"At the beginning of the 1990s, our country was plagued by drought. The authorities were worried about a major water shortage, and the media had added a water bulletin to the news reports. Every day they told us that the lake of Marathon had so many cubic meters of water, which was enough for so many days. They recommended us not to waste water needlessly and to take various measures to limit its consumption.
St. Eumenios (Saridakis), the saint from the leper colony of the Municipality of St. Varvaras (+1999) was hospitalized at that time in "Evangelismos", for about three months, seriously ill and with the prospect of the doctors amputating his leg. On the day of Holy Saturday, in the morning, he told me to take him and go to the Metropolis to attend church, since we had previously received permission to leave the Hospital.
Afterwards, we went and worshiped at I. Penteli Monastery and St. Panteleimon, in Nea Penteli. Returning, he asked me if the lake of Marathon is nearby. When I answered in the affirmative, he ass me:
"Can we go there?"
When we arrived, Pappoulis was walking on the dam and crossing the lake and saying many various prayers. I was trying to walk as close to him as possible, because I was afraid that he would fall, since his leg was very weak. However, when I got very close to him, he stopped praying and said to me: "You know, when the lake is filled with water, with a lot of water, they will start pouring from the sides, from what are called overflows."
And I said to him: "Goodbye Pappouli" and I left him and he moved away a little while he continued to make the sign of cross over the lake and say many prayers. Then we returned to the hospital.
After two or three days, some female students visited Fr. Eumenios to receive his blessing.
As we were told later, all the time he was there, Pappoulis was looking out of the window, waving his hands and constantly saying:
"What a beautiful rain! What a beautiful rain! Popo, rain! Lots of rain! Lots of rain!” and they said, with their calculation, that Pappoulis had probably been tempted by his illness, because there was not a single cloud in the sky.
A few days later it started to rain torrentially, day and night, and then we realized what had happened. Our elder, with his prayers, opened the heavens and started the rain. It was the spring of 1993 and it had been raining normally for about three years, so the authorities decided to take water with water tankers for the water supply of Athens"
(Simonos Monachos, Saint Eumenios Saridakis the Good Shepherd and Miracle Worker, ed. Heptalofos, Athens 2022, 257).
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