The visit of the right hand of St. Spyridon of Tremithus to Tambov. Photo: Patriarchia.ru
Over the past several months, I have come across quite a few stories of help from St. Spyridon of Tremithus. He helped one family get an apartment when it seemed impossible to get it. As for another family, he cured their son of warts, while they prayed for something else: namely for his admission to a prestigious school.
He was not admitted to that school, but his numerous warts, with which he had been unsuccessfully struggling for a long time, disappeared forever. As the boy’s mother later told me, “The Saint knows that you don’t need what you’re asking for (school), but he can’t let you leave without a gift…”
And there are many, many other amazing miracles through prayers to this saint. Then I found a small wooden icon of the saint in the snow beside our church, and took it as a sign. Now I always have it with me. After all this, my husband, our younger daughters and I even went to the Church in honor of the Renewal of the Temple of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem in Moscow, where we had never been before. This church houses a wonderworking icon of St. Spyridon [with a particle of his relics.—Trans.], and we just prayed to him there.
A New World
The servant of God Olga told me her story a few months ago. We are colleagues and correspond via social media. She is a writer: she used to work in the press service of one diocese and contributed to various Orthodox magazines.
Sometimes such things happen… You have an absolutely wonderful story that was told to you just like that. Your hands reach out to write it down, but for some reason you keep postponing writing. And after a time you realize that this story was just waiting in the wings—first of all, to bring you benefit. That’s how it turned out when, remembering Olga’s story, I myself fervently prayed to St. Spyridon. But let’s turn to Olga’s miracle.
“Our beloved saint! We got an apartment through his prayers! A couple of years later, his relics were brought to Russia, and our city was on the list of places to be visited. It was as if the saint wanted to check for himself how we had settled here,” Olga wrote to me under an article on St. Spyridon of Tremithus.
We started corresponding via social media, and she began her account.
About twenty years ago, Olga joined the editorial staff of an Orthodox newspaper. She was baptized as a child, but like many others, this was the end of her Church life and religious knowledge. And then she discovered a whole wondrous new world! It was stunning and very different from her usual life.
Then I remembered my own story. When I first came to the church, my life and my world also turned around 180 degrees. It was just astounding, and sometimes it seemed that my soul couldn’t contain all this newness. And I wanted to share it with everyone! Now I understand that I shouldn’t have done this or should have done it differently…
Olga was assigned to make an Orthodox calendar. And she confessed that she had perceived the Lives of saints more as fairy-tales than reality. The Life of St. Spyridon of Tremithus with his miracles was no exception: “Well, all this is impossible now.” That is, it feels like you believe (the hagiologists won’t lie), but not now and not with us. At the same time, she learned that “before the Revolution, St. Spyridon of Tremithus was venerated in Russia on a par with St. Nicholas the Wonderworker… He still helps everyone who prays to him today… and he has a special boldness to pray for all homeless wanderers. To put it simply, he helps solve the housing issue.”
And back then the housing issue was acute in their family. They lived in the city of Saratov and were on the waiting list with her husband, a military man.
“Our prospects were slim… Until recently, our military could hope to have their own little corner only after retirement. In our case, after about twenty years when our children had grown up,” Olga wrote.
Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens
But in 2007, their father-confessor, Igumen Nektary (Morozov), the rector of one of the churches in Saratov and the author of wonderful spiritual books, organized a pilgrimage trip to the city of Tambov, which the relics of St. Spyridon of Tremithus were visiting at that time. Olga decided to go—it was her first pilgrimage.
She recalls that when her husband heard about it, he just smiled.
“Are you going for an apartment?”
“As an argument, I cited the story of a woman I had read about who got an apartment in Moscow, which seemed completely unrealistic at the time,” Olga related. “And I went… At the beginning of the journey, we were told: Bear ye one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), but my ‘burdens’ proved unbearable; everything annoyed me, and I was very sleepy. I only remember how in the church I pressed myself to the shrine with the saint’s right hand, felt so warm, and burst into tears. It seemed silly to me that other people had real problems, while I was there with my ‘apartment issue’…”
When Olga returned from that trip, she bought the akathist to St. Spyridon... and forgot about it. She remembered it when they were suddenly offered one apartment after another.
“But each time, something didn’t work out,” Olga recounted. “The first was a corner one-room apartment on the ninth floor. The second was a two–room apartment, but in one of the old houses that had been built by German POWs. The third was also a two–room apartment, but in a house fifty yards from the railway, which was incredibly noisy…”
Another apartment was already occupied, then something else… That’s when she remembered the akathist and started reading it.
But then the situation got even worse. Olga’s husband, the only breadwinner in the family, was affected by the infamous Anatoly Serdyukov (then Russia’s Defense Minister) military reforms, and in 2011 he was discharged from the army. At that time, they had two children, and Olga was on leave to care for the youngest. It was unclear what they were supposed to do, what they would live on and where they would live… And she began to read the akathist with renewed vigor. And at that moment, her husband’s commander advised him to write a report on obtaining housing in... Moscow.
“They didn’t give anyone housing there, but you could continue to serve,” Olga explained. “But in 2012 we were offered an apartment in Podolsk1 with immediate ownership. They had built a whole neighborhood for the military there, and in 2013 we moved in! We’ve been living here for twelve years now. In 2018, St. Spyridon’s relics were brought back to Russia—and Podolsk was on the list of places to be visited! St. Spyridon had come to visit us! Of course, we went to pray to him. And then my daughter and I went to Moscow again.”
“We Live as If We Deserve Everything”
Olga says that this was not the only time St. Spyridon helped them:
“He hears everyone. In 2020, we prayed for our son’s admission to a prestigious university in Moscow, and he was enrolled on a tuition-free basis. On submitting the documents, we traveled to St. Spyridon’s Church in Saratov to pray and wait for the results. So we were standing at the service and praying. But I asked without really believing that this could happen... After the service, the priest delivered a sermon and said: ‘Here, some people ask God for help, but they don’t believe that He will help them!...’ And he looked directly at me. I almost burned with shame. Then my son and I confessed, took Communion, and the next day we learned that he had been enrolled!”
And not long ago, Olga advised her colleague (not a very religious woman) to pray to St. Spyridon. She had an “apartment issue” that could not be resolved for a long time. Olga said it and forgot about it. And she’s already quit that job and has another amazing job right now—she works at a children’s hospice. And then, some time after her resignation, Olga’s former colleague suddenly sent a message to her: “Thank you for telling me about St. Spyridon! We prayed, and the housing issue was resolved!”
“I want to add something else,” Olga went on. “At that time, we were ready for anything with the apartment issue. But St. Spyridon, out of his kindness, provided the best option for us—we have a three-room apartment; our son and our daughter each have their own room. It’s a quiet area, and the nearest church is within walking distance. We live in clover! The Lord, as a loving Father, gives you more than you ask for and what you expect. Just don’t get discouraged—it will become clearer over time what is actually better for you. I’m only worried about our wrong life after the miracle. The Lord performed it for us, but we live in such a relaxed way, as if we deserve it all and it should be that way. There is no gratitude in us.”
As for gratitude, it always upsets me too. I am always the first to experience a miracle! And then: I behave as if it should be this way and is supposed to be this way. I don’t even order thanksgiving services at times.
