We had gone on a pilgrimage to Saint Patapios (his memory is
commemorated on December 8) in the monastery at Loutraki where his
incorruptible body is kept, with 8 buses. In my bus, there was a couple from
Cyprus. The man didn't believe in anything. And when he heard me talking
and talking about where we were going and what we would face there, he
said:
– What a creepy and dark thing this is! Where is he taking us? Is he taking us
to the cemetery?
And when we got there, he didn't go in at all to worship the Saint. He took his
wife and asked her to go to sleep with the excuse that he was tired and all
that!
The nuns gave them a cell to go to sleep in. As soon as he went to sleep, St.
Patapios appeared to him sitting on a stone on the steps outside the door
where his incorruptible relic was kept and was smiling at him!
And the Saint says to him…
– Why didn't you come this way?
– Who are you?
– I'm the one who's here…
– But this is St. Patapios, but I'm not…
– Yes, it's me…
– But you're alive!
– What am I, dead?
– Are you in there?
– Yes, I am!
He gets up from the bed in great fear and pushes his wife and says:
– Wife, get up!
– Why should I get up? Now we've gone to bed…
– Get up and let's get down!
– But you didn't want us to sit down.
So, they get up and they go down to the chapel where the Saint's relic is. And
he sees St. Patapios sitting on the stone, just as he saw him in his dream,
smiling at him! And the Saint nods to him, as if to say:
"Come! Come in!".
He walked past there, frightened, he was lost of words… and he went in and
venerated the relic of St. Patapios. And he stayed there until morning like a
little dog, humiliated and exhausted! Next to the Saint… Unfortunately, some
people think that saints are dead relics…
Dimitrios Panagopoulos the Preacher (1916 – 1982)
Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou
