I, the writer Alexander Segen, still did not dare to testify in writing to the miracle that happened to me several years ago. I was always stopped by the thought: either they wouldn’t believe me, or they would just pretend that they believed me, or they wouldn’t believe me.
Since the spring of that year, my heel began to hurt. I wasn’t particularly worried. It will pass. But it didn’t go away, but, on the contrary, it hurt more and more. I had to go to the doctors. They made different diagnoses, prescribed ointments, pills, but nothing helped.
In the summer, my son Kolya and I were planning to go to Gurzuf for three weeks, and I thought about the sea — it often saved me, many sores healed when you swim for many days for a long time, walk on the coastal pebbles. But this time the sea did not help, and when the time came to leave, I could no longer step on my heel — every step caused such hellish pain.
We arrived from Gurzuf to Simferopol, there were three hours left before the train.
— We must go on foot to St. Luke, — I announced my decision to my son.
— What a walk! — Nikolasha doubted. — You can’t walk, daddy… Let’s at least take a taxi.
— No, only on foot.
And we, leaving our things in the storage room, went to the healer Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky). From the station to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, in which, after canonization, the relics of the saint rest, it takes about fifteen minutes on foot, if with “cheerful feet”; if with a tired step, then twenty to twenty-five minutes. I, leaning on my son, trudged for over an hour, sweating from pain, but I overcame it by talking about the person we were going to…
Finally, we reached the Holy Trinity Church. There I knelt before the saint’s tomb and prayed to him, without boring me with too long a petition. I bought oil blessed on the relics of the saint, and a flannel wrap, which I was advised to use to wrap the sore spot after anointing with oil.
The path from the temple to the station was even more tiring. I no longer had the strength to talk about anything. I don’t know why, but I decided to anoint my leg with oil upon arriving in Moscow. Kolya and I returned home on Sunday afternoon. In the evening I remembered about the oil. Hand on heart, I didn’t really believe in a miracle, although hope for the saint’s help glimmered in my soul. Well, I thought, at least the pain would be relieved a little…
What happened next was that the hair on my head literally began to move, and goosebumps ran across my skin.
As soon as I anointed my leg with oil, a certain pleasant seething was created in my leg: as in a glass where champagne or Narzan had just been poured, thousands of bubbles were running inside, and in a matter of seconds the pain disappeared, dissolved in this wonderful boiling.
I wrapped a flannel wrap around my leg and walked back and forth. Amazing! nothing hurts! I couldn’t believe my feelings. I was afraid to tell Kolya; Moreover, after half an hour the pain returned, and after another hour it became unbearable again.
In the middle of the night I woke up and anointed my leg again. And the same thing happened again. Only this time the seething was not so lively. The pain went away, I lay down and tried to sleep until my foot hurt again.
When I woke up early in the morning, I felt almost no pain, but still anointed my heel again. Now there is almost no champagne and narzan. It just became even easier.
On the third day after Kolya and I returned from Crimea, we left the house with him, and I said:
— Nikolasha, do you want me to show you a miracle?
— Which one?
— But look!
I dashingly ran a hundred meters forward and returned at the same run.
— And where is the miracle?
— Well, hello, pucker! And a few days ago…
— Wow, exactly!
— Did you see it?
— You saw it…
We walked in silence for a while. Finally Kolya stopped, looked at me and said:
— Well, what did you want? This is a saint.”
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Orthodox stories from life
