St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)
In 2000, a motorcycle slides off the road in the town of Kounavoi of Heraklion, Crete, in Peza. A car however was coming out of a local gas station and collided with it violently!
The driver of the motorcycle, Michali, was 18 years old at the time, and had just finished high school and was preparing for the Army. Bystanders saw him lying on the ground, not moving, in a critical state, and immediately called an ambulance and transferred him to the hospital.
Immediately, Michali's family was informed and they ran to the hospital. The doctors informed them that his situation was very dire, and he was unconscious and had head trauma, but, unfortunately, they did not have space in the ICU. He was therefore transferred to the General Hospital of Heraklion and the doctors in the ICU there saw him as "clinically dead"!
Michali's uncle related that, for 28-29 days in the hospital, the boy's parents and all of his family and friends were surrounding him in the ICU. After the endless tests and procedures that they did, including a tracheotomy, the doctors did not give him any hope of being saved. "We were despairing, until the morning that I saw in the hospital a tall, elderly lady, with a gray hair and robe, holding in her hands a bottle of oil and asking for some cotton. I began to look for cotton and I brought her some from the child's mother. The woman said: "It is to cross your child with the holy oil from St. Ephraim." And she gave me the cotton with the holy oil. I turned around to give it to his mother, and when I turned back she had gone! I ran to the stairs and to the elevator to thank her, and looked outside, asked doctors, nurses, nothing, no one else had seen her. Ultimately, upset as I was, I left the hospital...
St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)
As I was sitting despairing at home, something deep within me made me believe that Michali would live. In reality, two days later, the phone rang, and to the astonishment of all of us, my nephew was better, and slowly began to react to his surroundings, and we believe this because it was only two days after the woman appeared! "Medicine cannot explain this", the doctors said...
When I related what happened to my priest and spiritual father, he said that it was Panagia who appeared. When I asked, "why to me?", he replied, "Maybe you were the purest one..."
When Michali was discharged, he went to a hospital in England for tests. The doctors could not believe their eyes and said that there was no way that the child could have lived! However, 15 years later, my nephew's health is great! Of course he has suffered greatly going to clinics, physical therapy, etc. Even dealing with the tracheostomy."
From the day that my nephew was saved, I desired to come to know St. Ephraim, for that was the first time I heard about him. I visited the monastery of St. Ephraim in Nea Makri. In the courtyard of the Monastery, at the mulberry tree where he was martyred, and where it was said that the newly-revealed Saint prayed as he was being tortured by the Turks, the holiness of the place, the total silence, the fragrance of the incense was something else. I wanted to learn more about him! I went many times until something wondrous occurred. I met the Abbess of the Monastery, Makaria. I never met her before nor did I tell her my story. But one day as I was sitting, something within me made me stop to meet her. Before I began to introduce myself, she said to me: "Greetings Mark, I've been waiting for you for a while and you've been late." And she told me the whole story herself regarding what happened with my nephew! I was dumbfounded staring at her.
When we returned to Crete, we resolved to built a church in thanks to St. Ephraim."
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source)
The chapel of St. Ephraim built in Crete in thanksgiving for his miracle (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
