For the first time, unusual healings of the insane on the Greek island of Kefalonia (Kefalonia) were noticed after 1953. Just after the massive earthquake that nearly destroyed Kefalonia. The earthquake had a devastating effect on the psyche of many people, and most of them were helped in the church of St. Gerasimus of Kefalonia.
Now this place is considered a mecca for those who want to recover from mental illness.
Kefalonia, the largest of the seven islands in the Ionian Sea washing the western coast of Greece, is renowned for its natural beauty and daring sailors who have brought the island to its fame. But only a few outside Greece knew that the island had long been the center of a strange pilgrimage. Many mentally ill people come there every year in the hope of a miracle of healing performed by the saint revered on the island - Gerasim of Kefalonia.
In a small valley dotted with olive trees and cut off from the sea by high cliffs, there is the church of St. Gerasimos and the convent, which the saint himself founded in the last years of his life, in the 16th century. There you can usually find only nuns and the mentally ill, who live in tents throughout the year.
Twice a year, on August 16 and October 20 (the day of veneration of the saint), even more people come here from all over the island and from the continent by sea - the sick, accompanied by relatives and pilgrims.
The relics of St. Gerasimos.
The day before the holiday, a silver chest with the body of the saint is brought out, which is installed vertically in the main church of the monastery. Through the glass window one can see the dried up face and hands of the saint; the rest is covered with various gold and silver offerings. All night long people pass by the sacred chest and kiss the glass window, which is just above the saint's hands.
The priests are standing nearby and quietly reading prayers, the choir sings, and as loudly as possible so that the chants can be heard over the screams of the patients, whom relatives have dispersed throughout the church.
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The next morning, after Mass, the crowd gathers in the large monastery courtyard and prepares for a prayer service in honor of the saint. Before the arrival of the clergy and the removal of the chest, the sick are placed on the path of the procession.
Women, men, children are laid on the ground, many are held by force, they resist, trying to free themselves, yelling, cursing the saint and making obscene signs towards the church. Some of them are so violent that they are connected. All the mentally ill are put in a row one by one, sometimes there are fifty or eighty people.
Then, at noon, the church bells ring; under the scorching rays of the summer sun, a procession appears with many crosses and other ritual accessories, followed by a male choir singing hymns. And then a sacred chest appears, sparkling in the rays of the sun. It is carried by four priests, all dressed in garments adorned with gold; a few steps behind, the bishop follows, holding a golden miter, surrounded by priests ready to line up behind him.
The official procession is escorted by sixty nuns dressed in black with small crosses on their foreheads. Then the pilgrims join with candles in their hands, and the procession leaves the monastery courtyard. There she is joined by several groups of musicians from the capital city of Argostoli.
To the sounds of a slow march and the ringing of monastery bells, the procession slowly moves along a dusty road along a row of patients lying on the ground or held by relatives. The meaning is that after the passage of the bishop with the priests carrying the sacred chest over the patients, the devil's spirit will leave the body thanks to the miraculous power of the saint.
As soon as the procession has passed the patient, the relatives pick him up and put him in front again, so that the chest is carried over him as many times as possible. The procession reaches its final destination, marked by a large maple tree and a spring, the origin of which is attributed to the saint.
All the sick, exhausted from the constant attempts to free themselves and sometimes violent fights with their relatives, are taken to this place. They are also exhausted by the long fast they had to endure before joining the procession.
Then the musicians stop playing, and everyone freezes in anticipation of a miracle. The bishop prays for the mentally ill, he reads a special prayer - exorcism, composed by Chrysostomos, one of the revered fathers of the Greek Orthodox Church.
When the prayer and exorcism have been read, the musicians begin to play again, raise church signs, crosses and banners, as well as the chest with the body of the saint, and the procession starts its way back, again along the line of the sick.
When and why the belief in the supernatural abilities of Saint Gerasimus in relation to the mentally ill arose is unknown. Moreover, nothing in the saint's life indicated that he was worried about mental illness. Saint Gerasimus was born in 1506 near the ancient city of Corinth on the continent, his ancestors belonged to the highest strata of Byzantine society. He is said to have received a good education in the classical Greek style, but within the framework of the Greek Orthodox Church.
He traveled a lot and once came to the island of Kefalonia, where he began to live as a hermit. Soon enough, but not without difficulties and disagreements with the locals, he achieved such great respect on the island that many noble families trusted him with their daughters so that he would teach them Christian obedience and wisdom. Then he founded a convent, and turned the surrounding neglected territory into a prosperous farm.
Maybe because of his farming activity or in pursuit of some other goals, he built a huge number of wells, and everything in his life favored this. Near one of these wells, on the day of the saint's death, an exorcism is performed annually for the healing of the mentally ill.
It is not known for certain how the rite originated, the culmination of which is the manifestation of psychotherapeutic exorcism. Perhaps the reason was the well-known fact that one of the first miracles of Saint Gerasimos happened at its source. According to legend, shortly after the death of the saint, a woman who was possessed by an evil spirit fell into this well. Thanks to the appearance of the saint in a dream, one of the nuns managed to save the woman, and then everyone was surprised to find that the devil had left her.
The miracles associated with Saint Gerasimos began shortly after his death in 1579. He cured many diseases, and also protected the island and its inhabitants from such ills as invasion of enemies, epidemics and drought. But still, most of the recorded cases, both before and now, are associated with the cure of mental illness.
If anyone has a right to seek the help of a saint, then it is the mentally ill who is most likely to receive it. And among people suffering from mental illness, as the so-called possessed, or "saint's patients" are unanimously admitted, can more rely on the saint's psychotherapeutic power and exorcism reading to benefit them. As for the patient's diagnosis, in many cases it is determined by the results of the exorcism.
The possessed necessarily behave inappropriately. They can be noisy or quiet, but they are always negative, uncontrollable, and impossible to control. All this, according to legend, is associated with devilish power, and the evil spirit that has settled in the body destroys it or takes possession of the soul of a person - be it a man, woman or child. The demon has its own guise, this is not at all a manifestation of the worst side of the patient.
So, patients, talking to each other, turn to the demon who took possession of the human soul. How this happens can be demonstrated by the example of a dialogue between two mentally ill women, recorded by Lukatos.
“- Wow! How did you manage to move into this fat carcass?
- Do not ask! You have no idea how long I have been looking for her. I caught her one afternoon on an olive tree and possessed her, ha ha ha."
In a treatise on the life and miracles of St. Gerasimus, the priest describes two cases of healing thanks to the saint:
“The amazing miracle that occurred on August 15, 1924 and associated with the healing of two women - Anna T. Danatu from the village of Vari and Mirianti K. Foka from Tsakarisyanu, possessed by truly terrible demons, made a deep impression on the pilgrims, who trembled with horror and awe.
The demons, unusually vicious and daring, named themselves: one who possessed poor Anna was called Trickeris, and the other, who possessed the soul of the unfortunate Mirianti, was Dracontius; they swore, screamed, squealed, laughed, bit and groaned, in short, they tortured the bodies of two unfortunate women as much as they could … "(The names of both devils are male: Trickeris means" three strings ", and Dracontios means" dragon-like ".)
The sick become completely uncontrollable when the procession with the body of the saint approaches them. They desperately try to free themselves, utter terrible screams or swear and threaten the priests and their saint, whom they usually call Kapsali, which means "one who sets fire."
Here are examples of expressions that escaped from patients under the influence of the saint: "Capsali, you burned me", "I will break your chest, you stupid old monk!", "Get out, you, bishop, who looks like a goat, with a goat beard!" "Get out, goat-like priest!", "Let the devil get into you!"
The uttering of the name of Saint Gerasimus in itself evokes a violent reaction from the demons; and, as if deliberately, the priests and the choir raise their voices to the utmost when they pronounce the name of the saint, both in church and during the litany. But at the very moment when the chest with the body of the saint is carried over the patient, he calms down and freezes. When the procession goes on, he starts to rage again.
It is believed that whenever a miracle of healing occurs, something unexpected happens, for example, glass breaks in a church, holy candles blink madly, sometimes they go out, as if a strong wind blew them out. Sometimes the demons themselves warn about this, and this suggests that they are surrendering, for example: "Kapsali, I will get out of this guy, but I will put out your holy fire."
Something more serious could happen. For example, once, as one witness reported, a large branch on the saint's tree broke. This happened at a time when many climbed a tree to better see the procession.
Most of the saint's patients continue to navigate well in space and, although they deny their true identity, they remain interested in what is happening around. They know perfectly well the location of the body of the saint and the ceremony in the church and outside, as several episodes testify.
Once, when an ill-reputed bishop appeared on the feast of the saint, the patients continually interrupted the ceremony with just accusations; and when, at the end of Mass, he asked the congregation's permission to announce the name of the unworthy layman to the priests, the patients shouted in chorus: "He is just as unworthy as you."
The islanders also believe that those who are possessed by the devil have the gift of prophecy. When one woman laughed at the patient, he turned to her and, pointing to her little daughter, said that she would soon also ask the saint to heal her from her mental illness. And according to the teacher who told this story, the prophecy came true.
Whether this is all true or not, stories like these suggest the mysterious nature of the bond between people and their saints - a bond that may hold the key to understanding healing miracles.
From the book "The Subconscious Under Control"