Moscow, February 27, 2017
Dochariou Monastery’s miraculous “She Who is Quick to Hear” Icon. Photo: AgionOros.ru
A thirty-seven-year-old mother of two, Catherine, living in the northern part of Greece has reported a miracle attributed to a copy of Dochariou Monastery’s miraculous “She Who is Quick to Hear” Icon. A copy of the icon had been brought to the northwestern Greek village of Arta, where Catherine lives, and she often went to light a candle and pray before the icon, reports the site Ukrainian Orthodox Heritage on Mt. Athos.
For eleven years Catherine had no children, and she entreated the Mother of God “She Who is Quick to Hear” to help her conceive, promising that if the child would be a girl they would name her Maria. Her prayer was heard, but she bore a son, named after his grandfather, George. Nineteen months later a daughter was born, and while Catherine had not forgotten her promise, she called the child Vasiliki, in honor of her mother-in-law.
However, while the first child was delivered easily, Catherine had to have a C-section in a Thessaloniki hospital for her second child. The child was not well and was lying in the intensive care unit. Some of Catherine’s spiritual brothers contacted the Monastery of the Archangel Michael in Thassos and Dochariou on Mt. Athos, and they told her that she must immediately baptize the child herself.
She again turned to the Mother of God “She Who is Quick to Hear” for healing for her child, and baptized her thrice in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Trinity with the name Maria. As Catherine states, from that time everything changed. They returned home to Arta with a healthy baby girl after just one week, and now there are no health problems. Doctors admit that the case is a miracle.
Catherine expressed her deep gratitude to Abbot Gregory of Dochariou, who told her that the most important thing now is to have the child baptized by a priest with the name Maria, which they plan to do soon.
