Translated from Russian
Памятник святителю Спиридону Тримифунтскому,
Крым, Кореиз, 2012 г.
Авторы: Крылов Борис, Сидорук Олесь
A monument to St
Spyridon of Trimthous
Crimea, Koreiz, 2012
Authers: Boris Krylov, Oles Sydoruk
Saint Spyridon of Trimythous –
a Zealous Defender of Orthodoxy
Reporter: Nun Vera incl. December 27, 2013 . Posted in From
various sources (Views: 22)
Tags: Saint Spyridon trimifunsky , Orthodoxy, miracle
Saint Spyridon and his death never
cease to bear witness to the true faith . A terrible and admonishing miracle occurred
in 1719, three years after the Turkish invasion of Kerkyra /the Corfu island/.
The ruler of the island, the
Venetian fleet admiral Andrea Pisani, his advisor Catholic Cardinal and certain
Italian Catholics living on the island, decided to make a Catholic altar in the
Orthodox Church of St. Spyridon. The admiral announced the decision to the
temple priests and asked for their consent. Naturally, the clergymen refused,
but that did not stop the governor.
Then the Orthodox priests and the
local Orthodox appealed to Saint Spyridon [in prayer], pleading to protect the temple
from the encroachments of Catholics.
At night Saint Spyridon appeared in
a dream to the Venetian rulers and said, "Why are you bothering me? It is
not proper for the altar of your faith to be in my church." The saint demanded
that this goal be abandoned, warning that otherwise all the perpetrators would
be punished. The scared ruler turned to his adviser, who said that this was simply
a wicked trick by the devil.
Reassured, Pisani ordered the
necessary materials for the making of the altar. Then the entire Orthodox
population of the island began to pray even harder to their patron [Saint] that he would not allow
the desecration of the holy place. That same night, Saint Spyridon – in
monastic garb – again appeared in a dream to Admiral Pisani with the warning:
"I told you not to bother me. If you dare start the implementation of your
plan, you will be very sorry – but it will then be too late."
In the morning the Admiral told his
advisor what he had seen [in
a dream] but the latter – accusing Pisani of cowardice – only
laughed and said that such an educated person cannot pay [any] attention to dreams.
On November 11, 1719, Admiral
Pisani and his supporters started for the Church of St. Spyridon, seemingly to
venerate the relics of the Saint and lit up a lamp. In fact, however, they came
to the temple in order to carry out measurements of the place where they planned
to have a Catholic altar. The Orthodox priests once again tried to prevent this
but again of no avail: the papists did not concede, making preparation to start
the implementation of their plan on the next day.
But these plans were not to
materialize. On the night of November 12, a terrible storm rose in the sea, a
storm began, thunders and lightnings shook the city. At midnight, the guard,
who was at the entrance to the Fort Castelli fortress, saw an old man in
monastic garb with a lighted torch in his hand. To his questions: "Who are
you? Where are you going?" The old man replied: "It's me, Spyridon."
At that same moment three tongues of flame burst out from the bell tower of the
church; at the same time there was a deafening explosion – and the gunpowder
warehouse – together with the nearby houses – blew up. Nine hundred Catholics (soldiers
and civilians) were instantly killed by the explosion, killing all the
instigators of this deed – not pleasing to God: Admiral Pisani was found dead –
his neck was clamped between two logs, and the Cardinal was found behind the
walls of the fortress in the sewer ditch. But this terrible explosion hurt no
one Orthodox, since Catholics were forbidding them to be inside the fort after
dark. Not injured either was the sentinel who saw St. Spyridon with a lit torch:
during the explosion some unknown force picked him up and carried him away from
the fortress – he did not get a single scratch.
In the church of St. Spyridon, the
silver lamp given by the Admiral fell onto the floor, with the result that its
base got damaged. That lamp has been re-hung in its place – and to this very day
it is a silent witness to the tragedy. In the same hour, in Venice, another
lightning struck the castle belonging to the admiral, broke the wall through and
burned his portrait. Of all the castle, the only item to have suffered [damage] was the portrait.
Thus the zealous defender of
Orthodoxy Saint Spyridon defended – through a great and terrible miracle – his
people, his city, and his temple from desecration.
Спиридон Тримифунтский приближаеться...