We’ve had two reasons to rejoice during that year’s Pascha. The first one was the Risen Lord, and another one, the miraculous healing of our friend’s son.
We recently learned that Luke, the long-awaited five-month-old baby son of our friend, who has been helping us with our animals for a long time, ended up in intensive care with the second- and third degree burns over forty percent of his body. The condition could have been even worse if one of the family dogs hadn’t shielded him from the electric kettle full of boiling water, partially absorbing the impact and preventing the boiling water from splashing all over the baby's face. Doctors at the burn center have warned that the baby would need a skin graft surgery. The situation was dire. The baby’s mother was beside herself with grief. An eight-month-old child with less severe burns had just died the day before in this burn center due to kidney failure.
From the first day, as soon as we learned of this, my son and I began praying to the Holy Hierarch Luke, the baby’s patron saint, seeking his help and intercession. Through the St. Luke’s VKontakte group, we sent a note to the church with the relics of the saint, and submitted the baby's name for the akathist read there every Tuesday beside the saint’s relics. We also prayed at home asking the saint to save the baby. We wrote to a prayer group, where over five hundred people held a prayer vigil for him and ordered a special forty-day commemoration at the Liturgy for the health of Luke at the Bodbe Monastery beside the relics of St. Nina. Fr. Alexander, our local priest, who had recently baptized the newborn Luke, also prayed fervently for him. I believed that the saint would not abandon the baby, and along with Fr. Alexander’s prayers, St. Luke’s help would be sure to come.
A week later, the baby’s mother was told that the burns healed by themselves and that Luke was to be discharged from the hospital
Lo and behold, before Palm Sunday, the boy's mother wrote that his second-degree burns had healed, the threat to his life was over, and that he would need surgery for his third-degree burns. We continued our daily prayer vigil to St. Luke, asking that these burns heal on their own without any surgery. And then, a week later, the young mother was told that the third-degree burns had also healed on their own in a record-breaking short time, and that Luke was being discharged. The saint had brought us such joy, and right on the eve of Pascha! Baby Luke is now at home, recovering from the stress he had to endure. And we thank the holy hierarch for such a miracle of healing!
Here are a few more stories of the miraculous help by St. Luke of Crimea.
The handmaiden of God Tatiana shares:
“My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic necrosis. She was cut open and then stitched up. The professor said that it would have been better if it had been been cancer, and not necrosis, because with necrosis the pancreas decomposes, and this is accompanied by excruciating pain.
I went to church and asked the priest to pray for my mother, but he pointed to the icon that I was just passing and said: "That's who you should pray to. He’s St. Luke of Crimea, the Unmercenary Physician." I remembered that back in the 1990s, I had a subscription to October magazine, and that’s where I read the biography of the Holy Hierarch Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky). I was overwhelmed by the story of his life. I began to pray to him asking him to help my mother. We also requested a prayer service about healing to the Queen of Heaven. After that, my mother was moved from the intensive care unit to a regular ward. Gradually, mother recovered to the extent that the disease, which typically kills young and strong men on the third day, was gone without any trace! The doctors who did the ultrasound done for her asked what kind of scar she had and they couldn't believe that mother had such a serious illness. My mother lived for another ten years after that.
My mother has recovered, and her illness left no trace
Since then, I always pray to St. Luke. When I was about to have spinal surgery, I asked the holy hierarch for help, I read the akathist to him and, as I was wheeled in to the surgery room, I asked him to perform the surgery through my doctors' hands. As a result, it was a success!
Two years ago I happened to be in the Crimea, where my sister-in-law took me to Simferopol to venerate the relics of the saint. I went to the tomb with his relics, bowed down and... froze. I thanked the saint for my mother’s healing and for myself, failing to notice that I was standing there crying. When I came back to my senses, I looked around: a long line had formed behind me. People stood there waiting patiently, acknowledging my condition.”
Here's another story.
“My neighbor was about to lose a limb by amputation. We prayed to St. Luke asking for the saint’s help to heal him and avoid amputation. Finally, before the surgery, the doctors decided to check one last time if there was still any chance of restoring circulation in the lifeless leg. This was my neighbor's last chance, and God has helped him. There was some life still left in his limb!”
This was my neighbor's last chance, and God has helped. There was some life still left in his limb!
Oksana S. recounts:
“Before the surgery, I prayed to the Holy Hierarch Luke asking for his help. During the surgery, I had a dream about the saint in which he talked to me so kindly and I felt so good that I even laughed under anesthesia. The operation was considered successful. The postoperative period went on without complications. It’s been eight years already and nothing really hurts. I usually don’t remember dreams, but this one, with the saint’s features, the feeling of happiness and peace, I remember it to this day. The icon of the Holy Hierarch Luke has been in the icon corner of our house ever since.
The holy hierarch, who never refused to provide medical help to anyone in his lifetime, helps everyone who turns to him after his death. His help often comes miraculously, so that sometimes we can’t even believe that such thing is possible. Thank God for everything!
