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November 29, 2022

Saint Philoumenos Intervenes in the Rehabilitation of a Drug Addict


Helen N., who comes from Rhodes, was a drug user for seven years. Even though she had made some attempts at rehab, she kept going back to the same things.

She could not work and her relationship with her family had become very difficult.

In a last ditch effort by her mother to help her, they moved to Athens, where she was admitted to a rehab center. But there she did not cooperate with the experts at all; she shouted, got angry, hit them.

Her mother desperately prayed to Saint Philoumenos, about whom she had heard a lot, and begged him to help her.

One day Helen was in a very bad state. When she fell asleep, her mother cried again and prayed to Saint Philoumenos.

At the same time, she asked someone she knew to chant his supplicatory canon at that time.

When Helen later woke up, she was shocked by a very strange dream she had. She saw in her dream that she was furiously eating a black cat.

Suddenly a priest appeared in front of her, who grabbed her cat and sternly said:

"That's enough! You will never eat more from this!"

Helen, bewildered, said to him:

"Who are you and how did you get here?"

The priest answered her:

"I am from Cyprus, but I came now temporarily to Athens to help you."

After the dream, Helen woke up in a completely different mood, cooperated with the experts and returned home in a short time.

Now she is well, working normally and her relationship with her relatives has been restored.

Source: From the book Holy Hieromartyr Philoumenos the Cypriot, published by the Holy Monastery of Agios Nikolaos, Orunda Cyprus. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.