It is not by sheer accident, but by God’s providence that the most venerated saints are the ones we know the least of. This holds true for the Mother of God and St Nicholas. Humility does not look for an opportunity to show off and to boast. It likes to stay unnoticed, that is why both the “Blessed among women” and the most favourite saint for us Russians lived a life we do not know much of - the more valuable the glory they acquired after their repose. It is hard to find a Christian town where the Mother of God has not shown Her wonderworking love, healing, protecting and teaching those in need of help. The same is true about St Nicholas.
Archpriest Andrew Tkachev
St Nicholas the Wonderworker is one of the most venerated saints in St Elisabeth Convent. There have been many facts of his direct participation in the life of the convent. When a church was expected to appear at the territory of the hospital, the municipal authorities did not allow this to happen for almost a year. Father Andrew blessed the sisters to read an akathist to St Nicholas on a Sunday, during a regular meeting of the Sisterhood. The sisters started to pray. It was Monday, the following day, that all the documents were given approval.
The construction of the church started, but in the meantime, there was lack of money to continue it. We almost decided to stop the construction. However, Saint Nicholas was not late to help us. When the time to pay the workers came, we managed to find exactly the sum we needed.
The foundation and the life of the convent are closely connected with the very name of Nicholas. The first site manager was Nicholas, and the chief architect had the same name. The spiritual father of Fr. Andrew, who blessed the creation of the convent, was starets Nicholas (Gurianov).
The confessor of the convent Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok said that St Nicholas rescued him from death twice. Once it happened, when Fr Andrew got into a whirlpool and began to sink. He almost lost his conscience, but he called St Nicholas to help him, and all of a sudden he felt something push him out of the water. Later, he was miraculously saved by St Nicholas in a dreadful train accident in 1977. Almost all the train went off the rails, and many passengers died. Only one carriage remained on the rails. This was the one where Father Andrew sat.
Nun Antonina also recalled a miraculous story. Once she met a woman on a train, whom St Nicholas the Wonderworker also helped. This woman had been very ill when she was a child. An elderly man came to her and told her to drink some water from a well – and she would be healed. He asked her not to tell anyone about it. The girl did just as the elder said – and was healed. When she grew up, she came to church and recognized her saviour to be St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The Orthodox Church commemorates St Nicholas the Wonderworker on May, 22. We celebrate the Translation of the Venerable Relics from Myra to Bari (1087) where they are now.
The festive church services in our convent were held in the lower church consecrated in honour of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.
All-Night Vigil took place on May 21. There was a moleben with blessing of water before the Liturgy on the actual day of the feast. The festive Liturgy was celebrated by Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok and a Greek priest Fr. Philippus who came to us from Frankfurt-am-Main. There was an akathist service and a procession after the service.
Sermon of Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok:
Christ is Risen!
We commemorate Saint Nicholas who prays for us to Christ our God during these last days of Pascha. His prayer is strong and quick, his prayer is effective. Perhaps, each one of us has had an experience of asking this saint for help and receiving this help. His prayer helps us stand in this world, helps us overcome our lack of faith and doubtfulness, helps us not to become desperate. We ask that St Nicholas could strengthen us in our faith, hope and love we need so very much, without which our lives become dull and meaningless; without which we become sullen turning into a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife.
We know that the only way to Christ is through repentance. Repentance cannot be finished as soon as confession is over, as soon as we have recalled all our mistakes and written them down into a notebook. Repentance is a state of soul, which realises that it cannot bear the love of Christ; it loses this Love because it does not make effort, does not have attention, it pays attention only to itself, not willing to see or hear its neighbour. This leads a person into a horrible state. He does not know what he is doing because he lost his links with God and neighbour. A person suffers in the darkness of his self, he suffers and can not see a way out, because he looks for the way in himself. It is very important for us to be inspired by the prayer of the saints, their exemplary service to God and their zeal for God.
We thank God that we have such a great patron saint who keeps praying for us and teaching us. We are silly and lazy, and we understand it. We can do nothing on our own but we hope that the Lord would make Abraham’s children from us and even the most lazy, clumsy, unskilled and light-hearted are important for God, thanks to the prayers of St Nicholas.
We pray to St Nicholas and ask him to keep protecting us. We ask him so that the Lord could give us strength to fight sin both inside our souls and around us through the prayers of St Nicholas. Let’s hope that St Nicholas would not leave us alone because the first church in the convent was consecrated in his honour. There was a ceiling over this church when we served the first Pascha there, it was wet, and there weren’t many decorations in the church. Just people with their eyes and their hearts were a decoration for the church. May all of us walk before God! Lord Jesus Christ, save us!
Saint Nicholas, pray to God for us!
