His Life In Christ: Pilgrimage To The Holy Places Of St. John Of Krostandt

 

Sister Lyudmila’s Healing

 

Next to the wardrobe in the memorial room is a small chair on which Fr. John sat one day when he healed a novice close to death, a story that her spiritual daughter, Nun Ioasipha (Malyarova) repeated for sisters and pilgrims until her own repose in 1990:

 

My eldress, Nun Lyudmila (Kulikova), who entered the monastery at the age of 16 in 1892, used to recall her miraculous healing by Fr. John from a deadly disease. As a young novice, Sister Lyudmila was given the obedience to bring bricks by boat from the village of Skamya two kilometers from the monastery on the Narova River. Once, after loading the bricks, she slipped getting into the rowboat and fell into the icy water of the river. It was October and the water near the shore had already begun to freeze. Wet and chilled through, it took her several hours to get back to the monastery, and from the exposure she developed a consumptive lung condition. She was admitted to the hospital, but soon sent home with the words: “Prepare her for the long journey.” Father John arrived at the monastery shortly after, and Mother Superior Alexia asked him

to bless the sick novice. She was carried to the abbess’ quarters, and Fr. John sorrowfully shook his head: “What a sick girl, what a sick girl”.

 

Without turning his gaze away, he touched her chest and drew his fingers together as if gathering up the edges of a piece of fabric. Lamenting and praying, he touched another spot on her chest as if he was closing up invisible wounds, and then blessed the novice, saying simply, “Thank God, you will live and live long!” With the blessing of Fr. John, Lyudmilla was carried to church, where she lay behind the harmonium listening to the service. By the end of vigil she was able to sit up, and during the morning liturgy the sisters helped her to approach Holy Communion. After Fr. John gave her Holy Communion, she was able to walk to her cell without help.

 

 The following year, the abbess went to Revel (Tallinn), taking Mother Lyudmila to be checked by the doctor who had predicted her death.

He was very surprised to see his patient recovered and after examining her X-rays, shook his head saying: “I do not understand this at all. You were sure to die. Your lungs were laced with holes, but some mighty hand repaired it…. A great miracle was accomplished for you.” Mother Lyudmila lived until 1966, dying peacefully at the age of 90.

 

Schemanun Sergia: Childhood Healing

 

Schemanun Sergia (Andreeva), who was born in 1900, also told the story of her wondrous recovery from a severe illness through Fr. John’s prayers: “As a child my family lived in Finland, and when I was five, I broke my leg. It was a complex fracture and although my parents took me to different doctors who did what they could, the leg remained weak. After a year I could hardly move, even with crutches. From Finland we went to Fr. John of Kronstadt, who sat me on a little chair. My mother cried out, ‘Father, heal her leg!’ Father moved his hand three times along my injured leg and said, ‘She will walk, but she will not be completely healthy’. Then he brought a prosphora and gave it to me. I was very glad about Father’s gift of prosphora, and we returned home consoled. On the way back, I hardly needed the crutches, and when we arrived home I began walking slowly by holding to the walls. To the great surprise of my parents, I began walking without the crutches and even running. When I turned eighteen Father John blessed me to join the monastery.”

 

Sister Sergia spent almost seventy years in the monastery at different obediences including caring for the farm animals and as a choir director for the monastery. Before her repose in 1985 she was tonsured into the Great Schema.