The Returned Voice and Miraculous Help from St Amphilochius of Pochaev

From an interview with the abbot of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Metropolitan Vladimir (Moroz)

The mercy of God is manifested in all times; in the Old Testament it was revealed through the prophets, in the New Age it shone forth through the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, as well as through the preaching of the holy apostles and their followers. Among them is our contemporary, Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev. Through this man, who lived in the Pochaev Lavra, the Merciful Lord performed many of His miracles.

This territory surrounding Pochaev was under Polish rule before the 2nd World War, and the indigenous Ukrainians could not receive medical care due to prohibitive cost of drugs and medical services. At that time the venerable lived in a house at the monastery cemetery on Lipovaya Street located at the bottom of Pochaev Mountain. Every day the street was crowded with carts belonging to the people who came to the venerable for medical help. He received a great number of people every day, and always diagnosed them absolutely correctly.

This was always proved by those who later paid the doctors to check the accuracy of his diagnoses. The venerable healed people, instructing them to repent and not to sin. When people neglected his instructions, their diseases came back.

The hagiography of St Amphilochius also states that he was a superb diagnostician. When people with injured arms or legs were brought to him, he indicated without any X-ray where the fracture was. He simply took a pen and drew a line. When the doubting people went to an X-ray, this line always matched the exact point of the fracture. St Amphilochius always looked at people from a spiritual point of view, and not only as a healer, a doctor and a chiropractor. In some cases he refused treatment to people.

For example, a disabled parishioner in our church once shared the venerable’s words addressed to her, “It is God’s will that you remain a cripple until the end of your life and you will be carried on a cart. In this way you will obtain the salvation of your soul”. When she was a girl, she was sliding down a hill with her classmates. A boy behind her pushed her in the back and she fell, injuring her spine. When her parents brought her to the saint, he said, “Do not take her to any doctors. No one can help her. Such is the will of God for her; she must remain a sick cripple for life, but she will be the intercessor for your whole family”.

He helped thousands of patients, but for this girl he predicted such a cross.

There was also a case when St Amphilochius cured the son of a big communist party secretary in Ternopol. At that time the venerable had to hide from the authorities and lived with his nephew in the Ilovitsa village (Shumsky region). In gratitude for the healing of his son, the party leader, despite of his atheism, allocated a whole bus to transport everyone who wished to visit the venerable in Ilovitsa.

The former rector of the Vladimir-Volyn Cathedral, Archpriest Yaroslav Antonyuk, who had already reposed in the Lord, once told me personally about the venerable appearing to him in a dream and healing his throat cancer, removing some blotches and leaving the abbot feeling completely healthy on waking up.

Having lost his voice, he could not serve, but only prayed and read memorial notes. Learning about the “monk healing people”, he went to see St Amphilochius wearing secular clothes and no beard. The elder saw him among the other visitors and said,

— Father, come here and put on your vestment; let’s celebrate a prayer service.

— But I have no voice, Father – whispered Fr Yaroslav.

— It’s okay, we can still serve.

Somehow he began to serve, thinking to himself, “What kind of sainthood is this?!”

Returning home, he prepared to die, but the monk appeared to him in a dream, asking Fr Yaroslav to open his mouth and pulling out some blotches with his fingers. On the following day, the sick priest came to church and met a woman doctor, who had been treating him earlier. Father Yaroslav told her quietly that something was hurting in his throat, and asked her  to take a look. After examining her former patient, the doctor said in surprise, “There are scars there; it looks like you’ve had a surgery!”

On that day, during the akathist “Praise to the Mother of God” Father Yaroslav began to speak again. Some time after his healing, Fr Yaroslav was studying at the Theological Academy in Moscow and was again examined by the doctors who stated that the tumor had disappeared. After that, he served for another 30-40 years.

Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://spzh.news/ru/chelovek-i-cerkovy/79148-o-vremeni-kotoroje-sokrashhajetsya-koronaviruse-i-prep-amfilohii-pochajevskom

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  1. Is there any living saintly people like these that I can send an email to, to which they can reply? I’ve been sick for many years with certain symptoms and got a diagnosis as a chronic illness, but i am not entirely confident in it.

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