It was summer, July of 1995, and I was in Athens. I went to the Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina, in Fili of Attika. I received various blessings from the Monastery as well as a booklet issued by Metropolitan Cyprian with the life, martyrdom, prayers against magic and Supplication Service of their Holy Protectors, whose holy icon of the Saints is on the cover.
When I went to our home, I left behind all of these blessings and departed for other shrines in Evrytania and Mount Athos.
My wife, who was left behind at the house, took the booklet at night of Saint Cyprian and Justina and began to read it. Yet she had a terrible struggle in her thoughts, though she continued to read it until she completed the whole thing.
The thoughts which came to her were that the things written in the book, with all the details from the 3rd and 4th century, are not possible to be accurate and true. Who was around at that time? How did they know all these things and handed them down exactly with what we read today?
These thoughts were continuous, allowing her to doubt the truthfulness of the lives of Saints Cyprian and Justina and all the contents of this book.
Despite all the thoughts of doubt as to the validity of the lives of the Saints, she completed it and placed it next to her on the bedside table as she lay down to sleep.
She does not remember how much time elapsed or whether she was awake or sleeping when she saw in front of her, at the edge of her bed, the divinely eloquent Saint Cyprian and the good martyr of the Lord Justina, who was at the right of the Saint and a little behind, appearing as they do exactly in their holy icon. With the vestments of a bishop was Saint Cyprian, and Saint Justina was in white garments, bright, golden and wondrous, and they were both giving off light.
Saint Cyprian looked at her without speaking, he nodded his holy head downwards, and my wife then says that he immediately asked why she was having such thoughts.
He then said to her:
"This is how it was, exactly as you read it."
And immediately the Saints vanished, as if they headed for the door in the kitchen. Saint Justina did not say anything.
Immediately my wife Katherine got up (she was probably not sleeping) and as she turned, towards her right, where her icon-corner was, she did her cross and prayed.
Feeling in awe she then had an unprecedented feeling; a wind filled the entire room. In the beginning she was afraid, but then she felt a great peace.
When she thinks of this vision today she feels awed and does not believe she was sleeping, but that she saw them with her eyes, and that the Saints confirmed the truths contained within their lives and all else that is written therein.
Every time she refers to this miraculous vision she feels the same awe as she did then, through the Saints.
The next day following the appearance of the Saints, she told those who were close to her, and also to me when I returned from the shrines I was visiting.
From that time she tells everyone who she knows and always feels our Saints Cyprian and Justina near as if alive and the memory of the vision very close.
Saints Cyprian and Justina, intercede on our behalf!
* This was written by John (Ioannis) N. Kallianiotis, Associate Professor of Finance in the School of Management at the University of Scranton, with the permission of his wife Katherine, on 28 December 1996, in Scranton of Pennsylvania.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos
Read also: The Lives of Saints Cyprian and Justina
