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How St. Luke Helped an Unfaithful Woman


That wonderful story hapened to me at one of the exhibitions organized by our convent.

I was offering people the products made by our convent – icons, church supplies and other beautiful works. There were many people since everyone wanted to buy some gifts for the coming great feast – Pascha.

At one moment I saw two women standing not far from my counter. I understood that they wanted to ask me something but they were too confused. Finally, one of them coped with her embarrassment and decided to address me:

- I am not Orthodox, I don’t know anything about tour faith. Tell me, are there any saint doctors in your Church, who help people to be cured? – she asked.

- Of course, there are. Here is one of them – St. Luke of Crimea, a surgeon, a genius doctor and our contemporary, - I replied and handed her a bottle of oil, consecrated on St. Luke's holy relics.

At the very moment she took the bottle, her hand started to bleed. Terrified she looked at her hand, at me, again at her bleeding hand and cried out. She was laughing and crying at the same time. To be honest, her friend and I were just shocked with what was going on. We began to look for a cloth to wipe her hand, but she refused, showed her hand to me and her friend and repeated only one phrase, “Do you see that it’s bleeding? You see?”

Of course, we saw that and were totally confused. A bit later, the woman wiped her hand. There was no cut or wound on her hand that could bleed so heavily. Seeing wonder in our eyes, in which one could see a lot of questions, she explained everything:

- I am sick. My blood is too thick. To thin the blood, doctors prescribed me to take the meds that have a bad effect on my heart. I did not know whether I should take them or not, and now I’ve got the answer to my question! I really thank your saint! I won’t take any pills! My blood is thin enough and doesn’t clot as the doctors said. I will be tested once again, and may be the results will be different. Then they will prescribe me a more suitable course of treatment.
In front of my eyes, St. Luke made a sign for an unfaithful woman, who believed that an unknown Orthodox saint would help her.
According to your faith let it be to you!

By Sister Natalia (Bunde)

March 13, 2018
St. Elisabeth Convent

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