On the eve of the feast of holy Hieromartyr Hilarion,
Archbishop of Verea, the editors of Pravoslavie.ru received a simple and
artless letter, which we reproduce here in English translation. The original
was published on Pravoslavie.ru in the Russian, with no essential changes.
Bless!
I, Elena Egorova,
in Baptism Maria, want to tell the world and you, honorable fathers, about the
miraculous help of our father Hilarion (Troitsky)—the wonderworker.
The First Miracle
In 2005 I was sent
by the church to work not for money, but for the glory of God. I served in a
hospice near St. Petersburg and spent the nights in a women’s skete outside of
town. The skete had wood heating, but the sisters had no firewood for the
winter. The fathers blessed me to find a load of firewood “for the sake of
Christ”. I went to Fr. Hilarion’s grave and said, “Father, there’s no firewood,
and no money. Help!”
I left the monastery
gates and waved down car going my way, because I didn’t have a penny for the
bus. Then a car stopped, with a woman driver. She asked me why I was hailing a
car, and did I need any help. I told her that I had no money, that I needed to
buy firewood, but I didn’t know where I would find the money. She gave me four
thousand rubles, and even drove me to the skete.
The Second Miracle
I buried my entire
family, five people, over the course of three years and was left all alone.
When I left Tiumen
[Siberia] for St. Petersburg to see my spiritual father, he had fallen and
broken both his legs. He was walking to church on Christmas, slipped, his legs
flew in between the steps, and he fell down headfirst.
I arrived, but no
one met me. Then I went to the deacon; he was old, and his wife, too. It was a
burden on them to have me as a hanger-on. I had to look for a job with a place
to live.
I went again to the
cemetery where Fr. Hilarion’s grave was, and cried: “No money, nowhere to live,
no work, and no registration.”
I prayed, and wept
a while, then left the cemetery and saw a woman walking toward me who said,
“What are you looking for here?”
I answered that I
was looking for work with a place to live. Then she drove me to the Kirov
factory and registered me in the dormitory. At least on that day she herself
had come from the night shift. And the dormitory was located right outside the
walls of that cemetery, where Fr. Hilarion lay at rest.
The Third Miracle
In 2011, my school
friends’ baby got sick and had one foot in grave. She called me, crying into
the telephone, “What should I do?” I went to the cemetery, to Fr. Hilarion,
turned on the phone, called her, and said, “Pray to Fr. Hilarion, he’ll help!”
I had not even turned off the phone when another doctor arrived. He looked at
the little one, gave him an injection, and the boy immediately came back to
life—the diagnosis had been incorrect. We then discussed it and decided to buy
a candle stand and bench for St. Hilarion’s grave.
The Fourth Miracle
In 2011, while I
was working in the Kirov factory, I earned as an apprentice 336 rubles a month,
and a subway token cost fifteen rubles. How was I supposed to live? I went to
Batiushka Hilarion and told him all about it… Then I looked, and saw a young
man walking toward me, about thirty years old. I said to him, “Brother dear,
pray for me, I don’t even have enough money to place a candle. I worked all
month and didn’t receive any pay.” He gave me a thousand rubles. Then another
passed by, and gave some more. In this way did Fr. Hilarion give me six
thousand rubles on his grave, although I was asking for prayers, not money.
The Fifth Miracle
In 2011, three
months after my arrival in St. Petersburg, I went to the cemetery to pray to
Batiushka Hilarion and met there a sister from the church store. She introduced
me to Fr. Methodius, who is now in Vyritsy, and he blessed me to work as a
sitter for a grandma who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and to live
with her. That is how I lived, ready for anything, for two years before the
grandma’s death. Now I am a novice in Rome, Italy.
I ask you as far as
possible to retain the essence of this letter, as the language is not
literary—I am a cook, and not a writer… I described it all as best I could…
I always give alms,
and often receive Communion. If I do not do this, then all my prayers for help
just lie on the desk of the Lord God’s “secretary” for a very long time. Well,
everyone asks, “Why does God give things to some but not to others? I have
noticed that to those who go to confession, receive Communion, eagerly buy food
for the bums, God gives, you could say, before they even ask. But the misers, those
who can’t stand through the services (or sit if they haven’t the strength),
might ask for years and get nothing but a big zero.
I have worked in
the hospice, and in drug rehabilitation, and I have seen miracles of recovery.
As a rule, they all began after confession and Communion…
A deep bow to you
all, and may God save you!
Prayerfully yours, Novice Maria Egorova
Source:
http://www.orthochristian.com/76164.html#sdfootnote1sym
CONVERSATION