Once a misfortune happened to my wife: pregnancy stopped and she had to undergo surgery to remove a dead fetus.

Once a misfortune happened to my wife: pregnancy stopped and she had to undergo surgery to remove a dead fetus.

Of course, we were very worried about this, and I asked Father Iliodor to pray for us grieving parents. And he exclaimed with great sorrow:
"Why the operation?  It was necessary to help her and the baby would come to life!"

And such a belief was in his words that I was just amazed ...

Some time has passed. Once Father Iliodor, when he met tmy wife again, he asked her:
"Well, Sophia, are we expecting a baby?"

And Sophia just before going to Optina, did a pregnancy test, and it  was negative. So she shook her head. And Father Iliodor says:
"For some reason it seemed to me that we are expecting ..."

After a while, my wife had a very bad stomach pain, and I took her to Kaluga. The doctor examined her, made an ultrasound and said that she had a frozen pregnancy. He scolded that she had reached such a serious condition, he warned that in the morning she would urgently need flushing.

We were struck with thunder. My wife sobbed. At some point, I remembered the words of Father Iliodor’s full confidence that if our prayers had been on time, the baby would have come to life. This assumption seemed quite incredible, but I took my wife out of the hospital temporarily— they did not release her otherwise.

We came home, and I began to annoint her. At the same time, both of us wept and prayed fervently - as never before in life. Abdominal pain stopped, the temperature was gone. When we went to the maternal clinic again, the doctor, after examining my wife, said that the child was alive and well. The Lord performed a clear miracle.

I want to add that in order not to seduce anyone with this story that a miracle is a miracle, we cannot expect that it will happen in the case of every missed pregnancy. Of course, there are complications of pregnancy that are dangerous for the life of the mother and child, when the first thing you need to do is call an Ambulance and go to the hospital, and you can talk about the Holy Unction only in the hospital ward. But prayer must accompany every pregnancy, as well as our whole life in general - that’s for sure.

So, my wife got pregnant, and Father Iliodor asked her endlessly:
"Well, when will you give birth to a son?"

When a man is spiritually on fire, he ignites those around him with his faith.

Sophia replied that, according to the results of the ultrasound, she was expecting a girl. To which Father Iliodor remarked:
"And it seemed to me that it will be a son."

As a result, she gave birth to a son, whom we called Iliodor. He is three months old now.

If it were not for communication with Father Iliodor, this would not have happened. We would not have enough faith - and our son would not be born. And when a person is spiritually on fire, he ignites those around him with his faith.

Priest Dmitry Torshin