Dear
People,
For people who believe in God and the
reality of His Son Jesus Christ, miracles are a natural way of living. The creation of the universe and its
planetary systems, the creation of abundant life throughout the universe and
the creation of our species are all miracles of God. Without His will there is nothing of worth in
human existence. He sustains us and
provides for all that is necessary to sustain our lives on this beautiful
planet. Because of our Creator’s abiding
concern for those of us who He has created it is to Him that we owe all our
allegiance, our love and our commitment.
Miracles happen when the laws of nature are set aside by the will of
God. The Holy Orthodox Church is filled with miracles the greatest of which is
the Holy Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy that is celebrated every day throughout
the Orthodox Christian world.
The wonderful miracle that was
revealed to the world by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Greece reassures us that
God loves us and continues to minister to our every need. I
received this wonderful story in English translation from Greece. It is translated from the narration of the
story as it was related by Metropolitan Panteleimon himself. I found that the translation had many typos
and missing words and so I took it upon myself to rework the text so that the
marvelous story of the miracle would flow smoothly in English. I ask the translator and those who posted the
story to forgive me for taking this upon myself to make these corrections but I
feel it was very important to get this story told in proper English. While reading the story please focus on two
very important things that the Archbishop relates to us: one, his profound
faith in the reality of the divine message he received and secondly, his
encounter with the two angelic beings that transported him to heaven and
back. I pray that this story of God’s
abiding presence in our lives will bless each and every one of you abundantly.
The English translation of this miracle
was received from Greece and edited by:
+Fr. Constantine J. Simones, Waterford,
CT. USA,, November 11, 2013, the fifty-fifth anniversary of my ordination to
the Holy Priesthood of the Greek Orthodox Church, November 11, 1958 in
Portland, ME. 860-460-9089, cjsimones300@gmail.com
A
CONTEMPORARY MIRACLE
OF AN
ARCHBISHOP IN GREECE
His Eminence Archbishop Panteleimon,
Metropolitan of Antinoes, narrated the miracle that Jesus Christ performed for
him and cured him through the intercessions of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary,
the Theotokos. The miracle happened in a major hospital of Athens, Evangelismos
(The Annunciation) some years ago when the Metropolitan became gravely ill with
cancer of the spine and was paralyzed from the waist down from January 1985 to
July 1986. It is a contemporary
testimony to the fact that God performs miracles even today when we truly
believe and have faith that Divine Power overcomes all problems in life. What makes his testimony truly special is the
fact that he personally tells us about it and he is a living testimony to the
reality of God.
This following testimony is given in
his own words: “I was just twenty-nine years old. I was in my second year of studies at the
Cappodistrian University of Theology in Athens.
I left my home on the Island of Kalymnos for Athens on January 8th,
1985 in order to take my exams. It was
the day after the feast day of Saint John the Baptist. Two weeks after my arrival in Athens, I
became so ill that I was unable to get any rest for my whole body was in great
pain. I had no one to turn to for help since
I lived alone in a house that I rented during my first year of studies. A few of my close friends noticed that I was
not attending classes. They knew that I
never missed a class and they became concerned about me and they decided to
visit me. When they entered my room they
were shocked to see the condition I was in.
I was so ill and in such pain that they hardly recognized me. They did not hesitate for a minute; they
immediately took me to the Clergymen’s Hospital near St. Barbara, Athens.
I stayed in that particular hospital
for two weeks. But as the days went by I
became worse. I could not climb stairs
easily and I could no longer feel my legs.
When this happened, the doctors decided to do a spinal tap on my spinal
column. The results of this test were
bad and I had to go to a larger hospital.
They sent me to the Evangelismos (Annunciation) General Hospital on
February 10th 1985. My sister
Themis meanwhile had arrived from Kalymnos and was at my side. I had not informed my family about my
sickness until that moment because I did not know what I had. While I was at the Clergymen’s Hospital, I
visited the small chapel of St. Haralampos , the Holy Martyr, and prayed to him
to sustain me in my sickness.
We arrived at the General Hospital of
Evangelismos and a team of neurologists injected a special fluid into my spinal
column. That is where they found the
cause of my problem. Cancer had spread
to the spinal cord and the pressure it caused paralyzed me from the waist
down. Following this test, they took me
to a waiting room. I had not been given
any drugs that would impair my mind at that time. I was patiently waiting for the results of
the test and what the doctors had to say to me.
Suddenly I heard a man’s voice speaking to me and saying: ‘You must not
leave Greece for the Virgin Mary will heal you here, but if you leave you shall
die.’ At first I was shocked when I
heard this. I turned my head to the left
and to the right and I saw no one in the room.
I then said to myself that it was only my imagination. But as soon as I relaxed again and I was
looking at the medical equipment in the room, I heard the same voice speaking
to me again and saying: ‘You must not leave Greece for the Virgin Mary will
heal you here but if you leave you shall die.’
And before I had a chance to look around the room to see who was talking
to me one of the doctors entered the room and said to me: ‘Father we have
decided that you cannot be operated on in Greece. You must leave immediately either for England
or for America; the choice is yours for we cannot do the operation here.’
I refused the proposal and explained
to the doctor my reasons. I even
revealed to him what just took place a few minutes ago. He said: ‘You know Father that I am an
Orthodox Christian, I also believe in God but here we are dealing with your
life. Every second that passes is working
against you. You must leave at
once.’ I then replied and said: no, I
will not go. I do not know what that
voice was and who spoke to me. But if it
was from God then I will obey it. If you
do not want to operate on me then I prefer to die rather than disobey that
voice. The doctors had no choice. My sister Themis and a few of my good friends
were there with me. One of my professors,
George Gratseas was also present. The
doctors then proceeded to operate on me that same day and after ten days they
started chemotherapy. Dr. Constantine
Krasanakis was the head surgeon. When I
was in the operating room, as I was lying and waiting for Dr. Krasanakis to
arrive, I saw a holy icon of the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. I prayed to her and said: Mother of God, I
ask you humbly that you perform the operation.
Use the hands of this doctor and perform your miracle for the glory of
your only Son and our God, Jesus Christ.
It was a difficult time for me, said
Bishop Panteleimon, because every day I faced death. It was a struggle between life and
death. But, to be very honest with you,
I never lost faith or hope or my trust in God’s promise that He would cure me
through His Mother, the Ever-Virgin Mary and that the Holy Mother would be my doctor
and my healer. I needed to have a lot of
patience. Although I was taking
chemotherapy for six months, the cancer continued to spread throughout my body. From a purely medical point of view there was
no hope for my recovery. Dr. Alexopoulos, the pathologist—oncologist, prepared
my family to receive the bad news about me.
His Eminence Nektarios, Archbishop of the Holy Archdiocese of Kalymnos,
called a meeting of the priests of the island and discussed the details of my
funeral. But God’s Grace acts where
human powers fail. Everyone was
expecting the final event to come about.
Dr. Alexopoulos informed my sister Themis what the family should expect
to happen in two days. He said: ‘There
is no life left in his body, so it is advisable to tell the whole family about
this.’
I knew nothing of what they had said
but about midday, as I was speaking with my sister, I experienced the following
vision: I found myself in the countryside but all the villagers had evil faces
and were fighting. As soon as they saw
me they started to throw bombs, hand grenades and all kinds of things at
me. Nothing of what they threw at me
touched me. Everything kept falling all
around me. Then I said to myself: Look
at these people, they fight and do not live in peace. I shall depart from here. And then I found myself in another village
but the conditions were similar to the first.
Then I decided to depart from that place. But as I was walking on the road two young
men, dressed in white long garments approached me and stood face to face with
me. Their faces were so beautiful that
no artist could ever paint them. As I
looked in the eyes of one of them I was transferred through his body into
another world. It was so beautiful. How can I describe such scenery? Everything; plants, flowers, trees, and grass
were all made out of blue crystal diamonds.
I remember that I touched a rose.
It was unbelievable. Although it
was made out of diamonds it was alive, warm and had a heavenly fragrance. I saw no one but I felt a strong presence
that exuded love and peace. When I looked
down, I could see other levels where I saw thousands of people living in sublime happiness. When I lifted up my head to look once again upon
that indescribable scenery, I found myself again in front of the two young
men. They spoke to me and I replied to
them. What exactly they said and what I said
in response, I cannot remember the words or the language. It was a language which was only for that
moment. But as I remember very clearly,
the one young man was moving his hand as though he was giving me some
instructions to follow. And then I was
back again speaking to my sister. She
told me that during those few minutes of my vision I was facing the icon of
Christ and speaking to Him but she could not understand the words. Actually she believed that it was my final
moments of life.
Two days went by after this vision and
my fever still remained high. It was on
a Saturday morning in mid-May 1985, at 7:00 a.m. that my fever became
normal. For a whole month prior to this my
fever was over 42.5 C, (I believe this is 110 or 112 degrees) and on that day it
suddenly came down to 36.6 C which is normal.
The nurse was actually upset at what she saw because she thought that I
had placed the thermometer improperly in my mouth. But I was very sure that I had placed it
properly. She put the thermometer in my
mouth again and it showed the same results.
She then called my sister Themis and again placed the thermometer in my mouth. She got the same results. She then called the
head nurse, Maria Ktenopoulou to show her the results but the head nurse did
not want to touch the thermometer. She
immediately phoned Dr. Alexopoulos and reported to him about the fever
falling.
Dr. Alexopoulos, hearing the news that
the fever had fallen to normal replied: ‘Sister, we all love and respect Fr.
Panteleimon but this young man will die today or maybe tomorrow. You must accept the fact that there is no
life in him. He will die.’ Sister Ktenopoulou replied: ‘Doctor, I do not
know if Fr. Panteleimon will die or not but what I do know is that his fever
has fallen and it is the only chance for you to come and see for
yourself.’ The doctor arrived at the
hospital before noon. He was very upset
that he had been forced to come to see me.
He sat down and did not even say good morning. He took the thermometer and when he saw that
it was 36.6 C, he could not believe his eyes.
So he placed it in my mouth and held it there for twelve minutes. When he removed it and saw the same results,
he stood up, turned to the other doctors and said: ‘What is happening in this
room is not from us but only God could do these things. Nevertheless, it is a
sign for us and he gave special instructions to all present.
The following Monday morning he
visited me early in the morning. He sat
next to me and asked me: ‘How do you feel?’ I replied: O.K. doctor, no
different. He said to me: ‘You know you
are like Saint Lazarus but in a different way.
Lazarus died and was placed in a tomb for four whole days. You were dying and yet you, before we could
put you in the tomb, you jumped out.’
So, I said, what is your point doctor?
He replied: ‘My point is that on Saturday morning between 6:00 and 7:00
a.m. something happened and it is the only thing that we can look at.’ I asked:
Well, what happened? ‘I really do not know but this is the only chance we have
to find out. We need to take some more tests.” Detailed examinations
followed. The results determined that no
cancer was found. The miracle had taken
place.
Today through God’s Grace, I am
amongst you as your Bishop and I thank God for His mercy which He showed me through
His Holy Mother, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. For all the reasons mentioned above, I am now
in a position to say to all of you to have faith in God. You must have firm and steadfast faith. Do not allow thoughts of doubt to fill your
hearts but rather trust yourselves to the will of God. I write this experience for the glory of God
and for the glory of the Mother of God, our Lady, the Ever-Virgin Mary, the
Theotokos.
GLORIFIED
IS THE NAME OF GOD IN
HIS
HOLY SAINTS
ΔΟΞΑ ΤΩ ΘΕΩ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ
The following
miraculous story was translated from Greek into English in Greece and was edited
by:
+Fr. Constantine
J. Simones, Waterford, CT. USA, November 11, 2013, the fifty-fifth anniversary
of my ordination to Holy Priesthood of the Greek Orthodox, November 11, 1958 in
Portland,
cjsimones300@gmail.com.
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