(Elder Isidoros, Elder Ephraim of Arizona, and Elder Ephraim of Xeropotamou)
Excerpt from The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women’s Monastery by Constantina R. Palmer, published by Ancient Faith Publishing (2012), pp. 227-231.
He Exalts Them of Low Degree
I’LL SHARE WITH YOU YET another experience I had with the blind Elder Isidoros of the Holy Mountain. This servant of God was so humble that although he worked many miracles—such as curing people of cancer, healing others of multiple sclerosis, curing a blind woman—he believed none of it came as a result of his own holiness. He felt the miracles happened solely through the prayers of his spiritual father, Elder Ephraim of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona.
By the time I met him, Elder Isidoros had been a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim for over thirty years. He had a thirty-three-knot prayer rope (the kind worn on the wrist) given to him by Elder Ephraim, which he kept in a small clear plastic bag with an icon of the Mother of God the Sweet-kisser (housed in Philotheou Monastery) taped onto it. With this simple, small prayer rope he prayed over people, and they were healed from all sorts of ailments. He attributed it all to the prayers of his spiritual father.
“Through the prayers of my Geronda,” he would say. And just like that, miracles happened!
By his profound humility, strong faith, and pure heart he attracted the grace of God, and God worked miracles through him. Because he thought himself unworthy to do such miracles, God enabled him to work them. Christ tells us, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard . . .” (Luke 17:6). This faith he obviously had.
A presvytera who lived quite close to the monastery had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She and her husband had four children. From his grief and worry that their children would lose their mother, the priest became paler each day. The weight of his wife’s impending death hung around his neck like a millstone. A friend of theirs told them Elder Isidoros was at the monastery. She suggested they go and take his blessing, and perhaps he could pray over the presvytera. They wisely heeded her advice and came to the monastery while I was also there.
When they went in to see the elder, he greeted them. They spoke a little, and he took out the relics he always carried around with him and offered them for veneration. Then he took out his little plastic bag with the small prayer rope inside and laid it on her.
“Through the prayers of Geronda Ephraim,” he said. And then in his characteristically strange, but funny way he said, “It’s leaving, it’s leaving! The cat will eat it!”
And that was it; his faith had healed her.
His spiritual daughter, a friend of mine, told me afterward that whenever someone he prayed over came to him to tell him the doctors could no longer locate the cancer, he always responded, “Yeah, because the cat ate it!”
During this same visit, my eczema was very bad, especially on my hands. The sisters told me to ask the elder to pray over them, so I took the opportunity while he was sitting with me when I was measuring and packaging some pasta.
“Papouli, I have really bad eczema on my hands right now, and they hurt a lot. Do you think you can pray over them?”
He took out the small prayer rope from his pocket and placed it in between my hands so that the eczema rashes were touching the plastic bag that held the rope. With my hands like this, he held them in his own.
“Papou, Geronda, do something!” he said, in the same way a child speaks to his father. He began to pray fervently, “Kyrie Isou Hriste eleison me . . . Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” He said “Papou” signifying Elder Joseph the Hesychast, his spiritual “grandfather,” the spiritual father of Elder Ephraim, and “Geronda,” obviously, addressing Elder Ephraim.
“How do you feel?” he asked me. “Do you feel warmth?”
“Mostly in my face, Geronda, but I think it’s because I’m a little embarrassed,” I said.
He continued to pray fervently.
“And now? Now, how do you feel?” he asked.
I began to have a strong feeling of spiritual joy in my heart.
“I feel joy,” I said.
“Joy? Anything else?” he asked.
“And peace.”
He continued to pray, and I continued to feel spiritually energized.
It was as though he were an outlet and my hands were the plug. I plugged into the spiritual outlet, and spiritual joy and peace were traveling through his hands into mine and through my whole body, right down into my feet, like an electrical current.
“Joy and peace, is that it?”
“A lot of peace,” I said quietly.
“And your hands, how do they feel?” he asked, letting them go.
I looked at them. The rashes were still there, but the sensation I was feeling overwhelmed any hint of irritation I had felt just a few moments ago.
“Better,” I said.
I felt so peaceful, so full of spiritual joy, that I had no other answer to give. Through his humble prayer, he allowed those spiritual sensations to pass from him into me. I felt spiritually rejuvenated for at least three days following this encounter. When I returned home, I put some ointment on my hands, and the rashes disappeared. I have not had any eczema rashes return since that time, even though I’ve had eczema since I was a teenager.
I must confess, however, that the spiritual peace and joy the elder conducted into me mean more to me than having some rashes healed. God knows what we need. The eczema may return, and I may have to live with that condition. But recalling and maintaining the spiritual fruit the elder offered me would be a far greater miracle. Through his prayers and his humble example, I hope to someday re-establish those spiritual sentiments and have them remain in my heart for the rest of my life.
From this experience I learned that when God gives us these small spiritual boosts, we should struggle with all our might to safeguard them with prayer and watchfulness. For they may well go away, with or without negligence, but it’s always better if we do all we can to keep them.
Even recalling the story fills me with courage to struggle harder. Ultimately this is what miracles should do for us. This is what my encounter with the elder taught me. Miracles are opportunities for our faith to increase and our resolve to struggle harder to be strengthened. God is glorified by His saints, and He glorifies them!
Post-script: This event occurred ten years ago now and to this day I am free of eczema.
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matushka constantina
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