The Nun Elizabeth the Wonderworker
Commemorated on April 24
The Nun Elizabeth
the Wonderworker was chosen to the service of God while still at birth. It
was revealed to her mother, that the girl would be a chosen vessel of the Holy
Spirit.
In childhood the
parents gave off their daughter to a monastery. She grew up in fasting and
works and received the gift to heal infirmities not only of body, but also of
soul.
The sisters chose the
nun to be hegumeness. The nun wore the attire of a coarse hairshirt. Her body
withered, but her spirit blazed with the flame of Divine Love.
The abstinence of the
saint was immeasurable: for many years she ate only grass and vegetables
without bread, and wine and oil she did not partake of. Many a time the Nun
Elizabeth passed the whole of the Forty-Day Great Lent, partaking of nothing at
all. Imitating the Publican in humility, for three years she did not lift up
her eyes to the heavens, but with her spiritual eyes she looked constantly to
God. At the midnight prayers the nun was alight and illuminated by Heavenly
Light.
Many miracles were
done by the nun: a vicious viper was killed by her prayer, she healed a woman
with issue of blood who had been for many a year sick, and she cast out unclean
spirits from people. Upon her death the grave of the Nun Elizabeth likewise
gave forth healings from illness. Even the very dust, taken from over her
relics, gave the blind to see.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
