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.

“Mon fils, donne-moi ton Cœur” (Pr23 : 26).Père Boris Bobrinskoy.

Père Boris 

Bobrinskoy.

Père Boris Bobriskoy, est l’un des grands Théologiens Orthodoxes des XXe et XXIe siècles, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages de théologie et de liturgie.

Il est clair que dans le cadre de l'anthropologie de la Bible et de l'Église, la prière et la vie intérieure engagent l'homme tout entier. Les psaumes offrent des exemples saisissants du rôle du corps dans la prière: “Mon âme a soif de toi, mon Dieu; après toi languit ma chair, Comme une terre sèche, altérée, sans eau.” La chair a part à cette soif, à cette recherche de Dieu. Lorsque Dieu rencontre l'homme et le pénètre, il le pénètre dans sa totalité, le transfigure dans son âme et dans son corps.

Dans une telle perspective, l'origine de la vie spirituelle ne sera plus l'Intellect, l'intelligence de l'homme ne sera plus considérée comme le lieu de la connaissance et de l'union avec Dieu, comme dans les mystiques platoniciennes de contemplation de l'Intelligible par ce qui dans l'homme lui est le plus semblable, c'est-à-dire l'intelligence. Dans les Écritures et l'expérience traditionnelle de l'Église, ce n'est plus l'intelligence, mais le cœur de l'homme qui est l'organe moteur par excellence de toute la vie,

Last apparition of the Mother of God to Saint Seraphim.

   One year and nine months before his departure from this world, St. Seraphim was favoured by a wonderful visitation of the heavenly Queen. This was Our Lady's twelfth visit to him. It took place early in the morning, on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, 1831. It was a kind of premonition of his blessed end and of the incorruptible glo­ry which awaited him. "Mother Eupraxia", an elderly nun of the "Diveyev Convent" who died on the 28th of March, 1865, wrote of this wonderful event as follows:

   Father told me two days in advance to come to him on that day. When I came, Father announced: "We shall have a vision of the Mother of God," and making me bend to the ground, he covered me with his mantle and read over me out of a book. Then, lifting me up, he said:

   "Now hold on to me and don't be afraid of anything."

   At that moment, there was a noise like the noise of a forest in a strong gale. When it subsided, we heard singing which sounded like church singing. Then the door of the cell opened of itself, it became light, brighter than day, and the cell was filled with a fragrance like that of rose-scented incense, only better.