Orthodox Parables and Stories: The Vision of the Epitrachelion

A hieromonk father from the Neamț Monastery, an eminent scholar, typographer, bibliographer, almost half a century ago, recounted to me a moment in his life.

He was alone and loved quiet, so he lived in a small house outside the monastery.  He made his monastic rule with holiness, all the canons plus akathist and the supplication of the Virgin Mary.

 When he was a regular in the service, he did not like society and the crowd of brothers very much.  The crowd bothered him, rarely stopping by a café for food.  His head hurt for talking so much.  But what only bothered him was the crowd of worshippers at Saint Maslu.  People from all the neighboring villages flocked to the Sacrament of Unction and pulled the epitrachelion from the heads of the priests.  During the reading of the Holy Gospels, as if in sign, the whole congregation of women crowded under his neck, pulling the poor father.  It even seemed to him that it was unworthy and obscene to get under his necklace.

The abbot saw him frowning and asked him. what was wrong.  The father said to him: "Elder, old man, I came to the monastery, not to be pulled,  to be pushed by all the women, to be crushed.

The abbot said: "I will pray for you."

The next night, the father dreamt of a great lake of fire, with terrible flames in which millions of people burned.  And he was carried by an angel over the lake of fire, full of devils.

 He was wearing his epitrachelion and dozens of people were holding it screaming in fear, yet it did not tear.

 And the angel said to him: "these are the people for whom you pray, whom you confess"

Do not remove them from your neck or they will fall into the sea of fire and be lost forever.  And not only do you hold them, but they also hold you, because without them you could fall.

Since then, in fear and trembling, the Father has not turned anyone away from the epitrachelion knowing that God's grace flows through it.

Father John Istratis.