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| St. Iakovos Tsalikes holding the censer and cane of St. David of Evia |
By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol
A few days before we went to the monastery in Evia, some people came from a village and asked Fr. Iakovos Tsalikes to take some relics of Saint David and to perform a Supplicatory Canon for them. As he was leaving, there was a woman from Canada named Maria, and there was a nun with her, from Cyprus actually, and they went to see Fr. Iakovos.
The young woman who was from Canada was a physicist, but she didn’t believe and was probably an atheist. When they got there, Fr. Iakovos told them he was leaving to go to a village. He added: ‘But I hope that Saint David, who’s here in our monastery, will show you that there really are saints and the grace of the Holy Spirit. God exists and He overcomes the laws of nature.'
Fr. Iakovos went to the locker where they keep the relics of Saint David, took a piece from the reliquary, closed the locker and he went to leave.
As he did so, however, the censer that was in the locker, which was enclosed with glass panels all around, started to move all by itself, and to cense, before the very eyes of the nun, the woman from Canada and Fr. Iakovos.
This lasted for about half an hour and then Fr. Iakovos said, in a perfectly natural manner:
‘See, Maria. This censing was for you. So that you would believe that Saint David is able to act above and beyond the laws of nature.'
From the book by Kleitos Ioannides, Gerontikon of the 20th Century (Gr.). Translation by John Sanidopoulos.
