SAINT NEKTARIUS GUARDS HIMTestimony of Mr. Georgios Tsitsopoulos, Athens
My brother first told me about Saint Porphyrios around 1973 and I went and met him in Kallisia.
A
little while later, without us having informed him where I was working,
he came late at night to the sheet metal shop in Agios Fanourios where I
worked as an employee with my cousin.
The
Saint asked us to take a barrel and showed us how to cut it to make a
wood stove. Because it was winter and very cold, I made him and his
companion sit at the back of the shop, inside the closed office. As I
was cutting the barrel, the electric wheel slipped from my hands, fell
on me, got tangled and cut my clothes. I called to my cousin to unplug
the cable from the socket, but he did not hear me. At the same moment
the wheel stopped.
The
Saint had unplugged the cable and was next to me. I was wearing a lot
of clothes and they were torn to pieces, but in a miraculous way I was
not injured at all and embarrassedly I said to the Saint:
-Elder, do you see how calm I am?
-You are not calm, blessed one... Above your head was Saint Nektarios. Can't you see across? The whole area became day!
Opposite the shop were plots and fields. All I could see was darkness, because it was 12 midnight.
***
It
was August 14, 1978 and I was passing through the bars of a building in
Ano Liosia. It was early noon and I said to my assistant. Gather the
tools, we're going to school. Tomorrow is the Virgin Mary's. Great is
Her grace, glorified is Her name!
And
as I hit the hammer to nail the last cement nail, it broke and hung off
the balcony, a piece of concrete slab 2.5 x 1.3m., because the
contractor had reinforced it with thin iron bars, and I ran straight
over the railing into the void. From the third floor I ended up on the
street! First I hit a PPC cable, from there on the pillar, then on a fig
tree to end up in the lime. A driver who saw the whole fall stopped
immediately, picked me up and took me to the hospital in Kifisia. I was
in a coma for a week. They only gave me 8 stitches and when I came to, I
went straight to the Virgin Mary of Tinos to thank her.
I also owe gratitude to Saint Nektarios, because - as Saint Porphyrios told me - he is my patron.
When
the Saint was building his Monastery, I volunteered to make the iron
structures, mainly doors and windows. He didn’t want them made of wood
or aluminum.
One
day I was hanging at 9 meters. I was holding on with one hand and with
the other I was clinging to a window. I was standing level on a small
ledge of the wall and the Saint passed by with Mr. George A..., who said
to him anxiously:
-Elder, George is hanging up there!
-Go ahead... He has Saint Nektarios above his head.
He once told me:
-God has given you a great gift.
What is this and I don't know it?
You never get angry and you never blaspheme!
Bibliography. Saint Porphyrios the Prophet.
Testimonies.
Publications. Agios Paulites Holy Cell of Saints Theodores Mount Athos. Volume C.
