Great Miracle of St. Marina
“A few years ago [in 2000], a family from Lemessos,
Cyprus, named Vassiliou received the following miracle. In Greece they
are well known from the televised requests they made in order to find a
donor for their young boy Andrea, who suffered from leukemia. The donor
was indeed found and the parents began preparing for their trip to
Texas, U.S.A where the bone marrow transplant was going to be performed.
Meanwhile, they also prayed and begged Jesus Christ to save their boy.
Before they left for the U.S.A the parents heard of St. Marina’s
miracles and they called the monastery of St. Marina located on the
island of Andros in Greece to ask for her blessing.
The Elder of the
monastery, Archimandrite Fr. Cyprianos promised that he would pray to
St. Marina. He also wished the parents for St. Marina to be with Andrea
in the operating room, to help him. With Elder Cyprianos’ blessing and
with strong faith that St. Marina would help indeed, the Vassiliou
family went to the U.S.A.
After the necessary pre-operation tests that Andrea had to undergo, he
was taken to the operating room. A short time before the operation was
to begin, a woman came to see the surgeon who would be operating on
Andrea. She said that she was Andrea’s doctor and asked to be allowed to
observe the operation. The conversation that ensued proved that the
woman was indeed a doctor. However, the surgeon replied that ‘outside’
doctors were not permitted to be present in the operating room and that
his medical teams’ policy was that no doctor other than those on the
team be involved in such delicate operations. The persistence of the
woman however, convinced the surgeon to allow her in the operating room.
But before, he asked her to leave her coordinates [credentials] at the
administration desk. The unknown doctor did as told and then entered the
operating room with the surgeon. During the operation, she gave several
directions regarding the progress of the procedure. The operation went
well and in the end the surgeon thanked the woman and exited the
operating room.
Andrea’s parents immediately went to inquire about the outcome of the
surgery and the surgeon replied that all had gone very well, adding that
he could not understand why they had brought Andrea to him when they
had such a fine doctor. The parents were surprised and responded that
they had not brought any doctor with them. The surgeon insisted,
however. He also told them that when he came out of the operating room
Andrea’s doctor had remained there for a little longer with the rest of
the operating team and therefore, she would probably still be around. He
recommended that they look for her. The search, however, proved
pointless, as the ‘woman doctor’ was nowhere around. The Vassiliou
couple then concluded that it must have been a doctor from Greece or
Cyprus who had decided to travel to the U.S.A and contribute to the
delicate operation. They expressed the wish to know who she was so that
they may be able to thank her, and at the surgeon’s recommendation they
then went to the administration desk to ask for her coordinates.
It was with utter surprise that they read that the unknown woman had signed with the name “Marina from Andros”.
Tears of gratefulness and joy filled their eyes as they recalled that
the Elder at the monastery had said to them that he wished Andrea to
have St. Marina in the operating room to help him. Andrea’s parents
shared with the media their joy both for the successful operation and
Andrea’s recovered health and for the miracle they received. The
Vassiliou family made the vow that the entire family will be present at
the saint’s monastery every year on the saint’s feast day (July 17) and
Elder Cyprianos reports that the family has been making the annual trip
from Lemessos to Andros every summer to thank Saint Marina for saving
Andrea.
Miracles performed by the saints have never ceased to take place in the
Orthodox Church. With these miracles, may our Lord Jesus Christ help us
build our faith.”
