Mrs Maria Gerges Fanous, who resides at 1 Malak Shahata St, Al-Andalos/Al-Marg relates:
I used to suffer from tonsillitis every three months. Each time I would have a high fever and a terrible sore throat in addition to pain in my legs and all over my body. Despite my suffering every winter and the urgency of undergoing surgery since I was a child in grade four, I avoided the operation out of fear.
I got married and for eight years I was suffering from the same symptoms. Still, I never thought of undertaking the operation. One day in May 2008 the pain was at its peak. It was a Monday, the first working day of the week for my husband, Mr. Sabry Michael, who works in one of the big hotels. His only days off are Saturday and Sunday. And he cannot take any other day off during the week.
I was so weak and feeling dizzy together with blurring of vision due to the high fever, the acute follicular tonsillitis as well as, the mouth ulcers. Both tonsils were so infected and swollen that they formed an enlarged draining lymph gland under mandible. My husband got me some medicine but had to go to work on the following day. I had with me my daughter Maria who was eight years old and my five year old son. I was unable to do anything at home. I was praying and saying, ‘God, please give me strength to prepare food for my children.’ I even had difficulty preparing their breakfast.
At the end of the day I was extremely tired. I slept on a chair in the hall while suffering from high fever. Since my husband was never home before 2 am, my daughter Maria used to apply cold pads and sponges to my forehead until I felt a bit better. When my husband returned from work, he told me that he would not be able to take me to the doctor, so I had to wait until the weekend.
The next day, my sister – in – law spent the day with me. She helped me with the cooking as I was still unable to do anything at home. We spent the time watching on the computer a video of the funeral of Tamav Erene. We then watched her talk about the Martyr Abi Seifein and the miracles performed with his prayers. I used to touch the picture of Tamav on the screen and put my hand on my neck, on the spot of the tonsillitis. I did this repeatedly and then said to myself, “What am I doing?’ but then I thought, “If I have faith as a mustard seed, I will say to this mountain ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move” (Mat 17.20).
Later my sister came to me, switched on the computer and put on the same DVD of Tamav. I repeated the same act of taking her blessing. My sister-in-law left us and my sister spent the night with me. When my husband returned from work, he saw my mouth with both tonsils swollen covered with pus together with several mouth ulcers. He felt so sorry for not being able to take me to the doctor. I asked him about the picture of Tamav Erene which we had taken from the convent when the reliquary of Abu Seifein moved in February 2007. It was a double-sided picture with the Mother of God on one side and Tamav on the other one. He gave me the picture and then I went into the bedroom and prayed. I said, “God, if it is Your will to take me when still young, then let it be Your will, but look after my children. If it is Your will to cure me, then You can.” I put Tamav’s picture on my neck and felt my heart beating so strongly and my body becoming so heavy.
I closed my eyes and was sweating profusely. I felt a tender hand touching and moving up and down the right side of my face and neck. I felt the enlarged swelling dissolve. I was swallowing with difficulty something similar to lumps.
I opened my eyes a few minutes later and found myself calling my husband with difficulty and with a very faint voice as if I was calling from far away. He came close to me and I started saying: “Glory be to You O Lord, I am a sinner. Glory be to You.” My husband was trying to calm me down, yet I would not stop repeating, “The Lord was glorified with me, sinner as I am.” And my voice was gradually getting louder.
He told me, “It has only been four minutes since I last saw you. Because you want God to perform a miracle with you, you imagine that something has happened”. I opened my mouth to show him that I was cured, as only a few minutes earlier he had seen the severe inflammation and pus in my mouth. I was able to open it easily, which was not the case before. My husband was astonished at what he saw and said: “In the name of the Cross, what is this? Your throat is healed, no inflammation or pus, nothing whatsoever.”
He woke my sister up and there was a very strong smell of holy spices in the room. That day I got to know Tamav Erene and her life story for the first time. However, I had truly tasted her blessing and experienced her strong response to those who asked for her. A few minutes later, I felt the need to get something out of my throat. I got a big handkerchief and had large lumps mixed with pus and blood from my throat. My high temperature completely settled and the pain was gone.
By then, we were all awake in the house and started listening to hymns amid a feeling of great joy. From May till December, I never complained of tonsillitis; however, I knew that Tamav cured me of the pains of one tonsil.
On 17 December 2008, I felt hot and had pain in my leg. The left tonsil was enlarged and full of pus. I took some pain killers and antibiotics and sat down to watch a new film about Tamav Erene. It was the second part which was produced in 2008. Whilst I was watching it, I kept making the sign of the Cross on the left tonsil as I did previously with the right one. I kept asking for Tamav’s blessing to take the pain away in the same way as she had done with the right tonsil. After finishing the movie, I started coughing and had a couple of lumps mixed with blood and pus out of my mouth.
I thank the Lord as it has been more than nine months; all the symptoms disappeared and never recurred. I went to the doctor who examined my throat and tonsils and found them healthy and completely clean. He said, “You had severe inflammation and pus; but you are cured. You should go to the convent of the Martyr Abi Seifein and sing hymns of praise.” I have come today to thank God who was glorified through the prayers of our dear mother Tamav Erene and cured me from severe pains, which lasted for years, without any surgical intervention.
Ref: Tamav Erene: Leader and Mother in the Monastic Pastures (book 4), p. 168 – 171
The Art of Orthodoxy 