Orthodox Parables and Stories: "He was like a dear father to me.”

 

"He was like a dear father to me.”Once we met at the house of our friends, and my wife approached him with his blessing. Vladyka blessed her, took her by the hand and looked very attentively and long into her eyes.

The wife always recalled that incident and said that it was a person whose holiness could be felt.

She did not know what he saw in her eyes, but she felt what he was experiencing, testing her. Then she said that perhaps even then he knew that she would have to fight a brain tumor years later. And she believed that thanks to Vladyka, she managed to cope with her illness and continue living a normal life.

“On the last day of his life, Vladyka prayed for a very long time”

On July 2, 1966, Vladyka John arrived in Seattle with the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. It was planned that after that he would go to us in Vancouver with a miraculous image. My close friend Georgy Patrikeev and I also came to Seattle to accompany the Archbishop on his trip to Canada.

First, we served the Divine Liturgy, after which Vladyka, as usual, remained in the altar. I remember that that day he prayed there for an extremely long time.

Leaving the altar, the archbishop went up to the second floor of the parish house, and everyone else was waiting for him below. At some point, we heard something heavy falling above. Someone got up and saw Vladyka lying on the floor.

From the memoirs of Patrick Bradin (at the baptism of Andrew)