The Miracle of the Nuns.John Noble

 

Vorkuta Gulag: From 1931 to 1957, 2 million prisoners
from the U.S.S.R. and 21 other countries
passed through the Gulag system 

        When the conversations turned to religion, as they soon did. I heard of an extraordinary happening. a miracle, which had just occurred in Vorkuta. God indeed was there with us! And the eagerness with which the men told me this story left no doubt as to the fact that the Iron Curtain could not keep God out of a country or out of the minds and hearts of its people. 

  

         It was in November of that year, 1950, just after our own arrival, that three nuns reached the camp under sentences of hard labor. The many thousand women prisoners at Vorkuta did not work in the mines but performed other rugged work, and the nuns were assigned to a plant which made bricks for construction work throughout the whole Arctic area of Russia. 

...servants of God and not of Satan...

        When the nuns were first taken to the brick factory, they told the foreman that they regarded doing any work for the Communist regime as working for the Devil and, since they were the servants of God and not of Satan, they did not propose to bow to the orders of their foreman despite any threats he might make.                                                                                            Stripped of their religious garb, the nuns' faith was their armor. They were ready to face anything and everything to keep their vow and they did face their punishment, a living testimony of great courage. They were put on punishment rations, consisting of black bread and rancid soup, day after day. But each morning when they were ordered to go out to the brick factory, into the day pits, or to any other back-breaking assignment, they refused. This refusal meant, of course, that they were destined to go through worse ordeals. Angered by their obstinacy and fearing the effect upon the other slave laborers, the commandant ordered that they be placed in strait-jackets. Their hands were tied in back of them and then the rope with which their wrists were bound was passed down around their ankles and drawn up tight. In this manner, their feet were pulled up behind them and their shoulders wrenched backward and downward into a position of excruciating pain. 

How To Cross Great LentSaint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Today and yesterday my heart aches, and aches in a strange way... And I entreated God: "Not now. Grant me to fulfill my life's work". And here it is. Walking towards the completion of my life's work I shall begin speaking with you on how we should pass the period of fasts.

          I have already spoken to you about my method, which I urge you to imitate. This method is the following: to see our final goal and to walk towards it beginning with the "a. b. c". As regards Great Lent, we should set ourselves precisely this same principle, but condensed. We must understand that we are being offered fifty days of fasting as a preparation to receive the Resurrection of the dead. And we shall build our vision in this way: Now begins our spiritual striving. Our inspiration is multiplied with the thought that millions of Christians will keep this Fast. The way to the Resurrection, even for the Incarnate God, passed through sufferings. The mystery of the Passion we will understand only later. From the beginning we accept this as a condition for our growth in God, as a condition for the acquisition of the word of God and the imitation of His ways in our daily life.

          Thus, let us set for ourselves such an image of Great Lent and we shall see how one Man on earth decided to climb alone Golgotha and break the iron collar of the curse, due to the sin of Adam. He decided to endure everything in a positive way, which no one on earth understood, and no one in reality accepted. And when He completed His "work"[1], He said: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"[2].

Anecdotes About St. Joseph the HesychastHieromonk Ephraim, St. Nilus Skete, Alaska.

 Saint Joseph the Hesychast.

Elder Sophrony of Essex heard about Elder Joseph and found him on his own. Elder Sophrony visited him frequently because he had great reverence for him. He later said that Elder Joseph was one of the greatest ascetics of the Holy Mountain he had ever met. In a letter of his, Elder Sophrony wrote the following about their meeting: “I wanted to hear the words of this bearer of great grace. He spoke to me primarily about the hesychastic life of a hermit and that he himself had seen the Uncreated Light several times. My discussion with Geronda left a deep impression on me.... I had the impression that I had in front of me a spiritual general.” Indeed, he was “the teacher”—which is what pious monks of the wilderness of the Holy Mountain would call him out of reverence and respect.

Saint Sophrony (Sakharov).Worship and Prayer. by Mother Mariam (Zacca)

Excerpts from the video presented in the international symposium "Meeting with the Confessor - Elder Sophrony (Sakharov)" that was held in Neamt Monastery, Iasi, Romania - November 2016.