For many years the sisters of the Convent of St. John of Ryla on the embankment of the Karpovka River in St. Petersburg, founded by St. John of Kronstadt, have been collecting stories of miraculous help through the prayers of St. John of Kronstadt. These stories were published in the book, A Lamp of Faith and Piety, which has been reprinted several times by St. John’s (“Ioannovsky”) Convent. We offer some of them to our readers.
The tomb of St. John of Kronstadt
1. Healing of a man’s arm
Vladimir Vasilyevich Kotov from the Moscow region had severe pains in his right arm for a whole year, and by the spring of 1992 he had nearly lost movement in it. Vladimir repeatedly consulted the doctors. They made a preliminary diagnosis: severe arthritis of the right shoulder. But they were unable to provide significant treatment. Having lost hope of a cure, Vladimir began to pray fervently to God, asking for relief in his illness. One day he came across a book on St. John of Kronstadt. While reading it, Vladimir marveled at the miraculous healings that the Lord performed through the prayers of the great pastor and wonderworker. “I wish I could go to the convent on Karpovka so that batiushka John could heal me,” he thought in the simplicity of his heart.
A trip to St. Petersburg was arranged for him, and on August 19, 1992, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Vladimir and his friend prayed at St. John’s Convent, confessed, received Communion, prayed to St. John of Kronstadt at the service of intercession and anointed his sore arm with blessed oil from the saint’s tomb.
After the service, the two friends left the convent and headed for the tram stop. Vladimir slung the bag over his right shoulder and carefully placed his helpless hand on it, as he usually did then.
When walking, his bag began to fall off and he automatically adjusted it with his right hand, without feeling any pain. Stopping as if stuck to the ground, still not believing himself, he began to move his hand and arm again. They turned out to be perfectly healthy. Vladimir’s friend was a witness of this miraculous healing.
Since then, Vladimir Vasilyevich has been visiting the convent regularly. When asked, “How is your arm?”, he replies, “Thank God, everything is fine. I am here to pray to batiushka.”
Prayer service at the saint’s tomb
2. The healing of the boy Sergei from a brain tumor
Sometimes the Lord, in a special way, brings people to reason through their children’s illness. One day a tragedy came to the family of the military musician Grigory Andreyevich Vasilevsky—his ten-year-old son Sergei became terminally ill. In the fall of 1992, the boy began to have severe headaches. The child was admitted for a medical examination to the neurosurgical department of the Murmansk Regional Hospital. The CT-scan detected a brain tumor. The doctors did not conceal from the shocked parents that with such a diagnosis children usually die or remain disabled for the rest of their lives.
In early January 1993, Seryozha1 was sent to the St. Petersburg Neurosurgical Institute named after A. L. Polenov. It was going to be a very complicated operation. There was practically no hope of cure. For the first time in their lives the Vasilevskys experienced great grief. And they turned to God. Previously, they hadn’t been religious and had never been to confession or Communion in their lives; in addition, there was no church in their village of Pechenga 100 miles away from the city of Murmansk.
When our life flows safely and peacefully, we do not feel any special need for God. But once faced with trials that the Lord providentially sends us for our salvation, we realize our weakness and total dependence on the Creator. So it was with Seryozha’s parents. In their sorrow they put their trust in God, and He was not slow to help them.
Before leaving for St. Petersburg, the Vasilevskys came to a Murmansk church, one of the clerics of which, on learning about their trouble, told them about St. John of Kronstadt and about the wondrous healings occurring through his intercessions, and advised them to visit St. John’s Convent in St. Petersburg where the great pastor’s relics repose in the crypt church.
St. John of Kronstadt They arrived at the convent the next day, January 12, at Vespers and immediately turned to the priest with the question: “What should we do?” He told them that they needed to go to confession and Communion and advised them to pray with all their hearts to St. John of Kronstadt. The next morning, all three of them, having repented for the first time in their lives, received Holy Communion. On the same day, the boy was admitted to hospital.
The preliminary tests confirmed the presence of a tumor. Every day the Vasilevsky couple came to the crypt church and prayed at the relics of St. John of Kronstadt. Seryozha prayed in his hospital ward too, asking God for healing. How profound and sincere their prayers were! How many times Sergei’s mother pressed herself to the tomb of the beloved batiushka, imploring for his intercessions. She later recalled, “One night I dreamed about a very old and gray-haired elder. I was standing with Seryozha and weeping, imploring him to heal my son. He listened to me for a long time, and I feared that he would refuse. But he rose, went up to Seryozha and started saying something to him while patting him on the head. I couldn’t hear what exactly he was saying. But for the first time in two months I woke up very happy and joyful, and for some reason I already knew in my heart that Seryozha would recover!”
Two days later, on January 21, 1993, the child was sent to the Diagnostic Center No. 1 in St. Petersburg for repeated tests. A new CT-scan showed something incredible: there was no tumor!
There was no limit to the doctors’ astonishment and the parents’ joy. The boy was discharged from hospital healthy. Soon, all three of them received Communion again at St. John’s Convent. How Grigory Andreyevich’s eyes shone every time he shared the story of his son’s miraculous healing!
A year later, Seryozha’s father came to the convent again, prayed in the crypt church, offering thanks to the Savior, the Mother of God and Father John of Kronstadt for deliverance from trouble. He informed the sisters that his son was healthy, studying at school, and he no longer had headaches. The Vasilevskys survived a difficult ordeal and learned the most important lesson from it: faith.
At the window of the crypt church 3. Of course, even the mighty convent walls are no obstacle to grace-filled love and help. On June 27, 1993, Natalia Makarova died during chest surgery. The ICU doctor did his best, but breathing never resumed. “She’s not breathing anymore,” these words were heard in the operating room.
Meanwhile, Natalia’s sister, Irina, came to pray for her health to Father John of Kronstadt. The convent was closed for cleaning, and so as not to disturb the sisters Irina prayed outside at the window of the crypt church. As it turned out later, it was at that moment that Natalia regained her breath and literally came back to life…
4. Olga’s letter from the Moscow region
“May God bless! In 1992, I contracted a peptic ulcer and double pneumonia. Severe pain and weakness plagued me. I couldn’t eat: nausea and pain prevented me from eating anything, and I would faint regularly. I could hardly pray and only remembered one prayer—to St. John of Kronstadt. I realized that I had to get a ticket and hurry to St. Petersburg—to the holy convent founded by Father John. I asked my spiritual father to pray for me, and, accompanied by my cousin (she is also my spiritual mother), I came to St. Petersburg.
“I barely made it to the convent. I attended the Liturgy three times in a row, ordered a prayer service to St. John of Kronstadt and venerated his holy relics. On the third day, fear disappeared and the pain abated. I ate some soup and didn’t feel sick at all, while my energy and vigor returned. Again I felt a desire to work and go to confession as often as possible.
Icon of St. John of Kronstadt with his epitrachelion at St. John’s Convent “Since then, I have thanked Father John of Kronstadt every day. I pray to him every day in the morning and in the evening; I read the Akathist hymn to him and sing the troparion to him whenever I am free, and I thank the Lord for everything. I give everyone his icons and Akathist, and I ask everyone to pray to him in any situation. After all, he said that you have to wait for hours for earthly doctors, and when they come, you never know if they will help; but the saints of God come to the rescue instantly. And many, many times, crying out to Father John for help, I received healing on the same day.
“In 1993, I had a bad case of food poisoning. I couldn’t get out of bed, but I kept saying, ‘Father John, dear batiushka, come to my aid! Heal me, forgive me, a sinner, and pray to the Lord for me, don’t leave me without your holy prayers. There is no one else to help me, only you and the Most Holy Theotokos! Hear me now and come to my aid.’ A few hours later I got up, anointed my throat and stomach crosswise with some oil from his holy relics with a candle, while saying, ‘Our holy and righteous Father John, pray to God for us.’ And I dripped several drops into my throat. Very soon I got better.
“In 1994, a hard lump appeared on my leg, and it hurt to walk. My sister told me to go to the doctor immediately, as it could be a blood clot. At night, I anointed this lump with the oil of Father John of Kronstadt with the words: ‘Lord, through the prayers of St. John of Kronstadt, heal me!’ And I read troparion to him forty times. I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning, there was no trace of the lump left. Glory to God for everything!”
5. In the fall of 1994, an accident happened to Nikolai Ivanovich, who worked at a military factory. During tests a rocket exploded, injuring several people. Nikolai Ivanovich had severe burns: fifty-three percent of the body surface, and even his oral cavity was burned. No one could have imagined that somebody with such burns could survive. Meanwhile, his relative (his son-in-law’s mother), Eugenia Vasilievna, came to St. John’s Convent and tearfully told the sisters about the tragedy. The nuns told her that she should pray at the prayer service to St. John of Kronstadt, brought some blessed oil from his crypt church, and, advising her to trust in batiushka’s help wholeheartedly, they promised to pray for the injured man themselves.
Nikolai Ivanovich was anointed with the healing oil. Hardly anyone believed in his recovery. After all, he was burned all over. However, a miracle occurred: a few months later Nikolai Ivanovich was discharged from the hospital healthy, and continued to work. Eugenia Vasilievna came to the convent to tell the nuns about this mercy of God and to thank the Almighty and His saint for healing her relative.
6. Elena’s testimony to her son’s salvation
A lifetime icon “At about ten in the morning on November 11, 1996, Vanya2 (two years and seven months old) was alone in the kitchen and found some pills there for heart problems. When I entered, he was finishing the last pill and, according to my estimates, had swallowed seven of them. An ambulance was called and his stomach was pumped, but the doctor said that the drug must have been absorbed and he was powerless to do anything—the toddler had be rushed to hospital. Vanya lost consciousness at home. He was admitted to the ICU at hospital. As the doctor explained to me later, Vanya had swallowed a dose of the drug that was fatal for him, and respiratory paralysis could have occurred. The doctor on duty in the ICU came out at noon and said he couldn’t promise my son’s survival and asked me to come over at six in the evening when everything would clear up.
“At about three in the afternoon I arrived at St. John’s Convent, realizing that there was nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. Fr. Dimitry came out, and having learned about the incident, celebrated a service of intercession to the Most Holy Theotokos and St. John of Kronstadt. After the service Fr. Dimitry said, ‘Let’s hope that everything will be fine.’
“At six in the evening I went to the ICU, fearing to hear that Vanya was dead, but hoping for the intercession of the Queen of Heaven and Batiushka John. The doctor came out and said, ‘Your son will live.’
“Glory to God!
“The next day Vanya was already running around, as if nothing had happened.”
In the crypt church of St. John of Kronstadt
7. On December 25, 1996, the servant of God Raisa while boarding a subway train car was hit by a closing door and broke her rib. The doctor said that the fracture was very dangerous, because it was right under her heart and it was extremely hard to treat it. Raisa was very upset. But then she remembered how once at a catechism course she had heard a story about Fr. John of Kronstadt from Fr. Nikolai, the rector of a monastery church. The priest had spoken about how swiftly the saint responds to people’s petitions. This story, filled with tender love for the beloved batiushka, made a deep impression on her. And Raisa decided to ask St. John for help.
With difficulty, hardly able to bear the pain, she began to come to St. John’s Convent, ordering prayer services and lighting candles in the crypt church. She constantly prayed to St. John at home, read the akathist hymn to him, and started every day with prayers to the Miracle-Worker of Kronstadt. In short, she thought about him all the time. And he was not slow to respond to such fervent and sincere faith. A month later the severe injury healed without any consequences. Now Raisa tries to visit the convent more often to thank the merciful saint over and over again. She shares her joy: “Batiushka saved me, and I will remember it all my life.”
8. Fr. John’s appearance during an operation
St. John of Kronstadt In a letter of thanks to the convent, the servant of God Nina from Novo-Peredelkino3 wrote the following. In February 1997, she had a major operation. Before going to the hospital, she wrote to the convent on Karpovka, asking the nuns for their prayerful help. During the operation, while under general anesthesia, Nina saw the figure of a man who was now moving away, now approaching her. Then she heard two voices, a male and a female, speaking to each other over her, but she did not see them. The woman struggled to understand what they were talking about, but she couldn’t make it out: she only remembers that they talked to each other “very, very affectionately”. Then they took her into a corridor and walked a little way along it with her. At that moment Nina began to regain consciousness; the operation was over.
She had never seen any icon of Fr. John of Kronstadt before. She stayed in the hospital for a long time—for thirty-nine days—and after being discharged she went to the new church in Novo-Peredelkino. She wondered if there was an icon of St. John of Kronstadt there. When Nina was shown one, she was astounded: it was the very saint who had appeared to her during the operation! She wept for a long time, thanking Fr. John. And from that day on, every time she comes to the church, she first of all lights a candle in front of his icon. “I pray to him and thank him every day,” Nina concludes her story.
So, our beloved Father John takes care of everyone in ways unfathomable to us. We believe that even now, through his intercessions, he will not turn refuse those who seek his prayerful help.
