Monday, January 24, 2011

A Miracle of Saint Xenia the Fool In France


The Conversion of a French Man to Orthodoxy

By Maria Biniary

WE follow with an account by a resident of France, who was benefited by the Saint in our days.

A French dentist with a private clinic in Paris was injured in a car accident and had to stay in hospital for a few days.

Roman Catholic by creed, but indifferent to the faith, he watched as the patient next to him, a Russian émigré, would pray in the evenings in the ward, and would laugh behind his back.

Since the Russian’s lengthy prayers were repeated for as many days as he remained there, the dentist saw fit to make fun of the praying man, and he joked around with those from the other rooms.

After that first evening of making fun with the others, it was impossible for him to fall sleep.

Suddenly, the door to the ward opened and a woman appeared, wearing men’s clothing and holding a cane in her hand.

She was heading towards his bed. He was startled. Unknown facial features. A sweet, strange face.

“What do you want, lady? I don’t have any change. Who let you in here?”

“I came to tell you,” she said to him, as she lifted her cane, “to stop ridiculing Yuri, who is praying, because you will remain here a long time yet, and will seek his prayers....”

And indeed. Over the following days, he was diagnosed with serious cardiac insufficiency and remained three months in the hospital.

Yuri visited him at one point, and when the Frenchman revealed his vision to him, he began to tell him about St. Xenia and Orthodoxy.

Today, the Frenchman is an active member of the French Orthodox community and Baptized his newborn baby girl with the name Xenia last December, in honor of the Saint and in memory of his miraculous conversion.

Source: Xριστιανική, No. 515 (829) (9 January 1997), p. 8.

1 comments:

  1. Thank you for this testimony dear in Christ John. It will be translated into French on my blog tomorrow (http://orthodoxologie.blogspot.com/)!
    In Christ,
    subdeacon Claude Lopez-Ginisty

    Un dentiste français d'une clinique privée de Paris a été blessé dans un accident de voiture et il a dû rester à l'hôpital pendant quelques jours.

    Catholique romain, par croyance, mais indifférent à la foi, il a vu que le patient à côté de lui, un émigré russe, priait le soir dans la salle, et il riait dans son dos.

    Comme les longues prières du russe se sont répétées pendant toutes les journées, où il restait là, le dentiste a jugé bon de se moquer de l'homme qui priait, et il plaisanté à ce propos avec ceux des autres salles.

    Après la première soirée où il s'est moqué du russe avec les autres, il lui fut impossible de s'endormir.

    Soudain, la porte de la salle s'ouvrit et une femme apparut, portant des vêtements d'homme et tenant une canne dans sa main.

    Elle se dirigea vers son lit. Il fut surpris. Traits du visage inconnus. Un visage doux et étrange.

    "Que voulez-vous, madame? Je n'ai pas d'argent. Qui vous a laissé entrer ici? "

    "Je suis venu vous dire", lui dit-elle, tandis qu'elle levait sa canne, "d'arrêter de ridiculiser Youri, qui prie, parce que vous resterez ici encore longtemps, et vous rechercherez ses prières."

    Et, en effet ce fut le cas. Au cours des jours suivants, on diagnostiqua chez lui une insuffisance cardiaque grave et il resta trois mois à l'hôpital.

    Yuri lui rendit visite à un moment donné, et quand le Français lui révéla sa vision, il se mit à lui parler de sainte Xénia et de l'Orthodoxie.

    Aujourd'hui, le Français est un membre actif de la communauté orthodoxe française et il a baptisé sa fille nouvellement née du nom de Xénia en décembre dernier, en l'honneur de la sainte et en mémoire de sa conversion miraculeuse.

    Version française Claude Lopez-Ginisty
    d'après
    Xριστιανική, n ° 515 (829) (9 Janvier 1997), p. 8.
    cité par
    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/01/miracle-of-saint-xenia-fool-in-france.html

    ReplyDelete

"I teach them all the good I can, and recommend them to others from whom I think they will get some moral benefit. And the treasures that the wise men of old have left us in their writings I open and explore with my friends. If we come on any good thing, we extract it, and we set much store on being useful to one another." - Socrates
"In imitation of the method of the bee, I shall make my composition from those things which are conformable with the truth and from our enemies themselves gather the fruit of salvation. But I shall reject all that is worthless and falsely labeled as knowledge." - St. John the Damascene

All Saints Celebrated In January

Sisoes, the great ascetic, before the tomb of Alexander, King of the Greeks, who was once covered in glory. Astonished, he mourns for the vicissitudes of time and the transience of glory, and tearfully declaims thus: "The mere sight of you, tomb, dismays me and causes my heart to shed tears, as I contemplate the debt we, all men, owe. How can I possibly stand it? Oh, death! Who can evade you?"

"Ascend, ascend, brethren, ascend with eagerness and resolve in your hearts, listening to him who says: ‘Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, Who maketh our feet like those of the deer, and setteth us on high places, that we may be victorious with His song.’" - St. John Climacos

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3