in the name of the Father son and Holy Spirit Amen.
These events I hold dear to my heart and were witnessed by friends and clergy alike
In my teenage years I had lost a young woman Katie that was very dear to me to suicide when she was 18. She was like a sister to me. She had it a bit rough growing up with a family that was not stable in terms of her parents. Her mother would lock her out of the house if she did not meet her expectations.
After high school she was accepted into Wellesley college in Massachusetts. During that time she fell into a deep depression she had no friends and she was bullied by a roommate that gave her a hard time. She wrote that she kept crying and didn’t understand why and that she always tried not to die in life. She accused herself of all sorts of things that were simply untrue and she was heavily sleep deprived. She took
Her own life in a wooded area on the campus. Shortly afterwards a tree was planted there in her memory.
THE MIRACLES WITHIN THE CHURCH.
After finding the true church as a catechumen my top priority became praying for her soul because I love her soo much. I attended my first Saturday of souls and before the memorial service for the dead we had liturgy and during communion I sat with my prayer rope with tears praying to God “Lord Jesus Christ son Of God have mercy on Katie , save Katie before you save me . “. When I finished my prayer rope the priest came out from the alter and looked at me as soon as I finished and said “you will be baptized before pascha” it came to pass that I was baptized in the exact anniversary of her death on April 20th. The priest had no knowledge of this event or what day that was.
The second miracle
On October 16 2022 which wood I have been Katie’s birthday, our archbishop came to visit the parish and at the same time a nun I know headed to Jerusalem to pray inside the Tomb of our Lord. I asked both to pray for her and they did and the nun did inside the tomb of our Lord.
A week passed and I went to liturgy again and afterwards I went to the back of the church where they sell books. I randomly grabbed 2 books off the shelf and behind it was one book that IMMEDIATELY popped out behind them in which there was only one copy of. The book was titled “ Katie visits a monastery “ my wife looked in awe and said “you know exactly what that means”.
I told the nun who prayed in the tomb for her about it and they consulted the abbess. The abbess said “you need not worry anymore Katie is in paradise” a monastery is a symbol of paradise
The third miracle
Which took place this year April 20th 2024.
A few months beforehand I had asked 2 friends of mine and a priest if they’d be willing to go to the site where she died where they planted a tree in her memory. They agreed too ironically the priest came from the church of St Xenia ( who always prayed for her departed husband and lived in a cemetery ). They had me on FaceTime so I could see the tree. It had been cloudy all day near storming. We prayed the Akathist to Saint Varus , the Akathist to st Catherine and the canon of prayer for those who ended their own lives. I myself spent almost 7 hours praying for her soul. As the priest read the Akathist to Saint Varus there is a verse which says “behold enjoying the uncreated light! “ At the exact moment the sun broke out from the clouds and shined across the entire region at that EXACT moment. The priest had to pause in awe as he marveled and what just happened before he could continue. It was the only time that happened in the entire day. Flowers were then planted there , my friend had kept these these flower seeds for months not knowing what to do with them but she felt this was the time to use them I asked what type of flowers they were , and she said “wildflowers “ those just happened to be Katie’s favorite flowers. She picked up a branch that had fallen from the tree and she made it into a 3 bar cross for me.