Dear Fr. Jacob,

I wanted to add to the accounts of Miracles on behalf of our dear Saint John the Wonderworker. I was not familiar with this dear Saint until our 17 year old son, Christopher, was diagnosed with a heart problem. He was suffering several times a week with a heart arrhythmia, which he was able to feel. When we went to see the cardiologist, he was diagnosed with Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome. This condition has the potential to cause sudden death. An invasive procedure, called a cardiac ablation, is used to treat this condition. My husband and I scheduled to procedure as soon as possible and called our parish priest to come and pray. Father Nicholas came with Father Nathaniel and a visiting priest, Father Anthony. They brought a small icon of St. John and in the course of the prayers for healing, prayed to St. John for intervention.

A few days later, the procedure was scheduled. To identify the area of the heart which causes the problem, the cardiologist performed an invasive procedure called an EP study. However, when he did the EP study, he was unable to find anything wrong with his heart. After asking Christopher about his heart, he indicated he had not had any problems since BEFORE the healing prayers.

When we heard the news, we knew one of two things occurred. Either he was misdiagnosed or he was healed. Since his symptoms and EKG confirmed a problem, it was obvious he had been healed. It has been almost a year, and Christopher still has not had any symptoms, yet before, he was having symptoms 3-4 times a week. I am so amazed and grateful to God and to St. John for this miraculous event that words are inadequate to describe it.

Christopher is graduating from high school this June and his brother is giving him an Icon of St. John as a graduation gift, as no other gift seems more appropriate. In fact, Saint John has become very special to our family.

Sincerely,

Mary A
Ohio

Dear Father Jacob,

I am a Romanian Orthodox living in the UK and have felt Saint John's help at crucial moments in my life - he has worked 2 miracles in my life that I know of, and perhaps others that I do not know of. when the situation of my unemployment and immigration status became critical, the Saint helped me find a very good job and after being refused a work permit through Saint John Maximovoch's help against all odds the decision was overturned and I was given the permission to stay and work in the Uk. One of my best friends has also received help from the Saint in a similar situation.

On a different occasion, being in the absolute depths of despair because of a sin that was torturing me for years I was one morning reading a book about the Saint's life and miracles and found a story identical to mine - that very moment I felt with all my being that the Saint gave me the power to raise myself up and never commit that sin again - after years of struggle and despair. It was a miracle.

Months ago some friends travelled to San Francisco - I never knew about it. when they came back they gave me an icon of the Saint - I felt that Sain John has come to me. Whenever I look at it I feel that he is there, alive, seeing and hearing and understanding me.

But weak and ungrateful as I am I a have too easily forgotten or taken for granted the Saint's help. at the moment I am at the biggest crossroad of my life - the man whom I love and due to marry this July is now going through a very difficult and depressive moment, willing to give up everything, lacking the strenght to go forward and in despair, mental and physical pain, at the end of the line. we love each other, and we have seen how God has helped us every step of the way, but dispair and the temptation to give up the fight is so strong in him now. I have not lost faith, and I pray that God will strenghten and heal him. last night I prayed for him to Saint John as well, after a long period of absence. I dreamt I was in a very large Church at a ceremony with some friends, and saw Saint John in the distance, dressed in black robes as he appears in latter photograps, not moving, but feeling and knowing and so present. I felt shivers down my spine, so intense, as if an energy was shaking me, woke up trembling and feel that the Saint is going to help me and the man I love...

Christ is Risen!

Father, bless.

Fr. Jacob,

I wanted to share a recent miracle through the intercession of St. John Maximovitch. Last month, in my last month of pregnancy with my 5th child, my husband and I were going back and forth on the decision of our son's name. I finally prayed a short praying asking the saints to choose him. The next week (a week before I gave birth), I was browsing through the bookstore at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas. My daughter's godmother and her father-confessor suggested that I read a book on the life of St. John. I knew nothing about him and decided to take their advice. It was also suggested that I buy an icon of St. John, which I did.

The next day my godmother emailed me and told me that every time she prayed for our unborn son, the name John came to mind. John was never a name we considered, so this seemed odd to me. An hour later my daughter's godmother called and said that there was a couple from the cathedral that were planning on making a pilgrimage to San Francisco and asked if there was anyone in particular they could pray for at the tomb of St. John. She asked them to pray for our son and his safe delivery. Since I had not yet opened my new book on St.

John, I decided to do a little internet search. I was wondering about this saint and why he was seemingly trying to get my attention. I realized that he passed from this life to the next in the presence of the Kursk-Root Icon. Just 2 years before our family venerated this wonderworking icon and, by no coincidence, the day I bought St. John's book and icon was the feast of the Kursk-Root Icon.

My husband and I decided that our son must be named John. Obviously the saints had chosen. I began to pour through the book I bought and read about the countless miracles worked by St. John. I started to wonder if St. John made himself known to us so that we would turn to him during our son's birth. I kept a candle lit before his icon until the day of my labor. In the hospital the night before our son was born, the nurses were alerted by the fetal monitors. Our baby's heart rate rapidly fell and they immediately put me on an IV and oxygen. His heart rater resolved almost immediately and nothing else came of it. In fact, the labor and delivery were the easiest I had ever experienced. One of the labor nurses remarked after he was born that it was the most peaceful labor and birth she had ever attended. As soon as John was delivered, the doctor noticed that there was a knot in his umbilical cord. She didn't say anything to me, but a few hours later the nursery nurse told my husband that they didn't want to upset me, but were shocked that our son had survived labor and delivery. The drop in heart rate was due to the knot and they were surprised that he was not stillborn. Instead he scored almost perfect (9.9) on his newborn screen and was home within 24 hours. I know beyond a doubt that St. John saved his life through his wonderworking prayers.

And as a gift on Pascha, a reader from our parish gave us a vial of holy oil from the tomb of St. John.

Glory to God and his saint John Maximovitch!
Mary in Texas