Preparing the foundations for building the Holy Convent on those low hills was very expensive and time consuming. As a consequence, when Papouli began the project of building the monastery, he faced financial difficulties. We discussed the difficulties, but we found no solution as “without money nothing can be done that needs to be done.”
Nevertheless, Papouli was not someone who would get easily disappointed. He never gave up since he had great faith that God would help him to face any difficulty. He usually said, “What is impossible for people, is possible for God.”
However, the economic problem was of great concern. It became even harder when the time came to pay for the construction permit. The expense was very high. And it would have been even higher if a spiritual child of father Porphyrios had not volunteered to design and carry out the project.
In that difficult moment, Papouli asked me to go and discuss the possibilities of finding money, and I promised to do all I could. However, when I left, he was worried and almost depressed. This was the first time I saw him like this.
Ten days later, I visited Papouli, and being still far from him, I saw that he was smiling to me. He looked very happy, and he was full of enthusiasm, unlike the father Porphyrios I had left the previous time.
“Papouli, you are very happy. What happened?”
“My blessed child, you have understood how I feel. You are able to read my thoughts and feelings from far away.”
“The last time I saw you, you were very sad. Did you find a solution to your problem?”
“God solved it! For Him there are no problems without solutions. It’s only that we do not have any patience. And we do not have patience because we do not have faith. If we had deep and not superficial faith, then we would have patience, and our problems would be solved. But I do not have great faith. And what kind of faith is anyone to expect from a sinful person like me?” “
If you are sinful, Papouli, then what about us? Surely, we can do nothing else but tie a stone around our necks, fall into the deep water of the Euboea bay, and get drowned…”
“We are all in the same situation. And it is only the mercy of God that is going to save us. We cannot save ourselves. Now, I am going to tell you something important so that you admire the magnificence of God.”
And he narrowed what had happened:
“The day you left I was really very worried due to the economic problem. The following day, a gentle lady from Thessaloniki I had never met before came to me. As soon as she saw me, she asked, ‘Are you father Porphyrios?’ When I answered, she fell on her knees, embraced my feet tightly, and started kissing them. She was kissing even my shoes. In tears she was begging me to cure her child, who was close to death. Her cries were heard at a distance. They were so loud that they broke my heart. She had great faith that made me cry out of sympathy. Spontaneously, without actually realizing it, I found myself raising my hands and praying to God to show mercy on her and cure her child. The response was direct and positive. ‘Stand up,’ I told her. ‘Don’t cry! Your child has been cured!’ But she continued kissing my feet and beseeching me to cure her child. I tried in vain to persuade her that her child was cured. She was crying even louder. ‘Holy father, save my child! I have taken him to all the countries of the world; to the best doctors, to the greatest hospitals. Nobody has managed to cure him. Nobody even managed to give me a glimpse of hope for my child’s life. They all told me that he will die soon. My child is dying! Help me, saint of God..!’
When I saw her in that condition, my heart was heavy with sorrow. I bent down and caught her by the shoulders with all my power. I tried to make her stand up, but it was impossible. She was holding my legs, and I could not raise her up.
I repeatedly told her that her child was well. But she either did not hear, or perhaps she did not believe that I was telling the truth. I think that the latter was the case because when she heard me refer to her child by his name, she stood up immediately and started kissing my hands. The name had been revealed to me by God’s grace. She was kissing my hands with interminable gratitude, and tears were running from her eyes.
The woman needed much time to recover from all the emotional tension she had endured in front of the astonished onlookers. When she returned to Thessaloniki, she indeed found her child healthy. The doctors found him to be absolutely well. His illness had disappeared. All the doctors admitted that a great miracle had happened. The parents and relatives of the young boy were rejoicing and celebrating it as the greatest event of their lives.
They immediately informed me about the miracle. Even the parents themselves could not realize it. The doctors who testified to the naturally expected procedure of the disease, were proved wrong. That disease led to death, but ‘whenever God wishes, the laws of nature obey.’
While I was glorifying night and day the holy Name of our great God, who had listened to my prayers, the prayers of a sinner, and had saved from impending death the little child, I received a bill. Very early in the morning today, the civil engineer, a spiritual son of mine, brought me the bill of the construction permit, which reached the sum of 100,000 drachmas, without him being paid for his work. That matter made things difficult for me because, as I told you the last time you came to see me, there was no money at all; not even to pay for our most urgent needs.
And while I was seriously thinking about how to find money for the building permit, a cheque came: 100,000 drachmas in my order. It was exactly the sum we needed for the permit! A great miracle!
What had happened? Simply, when the woman from Thessaloniki became absolutely certain that a miracle had been performed on her son, she sent the money as a sign of gratitude to the Benevolent God, who had spared the health and the life itself to her son. She sent the exact amount we needed for the permit.
We can see here the grandeur of God. The great faith of the mother was the cause of two successive miracles; the healing of the child and the foundation of the Holy Convent, an important and God-pleasing work, which is going to be a place for accommodation and hospitality of thousands of souls and become a real hive of Orthodoxy. Why do you doubt what I tell you? Well, remember that there comes a day that people will flow here just like it is actually happening with the monastery of the All Holy Virgin in Tinos. And you will say then, ‘Papouli was right.”’
Prophetic words! May God let us prove them right!
Ref: Kalliatsos, Anargyros. Father Porphyrios: The Discerning, the Foreseeing, the Healer (pp. 107-109). The Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Savior, Milessi. Kindle Edition.
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