The Most-holy Theotokos sweetly embracing Christ (source)
A miracle of the Theotokos and Sts. Kosmas and Damian
My name is Athena Pappas. 10/24/2008,
my son Spyridon had a most serious accident. He was hit in the head,
and had hemorrhage in his brain, dead cells which never regrow, and
swelling in the center of his brain. He was in the ICU of N.N.A., and
for 29 very difficult days he was in a coma, intubated, because he
could not breathe, and he had begun internal sepsis in his organs.
The culmination was the 45 minute [cardiac] arrest which occurred 3
days before the feast of Panagia (The Entrance to the Temple). After
his arrest, his little heart suffered from insufficiency, which he
would have for his whole life.
My son was 16 years old when the
accident occurred. We did not know what to ask God for. The doctors
said that, if he would live, he would remain a vegetable because the
trauma to the brain was in a place where information is processes.
After the arrest, and while he was still in a coma, he continued to
worsen. He did not breathe, his organs were not working, and from the
blood they took they knew he had an infection, and a 40 degree
[Celsius] fever. My husband and I entreated God either to raise him,
because we did not know what to ask for first. The next day after the
arrest, we had the Divine Liturgy served at St. Spyridon, the church
which was in the yard of the hospital. The liturgy ended around 10AM.
When they opened the visiting hours at 1PM, we learned that our
spiritual father, Fr. Stephanos Dalianes, had passed by and read to
our child in the ICU, at the command of Fr. Paisios and Fr. Eumenios,
who had previously reposed. We went into his room, and, O the wonder,
the child from the neck and below was raised. His fever was 36.6
degrees, his kidneys were working properly, he had much urine and
stool, and he was breathing on his own, without machines.
Furthermore, his heart was working by itself, without machines.
The doctors told us that this was a
miracle. Straightaway (besides his head, as he was still in a coma),
his body worked like a clock. If he continued in this way, they told
us, in two days he would exit the ICU. But regarding his brain, they
told us that he would remain a vegetable...
In two days was the feast of the
Entrance of the Theotokos. In the morning, we had Divine Liturgy
served again at St. Spyridon, and we left to go to the Tzaneio
hospital, for we would transfer our son there. As we were going to
the hospital, I began to scream hysterically: “The Panagia cried,
and I want you to bring me her tears. She is crying for my Spyro.”
My sister and my husband tried to calm me down, but I was adamant and
very hostile with them, because they did not believe me. I cried out
continuously that Panagia somewhere in Oropos was crying for my
Spyro, but everyone thought that I was crazy. I didn;t know what I
said, but I insisted greatly, to the point that the doctors at the
hospital and the patients tried to calm me down. I was adamant.
However, as the time passed, the ambulance transferring our son to
the other hospital was nowhere to be found. I grumbled regarding the
tears of Panagia, and I was worried why they were delayed in
transferring my child. At 1:30PM they arrived. I was crying greatly,
and I was asking my relatives to bring me the tears of Panagia until
I saw the gurney and the doctors who were bringing my son...The
doctors were smiling...My child had woken up on the road, and that
was why they were late in bringing him...
I saw my child awake, and I couldn't
believe it. His eyes were in place and the blood that he had in his
eyes had disappeared. He woke up. At that point, we didn't know what
was working and what wasn't, because he was just looking at us...He
still had his tracheostomy and gastrostomy...
As soon as we set up the child in his
room, again I began to cry and to fight with the others. I said:
“Panagia is crying for my Spyro. Go and bring me her tears.” No
one understood me, no one believed me. No one paid any attention...
In roughly two hours, while we were washing my son, my cell phone
rang. It was a friend of mine, who asked which hospital and which
room we were at. As soon as she came, I asked her: “Did you bring
me the tears of Panagia?” She looked at me, and said that her
mother-in-law had gone to Oropos, but first she went to church to
light a cande. There she learned that the icon of Panagia gushes
forth myrrh, and every year, on the feast of the Entrance of the
Theotokos, they open the frame to take the myrrh. She took some myrrh
for herself, and thought about me, and asked the priest for some for
me. She gave it to her daughter-in-law to give it to me. Without a
second thought, I took the myrrh from her hands, rolled it into the
shape of a pill, and put it through the gastrostomy with the syringe.
Then I calmed down, and was justified ultimately to my relatives.
That evening around 1:30 2 doctors
entered the room, stood above the child looking at him, said
something among themselves, and then left. I told my sister to run to
the hallway to ask them what they saw, but she didn't see them. The
next morning, as I went to take Holy Communion in the chapel of this
hospital, I saw the icon of the Holy Unmercenaries [Sts. Kosmas and
Damian], and they had the same faces as those doctors who had come.
From that day on, the results were spectacular. They took out the
tracheostomy from my Spyro, along with the gastrostomy, and he began
to communicate, and slowly began to walk in a week or so. The
echocardiogram showed that he had a new heart, and the MRI of the
brain looked as if he was never hit. We left the hospital on the
feast of St. Spyridon, walking. The doctors told us: “We don't know
what you believe in, but all science cannot explain these things.”
I should say furthermore that the cross
that our spiritual father brought us to the ICU, and crossed our
child with, turned red. Panagia covered our child, and so humble were
the Saints who raised up our Spyro, and today, he is totally well.
(Amateur translation of text from: source)
Sts. Kosmas and Damian the Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
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