On September 12/25 we commemorate the holy Righteous Simeon of Verkhotourye, a Wonderworker. On that day this year the editors of Pravoslavie.ru received the following letter:
Dear editors!
On the feast of Righteous Simeon of Verkhotourye I would like to share two stories of miraculous help from this great saint with you.
I live in Ekaterinburg, so I have known about St. Simeon for years. But for a long time I couldn’t bring myself to go to Verkhotourye and venerate the relics of the holy God-pleaser.
Providentially, a remarkable opportunity to travel to Verkhotourye presented itself. It was at the request of one priest, whose family particularly honors the memory of St. Simeon and regards him as their personal protector and heavenly patron.
So we set off; I drove the car, the priest (as a very experienced pilgrim) organized the pilgrimage, and his wife and daughter sang in the church choir. Thus during the journey I got the impression that they were driving me in the car and not vice versa as we formed a very large group.
On the way to Verkhotourye they shared a wonderful story with me, which had occurred to their family through the intercessions of St. Simeon of Verkhotourye.
Another daughter of this priest got married, the sacrament of marriage was performed in church on the wedding day, and her married life began. But, as it turned out later, her husband and she couldn’t conceive a child for some time. And they easily found a way out of the situation: Since the Lord is omnipotent, they just ought to turn to the holy God-pleaser Simeon for help. So, without hesitation or a shadow of doubt in their mind, they went to the holy Righteous Simeon and sang the akathist hymn in front of his relics, after which she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, whom they named after Righteous Simeon.
While in Verkhoturye, I chanced to meet a woman, who had come from Krasnoyarsk [a port on the Yenisei River in central Siberian Russia.—Trans.] with her fourteen-year-old grandson to pray by St. Simeon’s relics. She told me the following story.
The boy was born with a hip joint defect, and the doctors predicted long six months of treatment, tying him to a stretcher to stop him from moving his limbs.
You can imagine that this kind of treatment would have taken so much effort and caused so much discomfort to both the baby and its parents.
But thank God the woman was religious, and an Orthodox fair was being held in their city at that time. She visited the fair and bought some holy water from Righteous Simeon’s coffin.
They began to give the baby some holy water to drink every morning, which would immediately put it in a joyful and buoyant mood, and a month after the medical examination the doctors told them that their son was absolutely healthy and no treatment was needed anymore!!!
I would like to share my own story in conclusion. When after singing the Akathist at Righteous Simeon’s relics I bowed to kiss them, and I could smell a fragrance coming from his relics, as if the saint were telling me, “I accept your visit to me.” Several days later, when I was in the “Bolshoy Zlatoust” (“Great Chrysostom”) church bell-tower in Ekaterinburg and kissed the local icon of Righteous Simeon, I felt that sweet smell once again, as if the saint had said: “I have not forgotten you!”
God is wonderful in His saints!
Holy Righteous Simeon, pray to God for us!
