GOD TOLD ME TO TELL YOU THIS. A miraculous event in the life of St. Porphyrios...

GOD TOLD ME TO TELL YOU THIS

A miraculous event in the life of St. Porphyrios

The Saint’s room at the convent he established

In Milesi, Greece. The room in which he spent

the last years of his life.

            When St. Porphyrios was living in Athens he decided to visit a Monastery with three of his spiritual children in order to have a vesper service.  Initially they started walking to the Monastery.  But when they had walked for some distance with the Monastery still some distance away the group decided to hail a taxi.  The Elder was also getting tired at this point. After making this decision they almost immediately saw a taxi appear at some distance from them. They decided to hail that taxi and have it take them to the Monastery. 

            The Saint said to those with him; “don’t worry; the taxi will stop for us of its own accord.  But when we get into the taxi I do not want anyone to talk to the driver.  I only will speak to him.”  It happened just as the Elder said.  The driver stopped the cab without anyone hailing it. They all entered the taxi and the Elder told the driver where they wanted to go. 

            As soon as the driver proceeded toward the Monastery, the driver started to speak despairingly about priests.  He criticized them for doing many wrong things.  And every time he said something, he directed his comments toward the three laymen in the cab who were sitting in the back seat.  He would ask them; “isn’t that the way it is?  What do you people think?”  They, on the other hand, being faithful to the directive of the Elder did not respond to him. 

            When the driver realized that the three laymen were not answering his statements about the priests, he turned his attention to the Elder and he asked him: “Isn’t that, dear father, the way it is? What do you say? Isn’t it true about what I said and what the newspapers are writing about?” 

            The Elder then responded:  “My son, I want to tell you a little story and I will say it only one time and I will not have to repeat it.”  The Elder began to tell the story as follows:  “There was a man in a certain village that lived next to an old man who owned a large piece of property.  One night this person killed the old man and buried him.  After doing this he managed to illegally draw up some papers that allowed him to buy the old man’s property and sell it.   And do you know what he did with the money?  He bought a taxi.” 

            As soon as the cab driver heard the story, he became so upset he pulled over to the side of the road and yelled out: “Do not say any more, dear father, only you and I know about this.”  St. Porphyrios responded: “God knows about it,” the Elder responded. “He is the one who told me about it so that I could tell you and for you to change your way of life.” 

Translated from the Greek by:

+Fr. Constantine J. Simones, Waterford, CT. USA, June 3

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