WARNING

NOT EVERYTHING THAT

CALLS ITSELF ORTHODOX IS

TRULY ORTHODOX


The above warning was given to me when I first met Orthodoxy in 1986. Today [2009] it is even more perilous, even more difficult to find the Royal Path. For one thing there is a far greater abundance of misinformation. And many materials are missing, and other materials are being rapidly rewritten. For another thing there are fewer than ever guides remaining on the Royal Path, especially who speak English. Hopefully this website will be a place where Newcomers to the Faith can keep at least one foot on solid ground, while they are "exploring."


blog owner: Joanna Higginbotham

joannahigginbotham@runbox.com

jurisdiction: ROCA under Vladyka Agafangel

who did not submit to the RocorMP union in 2007

DISCLAIMER



May 2, 2012

St. John, A Prophet

Eugene Rose  Lay Sermon  Oct. 1966

ST. JOHN OF KRONSTADT, 
A PROPHET WHO  RAISED THE DEAD

The newly-canonized Saint of God, John of Kronstadt [1829-1908], whose feast we celebrate on October 19/November 1, is surely one of the greatest of Orthodox Saints.  Even in his own lifetime he performed, by the power of God, countless miracles.  For believing Christians he was a fervent intercessor, and he healed thousands of the afflicted, whose letters and telegrams reached him every day.  He was a prophet as well, and he foretold the coming Divine chastisement of the Russian people for their sins.  He prophesied of the dispersion of the Orthodox Russian people to every corner of the globe, where by their presence they would make orthodoxy known to the unbelieving world, as well as of their return to the homeland before the end of the world.  And like the Prophet Elisha in the Old Testament [II Kings 4:32-37] he performed even the most impossible of miracles – he raised the dead, thus testifying to the undiminished power of God, which works even in our own day through men of faith and holy life.  The following miracle is related by Eugene Vadimov in the book I.K. Sursky, Father John of Kronstadt:

The wife of O., while preparing to bear her fourth or fifth child, was taken seriously ill.  Her doctors determined that the foetus had died and that a Caesarean section was required to remove it.  But first the family sent a telegram to Fr. John of Kronstadt, whom they knew.  Fr. John replied: "Leaving immediately, praying to God.  John Sergiev."

The next day about noon he entered the O. apartment, where by that time a whole crowd of relatives and friends had gathered.  "Where is Liza?" Fr. John asked, entering the drawing-room with his customary rapid gait.  "Take me to her, and all of you remain here quietly."

Fr John entered the adjoining bedroom and closed the heavy doors after him.  Minutes passed that seemed like half-hours.  In the drawing-room it was quiet as a burial vault.  And suddenly the bedroom doors were flung open with a loud noise.  In the doorway stood a gray-haired old man in a priest's cassock, over which he had on an old stole with a thin, dishevelled gray beard, with an extraordinary face that was red from the intense effort he had exerted at prayer and covered with great drops of sweat.  And suddenly there almost thundered from Fr. John fearful terrible words, words that came from another world.  "The Lord God has been please to work a miracle!  He had been pleased to resurrect a dead child in the womb!  Liza will bear a son!.."

"It's incomprehensible!" said one of the doctors who had come for the operation just two hours after Fr. John had left.  "The foetus is alive ... I don't understand a thing about it, not a thing ... I affirmed and affirm now that the foetus was dead and that blood-poisoning began long ago."  The other doctors understood no more.

The same night Mrs. O. was successfully and quickly delivered of a perfectly healthy boy.