FATHER IVAN OF KRONSTADT

Temuka Leader, Issue 2760, 8 January 1895, Page 3

FATHER IVAN OF KRONSTADT

Lucifer gives an interesting account of Father Ivan of Kronstadt, who was recently summoned to the bedside of the dying Czar. Father Ivan is a priest of the Russian Church, and of him the most extraordinary stories are told. Throughout the whole Russian Empire his name is a household word, and thousands of pilgrims throng round him every day. i His journeyings through Russia partake of the character of Imperial progresses. In the crowds are to be found the nobility, the highest military and civil officers of the empire, women of fashion, men of science, wealthy merchants, soldiers and peasants, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Mohammedans —all alike bent on seeing him. This marvellous popularity is founded on the cures of diseases he is reported to have made. It is said that many persons given up by the doctors have been saved by him, and not a few of the Russian medical men are said to acknowledge his powers of healing. When he sees that a cure is hopeless he does not attempt to perform one. Hence a word about recovery from him is taken by the patient as an indication that he is sure to get well; when he is silent it is taken as a sentence of death. Although he is 67 years of age he does not look more than 35 or 40, and persons who have known him long say that he does not apparently get any older. Hardly ever at rest, yet seemingly never tired, his energy is a mystery to everybody. Ho tells the story of his early youth; he was very slowwitted when at school, and suffered a complete want of memory. He felt himself almost an idiot beside his schoolfellows.

One night, when all the others were asleep, he remained awake brooding over his sad position. He thought of his parents spending their scanty means on him without any other result than an utter failure to remember a single lesson, and a terrible sadness overcame him. He rose, knelt on the floor, and prayed with all his might that this thick veil should be taken from his mind. How long his prayer lasted he does not know ; but all at once a violent current shock his whole frame, his intellect was freed from its bondage, memory awakened, and he remembered perfectly his last lessons. He rose to his feet a new being, and, lying down, a deep sleep came over him. The next day in the classroom he was able to solve a difficult problem in arithmetic. His progress in learning became so rapid that he soon became the best scholar, and in due time was transferred to the Seminary.

Many wonderful cures are reported as being performed by him. A lady had suffered for eight years from an incurable disease. She dreamed one night that she stood on the edge of a precipice, about to cast herself over in despair, when a priest on the other side appeared to her and bade her be of good cheer, and told her to pray and hope for a speedy recovery. At the same time son was in Kronstadt, and suffering from a severe illness had been cured by Father Ivan. Writing to his mother, he enclosed a photograph of Father Ivan, and she at once recognised in him the priest who had appeared in her dream. Shortly after she recovered entirely. Father Ivan has founded in Kronstadt « Houses for Love and Work,” which are for the benefit of the poor. They contain night refuges, where casuals cau obtain a bed and a breakfast of tea and bread fora halfpenny ; and there are also free libraries, a lecture hall, a creche, refuges, hospitals, and an orphanage for 100 children.