December 6, 2010 - Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!Last updated: 2011-11-15 12:38:48
Blessed feast of St. Nicholas! God grant you all many years!
Here's a greeting sent by His Grace, Bishop Basil to our community:
"Dear to Christ, Father Daniel, Presbytera Maria and the faithful of St Nicholas Church:
Blessings, much love and prayerful best wishes for a very happy patronal feast. Happy feast! Many years!
+Bishop Basil"
Below, find the story of a modern miracle worked
by St. Nicholas, which I read after Liturgy yesterday. Through the
prayers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, may the Lord work many wonders
in our midst, and especially the wonder of granting us a vibrant,
child-like faith in Him!
With love in Christ,
Fr. Daniel
"It happened in Siberia. The White Army under Kolchak was
retreating. Eugene Nikolaevich, in spite of a severe wound suffered in
the First World War, served in Kolchak's forces in the rank of first
lieutenant. It was a harsh winter.
Entering some village, the
partisans seized a peasant suspected of collaborating with the Reds. It
was decided to execute him. Eugene Nikolaevich ordered the prisoner to
be locked up.
That night, as the lieutenant was sitting alone
writing out the accusation, there came a knock at the door. He opened
it and in stepped an old man wearing a skoufia, like those worn by
monks, and an old cassock. "Mister officer," he said, "you have an
arrested peasant here. Don't kill him. He's innocent."
"And who are you?" inquired Eugene Nikolaevich.
"I am the rector of the local church, Fr. Nicholas," answered
the old man, and left.
Eugene Nikolaevich thought it over and
decided to release the prisoner. Early in the morning he ordered a
sleigh to be harnessed, had the prisoner get in, took some bread, and
told the escorts: "I'm going to shoot him." Once in the forest he untied
the prisoner, gave him the bread, and said: ‘Into the woods with you,
and don't cross our path again!”
Returning to the village,
Eugene Nikolacyich went to the church. It was locked. He asked a
peasant walking by: "Where does Fr. Nicholas live? .... The Reds shot
him long ago," came the reply. Eugene Nikolaevich was taken aback, but
he decided to look around the church. Someone unlocked the door for
him, and he went inside. Suddenly he saw to the right an icon of St.
Nicholas and immediately recognized him as his nocturnal visitor; in the
icon the wonderworking hierarch was depicted wearing the very same
skoufia."
Alexandra Dabbart
"Novoye Russkoe Slovo”