Once an Uzbek came to Archimandrite Seraphim, brought a fifteen-year-old son, fell into the feet of a priest:
— Father Russian! Pray for your son, he’s having a fit!
— Do you believe that God can help you?
— I believe it! — Father replies.
— He was everywhere: at the mullah in Tashkent, at the mullah in Bukhara, in Samarkand – all passed. Nobody helped. Help me!
— “Well, let’s pray together,” said the father.
The three of them kneeled. Father Seraphim read the canon and prayers for the sick, anointed him with oil — despite the fact that he was not baptized, but, according to Muslim custom, circumcised. And he says:
— I won’t have time on Saturday and Sunday — there are a lot of people in the service. Come back on Monday afternoon, too.
And when this man and his son on Monday appeared at the fence of the temple of St. George the Victorious, he threw off his shoes at the gate, knelt down and so on his knees crawled all 36 meters — the distance from the gate to the house of Father Seraphim! That’s a lesson for all of us! Which of us Russians will kneel to his benefactor? And the Uzbek from joy through the whole church courtyard went on his knees and wept. Two technicians were looking in the eye:
— This is the Uzbek who brought his son. Why is he crying so much?
He crawled to Father Seraphim, fell into his legs, thanked him and gave him a thousand rubles. In the sixties it was a lot of money.
— I am a monk,» says Father Seraphim, «I do not need money. Take it to any mosque, give it to any mullah.
— No, the mullah didn’t help me, the mosque didn’t. Oh, Father, you! and put the money on his desk.
But the father still did not receive the award:
— I did not pray for money, but for God’s sake because you asked.
Then he says,
— Well, take to our accountant Tatiana Alexandrovna (she was also a Muscovite, exiled), she will take your donation to the church of St. George the Victorious.
And the black material on the cassock, 5 meters, Father Seraphim took. Farewell to the priest, the Uzbek promised:
— I will tell all the mullahs – this is the Russian faith!
A little later he invited six mullahs, they came in two cars to see the father. We were surprised. Father was small, old, hunched, because he served ten years for faith.
Prot. Valentin Biryukov
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Soul investment!
Orthodox stories from life
