From Catechumens in England

One year ago tonight we were still childless after two previous pregnancies - one with a single baby and one with twins. In each of the earlier pregnancies my wife had experienced typical pregnancy symptoms which then completely vanished before being told by the doctors that the unborn babies had not survived.

Last year in November 2004 we learned that we had conceived again, but over the day or two up to new year's eve my wife's pregnancy symptoms had also vanished once again. We were both terribly afraid that she was experiencing yet another miscarriage. We were out of town far away from her doctor in London and would not be able to see a doctor for a couple weeks.

We began praying to Jesus Christ our God that the unborn child would survive. We asked Mary and Joachim and Anna for intercessory prayer. I also recalled having met a monk from California once visiting the Church of St John the Wonderworker in Atlanta. In the course of my conversation with him, he told me the amazing story of his own mother's pregnancy with him and how she had experienced bleeding and been in danger of losing him as an unborn child. The unborn monk's father had prayed to St John the Wonderworker for the baby's safety. The unborn child survived and now many years later he stood before me as evidence of the powerful intercessions of St John the Wonderworker. Upon recalling this last New Year's we asked St John the Wonderworker for intercessory prayer for our own unborn child. My wife's pregnancy symptoms returned and when we finally were able to visit the doctor we heard the child's heartbeat. Our son was born on August 19, 2005.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Friends,

I have been extrememly ill for eight years now. None of the physicians I have consulted, which now total ten, have been able to determine exactly what is wrong with my digestive system. But my primary symptom is that virually every food on the planet makes me feel so bad that I would rather be dead. I have only been able to eat one meal per day for most of the past four years. At one point last year, my weight dropped to 87 pounds, and considering that I am 5 feet 6 inches tall, that was pretty frightening.

I came into the Orthodox Church on Holy Saturday of this year 2005, weighing in at 97 pounds. I was hospitalized in June for 6 days because I hadn't been able to eat anything for several days. They did a bunch of diagnostic tests, and determined that I do have celiac disease. However, none of the doctors had ever heard of my particular symptoms, and have absolutely no clue what to do with me. I guess I really am a unique child of God after all! So, after six days, they decided I should go home (don't ask me why, since nothing had actually changed for me). But, home I went.

As you can imagine, I was feeling pretty desperate at this point. I had just finished reading Blesed John and decided that I would ask him for his prayers on my behalf. The next morning I tried eating goat milk yogurt again, something I have tried periodically over the years without success, and amazingly enough I was able to eat it without becoming suicidal. I have been able to continue eating yogurt 4-5 times a day for almost 6 months now with a minimum of negative symptoms. Believe me, this is a miracle, and I am crediting it to Vladyka John Maximovich, as that is the only explanation.

Over the past 6 months, I have gained 20 pounds and am back up to my normal weight of 120 pounds. Strangely enough, yogurt is still the only food I can eat, but I am not complaining. Thank you Saint John, I am truly grateful for your prayers!!

May Saint John be an intercessor for all who seek his help.

In Christ, Elisabeta (Elisabeth the New Martyr)

This was posted on Fr. Alex Fecanin's daily message to the flock of St. Symeon in Birmingham. I thought that you might be interested in knowing that Soldier Hunter is going into battle with St. John's protection.

Prayer Message from Matushka Anna Crawford:

My youngest brother, Hunter, is leaving this evening for Iraq. He will be there 13 months. He is the leader of a squad of medics. He is carrying with him a small icon of St. John the Wonderworker touched to his relics. Interestingly, I had told my mother about St. John quite a while ago and she apparently passed that along to my two brothers. When I told my mother last week that we were going to send an icon with Hunter, she requested one of St. John, saying that Hunter had a devotion to him. Hunter was very impressed with the icon and said it will always be on his person. Please pray for him, especially asking the intercessions of St. John!

Dear Father Jacob... Christ is in our midst!!

Yesterday, our medical doctor stopped me in the hallway. You need to know that he is one of the most non-religious people on staff at the prison...a nice man...but totally non- religious. He said that he needed to let me know something good that had happened in the work that I am doing in the prison. He went on to tell me that he had been examining a cancer on the lip of an inmate for several months. He had recommended surgery to the inmate because the cancer was growing. The inmate had refused as he had already undergone surgery on his lip in the past but the cancer came back. The doctor told me that the last time he had seen the cancer it was the size of a pea and growing. When he went to examine it on Monday...it was completely gone. He said there was absolutely no sign of any cancer at all. The inmate told him that I had annointed him with some special Holy Oil from the tomb of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. The doctor looked at me, smiled, and said thank you! Glory to God in all things!!

This inmate was Timothy, who was baptized into the Holy Orthodox faith this past June!! When I received the oil from you, I annointed all of the Orthodox in the prison. As I annointed Timothy, I made the sign of the Cross with the Holy Oil right on the cancer. The Lord's love and care for these precious men is so awesome to see. Thanks be to God and thanks to you all for sending us the oil.

I pray this brightens your day as it did mine... by your prayers... Fr. Stephen

I would like to share with you a great miracle of St. John Maximovich happened to my family.

We live in Athens, Greece. On April 10, 2005, my mother, my sister and I visited the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Andros island, from which my family comes from. The monastery has many holy relics and a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary, from which streams Holy Myrrh. We venerated and each left with a small plastic bag containing a piece of cotton with Holy Myrrh from the icon. My sister also asked for a second one so that the she can give it to her sister-in-law.

Some days later, my sister’s sister-in-law, Georgia, had a visit from a nun friend of hers. The nun lives in a remote monastery in Evia island, in Central Greece. During the visit, the nun talked about St. John Maximovich, whose biography was recently published in Greece. Please, note that St. John Maximovich is not known in Greece. The nun had just finished the book and was astounded by the Saint’s life. She said to Georgia how much she would have liked to have some Holy Oil from the lamp burning in front of his relics. A few days later, my sister sent some gifts for Easter for the children to her sister-in-law with her husband and in that package she had included an envelope with the plastic with the Holy Myrrh from the monastery in Andros. At the house, the two husbands opened the package and the envelope and saw what it contained. Later that night, when Georgia came and opened the envelope, she saw that it contained the Myrrh from the Virgin Mary in a small plastic bag, as well as an aluminum labeled “Myrrh from the icon of the Mother of God of Andros” and “Thread from the cassock of St. John Maximovich the Russian”. She thought that this was also sent by my sister. The next day, her nun friend called to tell her goodbye. Georgia mentioned to the nun what she received and the nun asked her if she could have it. Georgia gladly accepted to give her the blessing from St. John and her nun friend came and picked it up immediately while leaving for her monastery. Later, Georgia called my sister (her sister-in-law) to thank her for the gifts and the blessings from Andros namely the Holy Myrrh and the thread from the cassock of St. John Maximovitch. My sister was shocked to hear this and told her that she never had included in the envelope any aluminium with a thread from St. John. They then asked their husbands whether they had seen such a blessing, they asked me and my mother as well and no one had seen them.

Few days later (it was Palm Sunday) the nun called Georgia and told her in tears that a great miracle of St. John Maximovich had happened at the monastery, but she didn’t want to give more details. After her friend insisted, the nun confided to her that St. John appeared to a nun of the monastery in her cell, at noon, while she was awake. It seems that the Saint spoke to the nun, but she doesn’t want to tell more or reveal the name of the nun. The nun that related the miracle to Georgia has been deeply moved. I can assure you that she is a very serious person, coming from a non-religious family, who had strongly reacted when she expressed her desire to become a nun.

This is a great miracle from St. John, who may become known here too. May we all have his blessing.

In Christ,

Ioannis V.

Athens, Greece

Having been a smoker for more than 20 years, I imagined that one day I would go to a monastery for an extended visit and then somehow be able to quit. In fact this is what happened, but not as I imagined it might. It was a pure gift from God, through the intercession of our dear and close Saint John Maximovitch on his feast day: July 2, 1996.

Taking an extended break from the world, I had been staying at St. Paisius Monastery in Forestville, California since the beginning of Lent that year. While I fully participated in the work and prayer services, I yet continued to smoke my cigarettes every day. I couldn't casually smoke in any area of my life there. I literally had to run off and hide to accomplish my fiendish task. I would go outside the monastery gate or hide out in the woods each day to feed my habit.

The situation had the effect of magnifying the misery of my situation. Yet I still didn't want to stop. I was committed to giving myself this deadly pleasure – even at the cost of torturing my conscience.

At that time, July always marked the beginning of a busy time at St. Paisius Monastery. New guests would arrive from all over the country, and the schedule would change to accommodate a series of morning classes and afternoon work sessions that all were a part of the "Missionary School" regime. On July 1st I remember thinking that the Missionary School schedule would make it more difficult to get my smoking sessions in, but I would figure out a way to do it!

On the morning of July 2, 1996 we all gathered in the outdoor chapel at the bottom of the property and joined in the celebration of St. John's feast day Divine Liturgy. As I stood in prayer, I received a blessing different from any other before or since. Through the intercession of St. John, God gave me the strength and the will to quit smoking. I can't tell you how it happened, or what actually happened, except that I was given the will to do this task.

It was an experience of the sentiment expressed in the prayer, "Whether I want it or not Lord, save me." I didn't even have the sense to really want to quit smoking at the time, yet God reached down to me in the misery of my addiction and took away that burden…that daily weight of always thinking about when I would have my next cigarette, how I would buy them, where I would smoke them, how I would have to cover the smell on my clothes and breath.

After this miracle occurred I immediately tried to phone my doctor to get a nicotine patch in order to help me stop smoking. I never got the patch, but God gave me the strength to cooperate with the grace of the blessing I received in the Divine Liturgy. A friend had told me that when he quit smoking that he made a promise never to have another puff. This is the commitment I made that day, and by God's grace I have never smoked since then. July 2, 2005 will mark my ninth year as a nonsmoker.

Glory be to God! His mercy never ends!

Maria Nash
San Francisco, California
January 29, 2005

My wife was laid off on January 1st of 2005. Immediately, we posted her resume all over the internet. 3 months passed, and she has not received any replies. On March 19th (Saturday), my wife and I decided to go to San Francisco to celebrate her birthday. One night before, I asked her, would you like to visit St. John Maximovitch tomorrow? She replied, "yes" with a big smile.

When we visited St. John, my wife asked St. John to help her find a good job. Now, this was a Saturday and of course on Sunday everyone is closed. On monday morning, my wife calls and tells me she got a job offer from a company. About 30 minutes later she calls again and the same thing, a second company called and offered her a job. During my lunch, my wife calls again and told me a third company called and offered her a job.

After receiving those three job offers on Monday, She has received three more since then, the last one being yesterday (March 30th). So, she accepted a job with Hp doing her regular work and she starts this Monday.

Joking with her, I told her "maybe you should go back to St. John Maximovitch and ask him stop the companies from calling you".

Just have faith and God will take care of you!

Thank You and God Bless,
Joseph Hanna

I have struggled for about twenty-five years now with a vile, degrading personal habit that long ago became an addiction. This habit has led me into many very serious sins, and equally into a very long battle with despondency, depression and even suicidal thoughts. I had tried many different times to remedy this in various ways, but was always far too weak to overcome my habit on my own power (and more often than not, sincerely did not wish to do so!). This, in turn, led me into despondency, quitting the Church outright more than once, and even doubting the existence of God, not to mention hideous blasphemies and anger against Him. God's grace and the prayers of St. John, other Saints and the Most Pure Mother of God always led me back (as I prayed to him nearly twenty years ago when I first really encountered the Orthodox Faith, at his sepulchre in San Francisco), but still I could never overcome my habit, and I felt like I was sinking into complete despair of ever getting past it, or this seemingly-endless cycle of falling, getting up again, falling, etc. that I seemed utterly unable to do anything about.

Recently, I believe God has shown me my sin of not praying to St. John (as I witnessed, in person, a genuinely-verifiable miracle of his, related elsewhere on this site) for this issue nearly enough, or acknowledging St. John's role in my life. Some time ago, by God's grace, I was blessed with some of his holy relics and those of St. Herman of Alaska (whose help I equally wish to gratefully acknowledge!), and more recently I began to read his Troparion and Kontakion in my daily prayers, and pray to him more often for help. And I have seen him help me in my struggle. I find myself with more genuine faith in God through his prayers, as well as being given grace through those same prayers against this terrible habit and many other sins as well.

I wanted to publicly acknowledge St. John's (and St. Herman's) help, both in these recent struggles, and equally throughout the last eighteen years of my life (if not before!). I sinned by not acknowledging this before, but I repent of this now. I am thankful to Our Lord for giving us intercessors and helps like St. John and St. Herman, and I beg Him to continue to heal and help me through his all-holy prayers, and those of His All-Pure and Holy Mother, the Theotokos.

Holy St. John Maximovitch, please pray to God for me, a sinner!!

Sinner J.