medical treatment, they hung in front of the bed of the sick girl a picture of Fr. Seraphim praying before the icon of Our Lady of Compunction. And the sick girl's mother said to her: "Manya, pray to Fr. Seraphim. He will heal you. If you cannot speak, at least with your heart ask him to help you."

From that night, the nightly convulsions stopped. In a few days the girl who had been unable to speak at all, began to say: "He appeared ... he appeared ... " But she could not yet relate in detail what had happened.

Meanwhile, a distinct turn for the better took place, and in a few days the girl could already relate how one night Fr. Seraphim had appeared to her, blessed her and said: "Don't be afraid, you will be well." And then he added: "You are not the first I have healed. Your Anyuta(a diminutive of “Anna”) in Arzamas was also ill. I have healed her, too."

The parents, who were greatly struck by this, gave thanks to God and made a vow to go to Sarov as soon as their Manya got well. Then they anointed the body of the patient with oil from a lamp burning before the icons, after which she gradually recovered. On the same day they went to Anyuta's mother, to learn whether Anyuta had really been ill at Arzamas, as Manya had reported.

Anyuta's mother, whom I personally saw at the time and to whom I talked, was very surprised and said that she had not had any letters from her daughter for a long time and had not heard of her illness. On the same day a letter was sent to Anyuta in Arzamas. Anyuta wrote in reply that she had really been ill with a severe attack of mumps, after which the school doctor had forbidden her to go to school for a week.

The sick Manya recovered soon after this, so that she was able to go to Sarov with her parents in the third week of Lent in fulfillment of their vow. At the medical test no traces of chorea were visible. There was only a modification in the valves of the heart as a result of the endocarditic. The grateful parents had a large image of Fr. Seraphim paint­ed in the Diveyev Convent, and this image was to be placed after St. Seraphim's canonization in St. Elias' Church in Nizhni-Novgorod be­cause the miraculous cure had taken place in that parish.

 

The holy relics of 

Saint Seraphim of Sarov.

* Lost in the snow. 

St. Seraphim also often helped people who were in danger or in difficult circumstances. A merchant of the province of Kostrorna, who afterwards visited the Diveyev Convent every year, related the following about his first visit there.

Returning home from Sarov, he stopped with his clerk at Diveyev. After Vespers, he wanted to continue his journey. The sister who attended to the travelers in the hostel urged them to stay the night so as to see next morning the things which had belonged to Fr. Seraphim and were kept in the convent; but they left. About one verst(app 1km) from Diveyev a black cloud overtook them and such a snowstorm arose that, though they were following the high road, they lost sight of the track completely. The postilion began to freeze.

The prayers they addressed to many saints did not help them. All at once the merchant exclaimed: "Ah, brothers, how foolish we are! We have just been on a pilgrimage to Fr. Seraphim, and we do not ask for his help. Let us ask him to help us!"

They had not yet finished their prayer when suddenly they heard someone shuffling in the snow nearby, and a voice said: "Hey, you! Why are you sitting there? Come on, follow us. We will show you the way!"

Then they saw an old man and an old woman pass them by pulling a sledge which left a wide tract. The sledge moved on quickly and they drove behind it. When they reached the village, the old couple sudden­ly vanished. Undoubtedly they were Fr. Seraphim and Mother Agathia Simeonovna.

* A disaster averted in the forest.

A pilgrim was going through the Mouromsky Forest. In a deserted place she heard terrible shrieks and groans. She had with her a picture of Fr. Seraphim. She took it out and crossed herself with it as well as the place from which the shouts came. All became quiet. She went further. On the mud stood a cart and close by it lay two mutilated men. They said that robbers had wanted to kill them, but that all at once they had run away.

After some time a police officer passed by, took all three of them, and suspected the woman of being a part to the robbery. After this the rob­bers remained for a long time at liberty but were finally caught for another misdemeanor.

They repented and also confessed the robbery they had committed in the Mouromsky Forest. They had just been going to deal the last blow to their victims when they had seen a stooping white-haired monk in a white smock running at them from the forest. He shook his finger at them and shouted: "Just you wait!" Behind him ran a crowd of people with sticks.

The robbers were shown the picture of Fr. Seraphim which had been taken from the pilgrim and they at once recognized him as the old monk who had scared them away and prevented them from murdering the two men in the forest.

* A Christmas miracle.

"What does he want?".

In 1865, in Mrs. B's house the customary distribution of Christmas presents to the needy took place before the feast. A stooping white-haired old man came separately from the rest and having prayed, said: "Peace and blessing be upon this house!"

The servant who distributed the gifts asked him: "Have you come for alms?"

"No, not for that."

"Anyway, take it if you want it."

"No, I do not want anything. I only want to see your mistress and to say a few words to her."

"The mistress is not at home. If you have something to say, tell us”.

"No, I must do it myself."

One of the servants softly said to another: "What does he want? Let him go. Perhaps he is a tramp."

The old man said: "When your mistress is at home, I shall come: I shall come soon." And he went out.

The maid distributing gifts saw the old man's bad shoes. She felt remorse and certain uneasiness. She ran out of the house, but there was no one near it. He had disappeared. The servants did not tell their mistress, but the maid heard someone talking to her in her sleep: "You spoke inconsiderately. He who came to your house was not a tramp, but a great Saint of God."

On the next morning a parcel came by post to Mrs. B. It contained a picture of Fr. Seraphim (who was greatly venerated by the family) feeding a bear. Great was the general surprise when those who had talked to the old beggar recognized the picture of Fr. Seraphim.

Reference:

An Extraordinary Peace. Archimandrite Lazarus Moore.(2009).