June 11, 2012

The Child Elias Healed By St. Luke of Simferopol


On the afternoon of May 28th in 2012 in the Church of St. Luke the Physician, which is under construction in the Monastery of Panagia Dobra in Beroia, there was celebrated the Hierarchical Vespers for the Feast of the Translation of the Holy Relic from Simferopol in Crimea to the Monastery. It was officiated by the Bishop of Nazianzus Theodoret, who spoke.

The morning of May 29th there was celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in which the Metropolitan of Beroia, Naoussa and Campania Panteleimon was attended by His Grace Theodoret bishop of Nazianzus, Demetrios of Thermi, and many priests who came to honor and receive a blessing from St. Luke.

Shortly before the end of the Service, Archimandrite Sosipatros Pitoulias, at the instigation of the Bishop of Beroia, recounted how Saint Luke the Physician healed his little nephew (photo).


Father Sosipatros was visibly touched as he began to narrate the miraculous incident, saying:

"Little Elias was a few months old and the doctors diagnosed him as having leukemia. I along with Father Gregory Maza did shifts in the hospital where he was sick. On the eve of the Dormition of St. Luke, i.e. June 10th, Father Gregory left the hospital late in the evening to rest and left me in his post. After a while he called me with a frightened and yet happy voice, saying: 'Father Sosipatros, St. Luke did his miracle again!' What was done? When he left the hospital he took a taxi to take him to the home where he lived. Just before they reached the house the unknown taxi driver asked Father Gregory: 'Father, are you all right?' Father Gregory replied awkwardly: 'All is well.' But insistent the taxi driver asked again: 'Father, are you all right?'. Father Gregory not wanting to continue the conversation with the unknown taxi driver again replied curtly: 'All is well'. And then the taxi driver said to him: 'Father Gregory, the child you are caring for that is not yours will be fine!'. Father Gregory was in a daze for a moment, and in addressing the stranger asked how did he know about the child? About me? About all of this? And the taxi driver replied: 'Do not ask a lot Father; the child you care for, but that is not yours, will be well!' With these words the taxi stopped and the shocked Fr. Gregory gave the appropriate cash to the stranger who knew everything. The taxi driver took the money, gave the change, and disappeared. I do not know if the taxi driver was St. Luke or another Saint who spoke through this man, what I know is that little Elias became well!"

The reaction of the audience to this story of Fr. Sosipatros was moving. Little Elias was in church with his parents, still alive, by a miracle of St. Luke.



Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos