Listen to a word about the life and miracles of one of the greatest and most wonderful saints in Orthodoxy: Saint Spyridon. What was the cause of his holiness? His humility!
Enjoy!
Here we are again, my dears, in the woods, in a beautiful place. An autumn atmosphere. I know it has already snowed in Romania, but we still have autumn, a long, beautiful autumn. There you have it, a nice, quiet atmosphere, quite warm, to say the least for this time of year, but first of all very restful. I look like this, the forest, how quiet it is, old trees, even here there is one, I mean that has passed through and caught many things in this Athos.
I sometimes think of one of these trees, how many storms it has caught, how much snow, rain, everything, and they have stood still, grown beautifully. They have dug their roots deep into the ground to reach the water source they need, especially in summer when it doesn’t rain, to live. Likewise, we need to sink our roots deep into humility in order to nourish ourselves through humility. That through humility, we draw closer to God.
That God also, as God, came down to earth and humbled himself here on earth among us, and endured all things from us.
And speaking of humility, I want to tell you about a wonderful saint. A saint of humility and simplicity. Saint Hierarch Spiridon. Here’s the little saint here, a little icon of him, see. What’s he wearing? A miter, but look at that miter. So a miter, made of what? Out of the cattail. That’s how he wore it, or something like that, look, like these wool ones, something simple, that’s how he wore it. He was never seen in one of those rich garments, that’s how he was. Not that there weren’t more ornate hierarchs at the time, but he was a saint of simplicity. He was born in 268 somewhere in Cyprus near a city, Trimitunda, in a little village there. And that’s where he grew up. What was his job? Sheep herder.
He grew up properly, got married, and had a daughter, Irina, who was raised just as beautifully in simplicity, in maidenhood, so she grew up that way. But so God ordained, shortly after, when she was 20 years old, a virgin, she had not married, by the time she was 20 years old she would have left this world. His wife also died. And St. Spyridon was widowed. He did, as I said, shepherding sheep, but first of all his wife had died, and for part of his life he raised his daughter alone.
And after his daughter died, so he was with holy life, so to speak. It is said that a widow who knew his daughter, that she was reliable, had a gold treasure that she had inherited, and said, “Well, for hard times, in old age I may need it”, and entrusted it to Irene, the daughter of Saint Spiridon. When Irene died, the Saint knew nothing of this treasure. The old woman came crying and said, “She’s dead and where’s my treasure”. The Saint looked everywhere for it and couldn’t find him. And then what did he do? He went to Irene’s grave and cried out, “Irene, my daughter, please tell me where is the treasure of this old woman who entrusted it to you?”.
And then she spoke and said, “In that place, under the foot of the bed, there is a little place there, I hid it there”. Then he said, “Sleep, my daughter, until the second coming, when Christ will wake you up. They all marveled at the faith of Saint Spyridon.
So he went, and found the old woman’s gold. Having a holy life, after his wife died, his daughter died, what did he do? He became a monk. And shortly afterwards, having become a monk, for his virtuous life they ordained him priest, deacon and then bishop of Trimitunda. That he had a holy life, everyone saw that he worked miracles. But he didn’t give up his job as a shepherd. He was a shepherd, and he still tended, he had sheep, he had goats, he lived on this income, he worked with his hands, he took care of them. He was shepherding the flock, but he also took care of that. It was as they say, he wanted the Holy Apostle Paul, not to burden anyone. To live by the toil of his hands. And many miracles are at the saint, I hope I can tell you some of them, what I remember.
While we were on the subject, how he was a shepherd once, that there were people who came to buy goats, sheep from him, as he had. And once he had both goats and sheep and he decided to sell the goats. 100 goats. And a merchant came and said, “I’ll give you this much for it, okay. ” He says, “Good, put the money there”, the Saint didn’t even count it, and “Go, take how many goats you paid”. This one went and got 100 goats, but he saw that the Saint didn’t count the money and paid him only 99. For the hundredth he put the money in his pocket and said, “I put money for 100”, “Good, take how many you payed for”. He took 99 goats, when he was about to take the 100th, it struggled, ran back into the sheepfold, finally he put it on his shoulders, it was poking him with its horns, it struggled….
The saint seeing it says, “There is something that this goat wants to tell us. ” Isn’t it not paid for?” And when he realized that the Saint knew, he asked for forgiveness and said, “Forgive me, for I have been greedy and have not paid you back.”
And the moment he paid that goat too, suddenly the goat came after him without tying it up or anything, after the one who had bought it and somehow ran ahead of him to the other goats. So God was always working and keeping him from being wronged. Another time, two thieves came one night and wanted to steal some of his goats, some of the sheep he had there. And of course, as soon as they entered the sheepfold, an unseen power caught them and tied their hands behind their backs, and they were stuck there all night in the sheepfold, between the goats.
And in the morning when the Saint comes, he finds them there. And they began to beg for forgiveness for coming to steal. And the Saint first gently rebuked them, “You, my friends, it is not good for you to live by stealing, you go and work, but lest you say that I am wronging you, you have toiled all night and watched here, look, I will give you a ram”. So instead of punishing them, he gave them a gift. And when they saw the goodness of the Saint, they straightened up. They stopped stealing. So the Saint had a lot of gentleness, but also a lot of love, and a lot of humility as I said.
He also participated in the Council of Nicaea against Arian. And when Emperor Constantine the Great was at that time, when he assembled the Synod, he said that bishops should come from all over the world. And St. Spyridon came with his deacon. He had a very humble deacon, Triphilia, obedient, he saw the holiness of the Saint. And they also left with their means of transport that were then, with a carriage, they had a black and a white horse, and so they left for the Synod.
You can imagine, days, nights, so it was a long way to get to Constantinople. And the Aryans, knowing him to be holy, said, “Well, if this one arrives, some miracle is sure to happen, let’s stop him.” And at night when they stopped at an inn where they could stay for a night, they went into the stable where the horses were kept and cut the heads off the horses. And in the morning when the deacon Triphilia went to take the horses to be harnessed, he comes to the Saint and says, “Holy one, the horses’ heads are cut off, both of them are dead”. “Leave it,” blessed the Saint towards the stable, he says, “go put their heads back on”.
This one went in the dark, in the morning, as it was there, and took the head, and put it by mistake the head of the white horse to the black horse, and the head of the black horse to the white horse, and the horses came to life. And when he took them out of the stable, he said, “Holy cow, look what I’ve done!”. “What have you done?” “I put the white head on the black one.” “Let it be God’s will that they should see his help and his miracle.” And they went to the Synod. When the Aryans saw, you see, those who had cut off the heads of the horses, that now they were the resurrected horses, the white head on the black horse, they were afraid, they were fearful, they said, “What a miracle!”. And they reached the Synod.
There were enough Aryans there too, and they had a philosopher, that the emperor allowed, and if they brought in able men, besides the bishops who were there, to be philosophers. And he was a pagan philosopher but paid by the Aryans but very capable, good-mouthed, nobody stood in his way.
And no one had the power to contradict him. And then Saint Spyridon stood up to speak. And the other bishops knew him simply, no education, nothing, no theology, nothing. He was simple. So he was going along all by faith. So they said to him, “Holy Father, how can you speak, don’t you see how educated this one is, how he crafts words, what he does, what should you say?”. “Let God take care of it”. And he stood up and said just a few simple words to him. They told him of the Holy Trinity, you see the Arians did not believe that God is both God and man, and he said to him, “I know you cannot trust me with words, but take heed of me!”. And took a brick in the hand of St. Spyridon. And he lifted it up, saying, “By this you may be sure that what I say about the Holy Trinity is true.”
And when he had pressed the brick in his left hand, and with the right he blessed, he made a cross upon it, and fire rose up out of the brick to heaven, and the water ran down, and the earth remained in his hand. And he said this is the Holy Trinity. And then the philosopher stood dumbfounded, he could not speak, for a long time he looked at it, and then he turned to the others, to the Arians, and said, “As long as it was about words, I was going to win.” But when the miracle happened, I can’t do anything. And you, if you have enlightened yourselves and if you realize the miracle of this old man, you too will return. I am going to the rightful faith with Saint Spyridon”. And he went over to their side, left the Aryans. And they were shamed by this miracle. Do you see? Simple man.
But how the miracle worked through him. And of course, the believers won, and the Arians were defeated. And many miracles with Saint Spyridon. Let me try to remember something else. It says that there was a great drought in his city, it didn’t rain for a year, and there was famine, especially the poor people had nothing.
And there was a rich merchant, and seeing that there was a drought there, he went with I don’t know how many ships and brought a lot of wheat, and he made big barns, but he didn’t want to sell it, so that when the famine would be bigger and he could double the price. And a poor man went to him and said, “Give me some as when the fields come into fruit, so that God will give us rain, and I will give you double. “No, if you don’t bring the money here, I won’t give you anything. And then he came to Saint Spiridon, “Holy, my children are starving, what should I do?”. The Saint had nothing left either. He gave everything away to the poor. He says, “Go home, my son, as God lives, for tomorrow you will have as much grain as you want, and even that rich man will ask you to take it.
The poor man went home, thinking that the Saint just wanted to comfort him. That night the Saint prayed and it rained, it rained for several days continuously, apart from feeding the earth with water, the big water came and hit right into the barn, the rich man had a big barn. Right into it, and broke it, and the water took the wheat downhill. And it was on the alley of the fortress, where the wheat was flowing downhill. And all the poor went out and gathered the wheat.
And this poor man also went out and gathered the grain with his vessel, with what he had there, and the rich man cried out and cried, “Help me, lest I be poor,” when he saw that all the grain was going away. And when he saw the poor man, he realized that it was his punishment for not helping him, and he told him, “Take as much as you want, take the wheat from here, take as much as you need for the children”, because he had nothing left. And so the Holy One comforted with his prayers, and brought rain for the drought.
And then the Saint says that it rained for three days, he prayed again, and the rain was calmed by his prayers. And he says that this rich man, even though it rained, and the famine lasted until the harvest grew, another poor man came to the Saint and asked him, saying, “Look, I went to that rich man to ask him for wheat, and he would not give it to me.
He said if I don’t bring him gold he won’t give me wheat. How can I give him gold?”. And the Saint said, “Wait here a moment!”. And the Saint went into the garden and came with a golden ball. “Here, go and pawn it to the rich man so that he will give you as much grain as you need, and when the harvest is ripe, take it to him as much as he wants and take the pawn from him and bring it back to me.
And so did the poor guy. And when that year was past, the harvest ripened he gave it back to the rich man and brought the gold, saying, “Come, my son, let us give back to God what he has given us.” And he went with him into the garden, and saw that he had laid down the golden bundle, and he made a cross upon it, and blessed it. And all of a sudden it started moving and became a snake and went into the ground. So the Saint blessed a snake that turned to gold at the touch of his hands and gave it to the poor. How God worked through his hands. Many, many miracles. And to avoid going on at length, I’ll say just one more, because there are many things about this Saint. So he’s a wonderful saint.
After Emperor Constantine the Great the next emperor became very ill. And he had a disease that wouldn’t heal, so it was very serious, all over his body. And he kept praying to God. And one night he saw in a vision two monks, one older, one younger. And a voice said to him, “Only they can heal you.”
And he saw that one of them was a bishop, plain and simple. And then the king, when he came to his senses, said, “I must find out who they are.” And he sent word for all the bishops to come to him. They came from the area of Constantinople, none was the same, he sent his people again throughout the kingdom. And of course, they arrived at St. Spyridon’s, “Hey, the emperor is calling us, let’s go!”, with his deacon. And he arrived there to the emperor and when he went in there was a servant, he drove them away thinking that they were beggars, that is how the Saint was dressed. They didn’t even realize he was a bishop. Then they realized they were bishops, he apologized, and when the emperor saw Saint Spyridon and his deacon, he recognized them.
And then the Saint came to him, he had a small vessel, something with holy oil, always at his chest. And he took oil from the vessel and anointed the king, and was healed immediately. And then the emperor wanted to give him money, to give him everything. He says, “No, Emperor. I don’t need all these things. But if you want to do something, to help the churches, to stop the priests from paying taxes, to stop them from paying these things to the kingdom, let them be left alone.” That before everyone paid to the kingdom, as everyone was, so the churches had to give something. And since then the emperor has ordered that the churches to pay nothing to the state. The priests were left alone to serve God.
Then Saint Spyridon left there and went to a poorer family, as he was used to. Not to go to the rich. And stayed there overnight. There was a faithful man but he had married a family from another area, who didn’t even know the language, if he was a merchant…and they had a little baby and the baby died.
And the woman took him in her arms, came to St. Spyridon’s, put him at her feet and showed him by signs that she did not understand the language, “Help me!” and the little child was crying and the poor man didn’t want to do anything to make people praise him, and he said to his deacon, “What shall we do, Triphilia?”. “Father, do you know what the Savior did when they brought to him Jairus’ daughter? You have to do the same”. “All right, son.” And then he prayed, blessed her and raised the woman’s child. When the woman saw the baby alive in her arms, she fell down and died.
And when the Saint saw, he turned to the deacon again, “And now what shall we do?”. “Father, you know better, you can’t leave the child without a mother!”. “All right then”. And he prayed and raised the mother. And great joy, you can imagine, for that family. And then he went back to his island in Trimitunda. And after 80 years, when he was past 80, his time came and he too went to the Lord, full of years and holy life. He was buried there, then later when the Saracen arrived in that part, the relics were taken out, and when they dug him up there was the body whole and with the fragrance. Then they took him to Constantinople.
Later, he arrived in Serbia and from Serbia a rich Greek brought him to Greece to the island of Corfu, where his relics are still in one piece and he works many miracles. It is celebrated on 12 December. The whole island celebrates then because he is the patron saint of the island. Many miracles are done there and now they make procession, they surround the island there, very beautiful. People worship him all the time for how great a Saint he is, merciful, humble and protective. Saint of humility and love. Pray to him that he always helps you. May the Mother of God help us, for she is our link to heaven, and Saint Spyridon. God help us!
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