31. The Holy Saints by Their Prayers Avert Public Calamities As Well

Everyone knows that God’s holy saints have by their prayers countless times helped people in their personal needs. But does everyone know that they also helped people in public calamities and saved them from those calamities? Since, as it seems to us, far from everyone knows what we have just said, we intend today to acquaint all with the mercies shown by the saints to people in times of public calamity. Let not only some but all come to know how powerful before God is the prayer of His servants—even when public disasters overtake us and when God’s righteous wrath, justly roused against us, is about to pour out not on a few only but on many and even very many of us. Once during the lifetime of the venerable Seraphim, after a terrible storm had passed over the Sarov monastery, a certain woman came to him and noticed a thick wax candle burning before the holy icons. When she fixed her eyes on it, the venerable elder, noticing this, asked her: “Why are you staring at it so intently? When you were traveling here, did you notice the storm we had? It broke down a great deal of the forest; but this candle was brought to me by a man who loves God. During the storm I, unworthy as I am, lit it and prayed to the Lord God—and the storm subsided.” Then, with a sigh, he added: “Otherwise, not one stone would have been left upon another—such was God’s wrath against the monastery.” The woman received these words of the elder of God with fear and reverence, marveling at the power of his prayers before the throne of the Most High—for the candle, as she noticed, was only slightly singed at the top and had burned, it seemed, for no more than two minutes, during which the decree of God was completely changed and the punishment passed over, leaving behind traces in the broken forest and very extensive damage in the monastery itself (Account of Schema-Abbot Seraphim, p. 196). Such was the effectiveness of the prayer of God’s servant before the Lord amid the calamity that was advancing upon the monastery—a calamity that may rightly be called a public one.

And so, as you can see, it is beyond doubt that the saints help us by their prayers not only in our personal needs but also in public calamities that overtake us often because of our sins. In view of this, let us have recourse to God’s servants in common misfortunes as well, and ask the friends of God to raise up to the Lord a prayer that He would avert His righteous wrath that is moving against us, deliver us from the due and righteous punishment we deserve, and have mercy on us, His unworthy servants. And so it must necessarily be—for we ourselves not only do not deserve God’s mercies but almost always merit only His wrath and punishment for our sins. The saints, on the contrary, by their virtues have merited great mercies from the Lord and have drawn near to the throne of His grace, and therefore can always obtain for us sinners grace and mercy from God as well, as it is written: the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power (James 5:16). Let us therefore ask the saints to intercede before the Lord even in public calamities, and surely they, in their love for us, will not refuse us their intercession before God—and it will go well for us. Amen.