A few years ago, a family from Lemessos, Cyprus, named
Vassiliou received the following miracle. In Greece they are well known from
the televised requests they made in order to find a donor for their young boy
Andrea, who suffered from leukemia. The donor was indeed found and the parents
began preparing for their trip to Texas, U.S.A where the bone marrow transplant
was going to be performed. Meanwhile, they also prayed and begged Jesus Christ
to save their boy. Before they left for the U.S.A the parents heard of St.
Marina’s miracles and they called the monastery of St. Marina located on the
island of Andros in Greece to ask for Her blessing. The Elder of the monastery,
Archimandrite Fr. Cyprianos promised that he would pray to St. Marina. He also
wished the parents for St. Marina to be with Andrea in the operating room, to
help him. With Elder Cyprianos’ blessing and with strong faith that St. Marina
would help indeed, the Vassiliou family went to the U.S.A.
After
the necessary pre-operation tests that Andrea had to undergo, he was taken to
the operating room. A short time before the operation was to begin, a woman
came to see the surgeon who would be operating on Andrea. She said that she was
Andrea’s doctor and asked to be allowed to observe the operation. The
conversation that ensued proved that the woman was indeed a doctor. However,
the surgeon replied that ‘outside’ doctors were not permitted to be present in
the operating room and that his medical teams’ policy was that no doctor other
than those on the team be involved in such delicate operations. The persistence
of the woman however, convinced the surgeon to allow her in the operating room.
But before, he asked her to leave her coordinates at the administration desk.
The unknown doctor did as told and then entered the operating room with the
surgeon. During the operation, she gave several directions regarding the
progress of the procedure. The operation went well and in the end the surgeon
thanked the woman and exited the operating room. Andrea’s parents immediately
went to inquire about the outcome of the surgery and the surgeon replied that
all had gone very well, adding that he could not understand why they had
brought Andrea to him when they had such a fine doctor. The parents were
surprised and responded that they had not brought any doctor with them.
The surgeon insisted however. He also told them that when he came out of the
operating room Andrea’s doctor had remained there for a little longer with the
rest of the operating team and therefore, she would probably still be around.
He recommended that they look for her. The search however, proved pointless as
the ‘woman doctor’ was nowhere around. The Vassiliou couple then concluded that
it must have been a doctor from Greece or Cyprus who had decided to travel to
the U.S.A and contribute to the delicate operation. They expressed the wish to
know who she was so that they may be able to thank her, and at the surgeon’s
recommendation they then went to the administration desk to ask for her
coordinates. It was with utter surprise that they read that the unknown woman
had signed with the name “Marina from Andros”. Tears of gratefulness and joy
filled their eyes as they recalled that the Elder at the monastery had said to
them that he wished Andrea to have St. Marina in the operating room to help
him.
Andrea’s parents shared with the
media their joy both for the successful operation and Andrea’s recovered health
and for the miracle they received.
The Vassiliou family made the vow
that the entire family will be present at the saint’s monastery every year on
the saint’s feast day (July 17) and Elder Cyprianos reports that the family has
been making the annual trip from Lemessos to Andros every summer to thank Saint
Marina for saving Andrea.
Miracles
performed by the saints have never ceased to take place in the Orthodox Church.
With these miracles, may our Lord Jesus Christ help us build our faith.