Orthodox Parables and Stories: Miraculous story of the elders of the Monastery of Sihăstria

The elders of the Monastery of Sihăstria, tell the following miraculous story:
In the year one thousand nine hundred and thirty, the brothers of the monastery were grazing their sheep in the glades of the mountain on the side of the small monastery of Sihla, when one of them suddenly discovered a small hole hidden among the rocks:
"Bless me, my Father" said the monk knocking on the door, but no one responded. Pushing gently, he opened the door, went into a narrow cave blackened by the smoke of the fire and saw, unknowingly, a bed of fir branches and in the center, on a table, were two prayer boards on which there was a sheet of paper that one could read: "I here the unhappy animal resides."
"If we knew where we could meet this father," the brothers said to each other, "we would bring him some food from our brotherhood, to pray for us."
         A few days later, as the night fell, an unknown monk, who was carrying something in his torba arrived at the brotherhood. "Bless me, brothers," he said. "I'm the ugly animal. I saw you when you entered my cell. I was in the forest. My name is Christopher and I belong to the Monastery of Frăsinei. I am a student of theology and in the summer I practice on my own on the mountain of Sihla. "
"Doesn't demon attack you when you pray?"
"But of course, my brothers. I suffer a lot from demons, and especially when I pray at night. Sometimes they scream like wolves around my cell. Other times again, they knock on the door, they call me by my name, they extinguish my candle, they attack me with all sorts of dirty thoughts. "
"And how do you handle them?"
"By fasting and with the help of the psalter. Equally useful are the vigils, the Jesus prayer and the sacred tears. "
"What do you have, father, in your bag?"
"Well, my brothers, I carry a big secret! It is the skull of a departed saint, the hermit monk Paul. He fought for his salvation in the parts of Sihla during the 18th century. Here's how God revealed it to me. For one month, one Sunday morning, I returned from the small monastery of Sihla to my hut. It was hot. I felt the need to lie down for a while. I  immediately fell asleep, but an overwhelming voice woke me up, saying: "Father Christopher, make a hundred steps to the right, and you will find beneath a fir my body, the hieromonk Paul the hermit, who endured harsh trials in these forests. Cover my bones with dirt, and take my skull and keep it all your life as a testimony and a blessing, and you will gain great benefit " I thought it was just a devilish fantasy, so I prayed for a while and fell asleep again. But again I heard the same voice that gave me the same command. Then I began to pray more and count one hundred steps to the right at the same time. Sheltered in the pit of a rock I found the body of St. Paul. There he rested for centuries. His bones were yellowish and gave off a nice fragrance. After burying the skeleton in the same place, I took the skull and kissed it. And since then it has always been close to me."

The skull of the saint stayed in the the Monastery of  Sihăstria, for seven days. All the fathers saw and embraced it... Then, Fr. Christopher put it back in his torba and returned to his beloved hermitage.


***A holy person's skull can turn yellow as shown in the video below