Orthodox Parables and Stories: The Grown Back Fingers

The Grown Back Fingers of Nazar Stadnichenko. The miracle of St. Luke.

A miracle happened to Nazar in 2001. When Nazar Stadnichenko was in the fifth grade of a music school, he realized that he wanted to become a pianist and connect his life with music. He devoted most of his time to music. But once in Feodosia, where the boy was visiting his grandmother, he slammed his fingers in the heavy door. First he saw blood on the wall and only then the crushed phalanges of two fingers. At that very moment his hand began to ache. Then there was an amputation - the fingers were completely crushed. The mother constantly asked the doctors how her son would play the piano: "Maybe prothesis are needed?"

Nazar was born in Cheskasy, where the parents of St. Luke lived with the family of his oldest son. In Feodosia, Nazar was baptized in the church by the same priest, whom Vladyka Luka himself was ordained to the priesthood. Therefore, it is no coincidence that it was in this temple that Nazar's mother learned about an amazing saint who can be asked to "have less pain and heal faster." The mother put the icon of St. Luke to her son's hand and smeared rubbed his fingers with the oil consecrated on his relics.

"Since I am a pianist and have wanted to make music all my life, it was terrible for me," recalls Nazar. "When all this happened,  the first thought was 'how will I play the piano?"

But the family were Orthodox. In Simferopol Nazar and his mother venerated the relics of the saint. It was only once, then it is 120 kilometers away. With his childlike prayer, the boy prayed like this: "St. Luke, I don't know what you will do, but I want to play the piano!"

Then the healing came quickly. At the third dressing of his hand, the doctor said to his mother:

"I don't know and can't understand what it is, but is beginning to grow inside. If the nail phalanx were left, the nail could grow, but the bone cannot grow."

What surprised him more, within three weeks, Nazar's fingers grew completely and without any flaw! Both mother and Fr. Nektary told the doctor about St. Luke, but the doctor was at a loss, because he was an unbeliever. He never believed that this was a miracle of St. Luke. He himself repeatedly said that he perfectly understood that this could not be, but the bine grew, and he tried to explain everything from the point of view of science. Then there was no talk of journalists, but in churches they talked about this miracle, and people recognozed it.

Less than a year after the operation, Nazar took second place in a piano competition. His mother went to Simferopol and at the Holy Trinity Convent ordered a thanksgiving swrvice at the relics of St. Luke. She brought copies of the diploma and medical documents, a photograph of her son in which he holds the icon of the holy doctor with his completely healthy hand.