He called me on the phone and said, “Please, we have some Bulgarian women whom we bring to work in our orchards. One of them speaks Greek very well, and she also brought her young niece, who was about nineteen or twenty years old. This young woman has prophetic abilities. She can tell you about your past. Various people go to her and give her money so she can tell them the future.”
I said to him, “Why do you want me involved with a witch?”
“No,” he said, “because she believes in the Virgin Mary. They are Orthodox Bulgarians, and they have icons.”
This is something magicians often do to deceive religious people. If they see icons, they think, “Since she has icons, she must be a good person.”
“And I want to bring her to you,” he said.
I replied, “If you bring her, come with your wife. Don’t come alone with two Bulgarian women into the Metropolis.”
I remember it was the period when I had just arrived at the Metropolis, and our present Archimandrite, Father Iakovos, was living with me. At that time, Iakovos was still wearing ordinary clothes. He was not even a reader yet; he had not yet become a deacon. This detail is important.
One afternoon, they came together: the wife of our acquaintance and the two Bulgarian women. One supposedly had the gift of magic and prophecy, while the other acted as translator.
At that time, I had a cross, like the engolpion I wear.
Inside that cross were relics of Saint Neophytos.
I still have the cross, but I keep it stored away.
Of course, I told her nothing about it. She began speaking. I asked her, “Do you really have a gift for foretelling the future? ”
“Yes,” she replied. “Would you like me to tell you something about yourself?”
I said jokingly, “Go ahead and tell me.”
She began telling me about my past:
“When you were young, you lost your father. Then you lost your brother. You suffered greatly. You have a problem in your legs,” which indeed appeared when I was about fifty years old. “Your hands have a slight tremor. It is hereditary.”
As soon as she started getting things right, I thought to myself, “You have made a mistake. A bishop should not allow a witch to tell him these things.”
She also told me something about the future that many people would have liked to hear.
It did not impress me in the slightest.
I said to her, “Stop. I will find out whether you are enlightened by God and His angels or by demons.”
“No,” she replied, “it comes from God and the angels.”
I said, “If it comes from God and the angels, now we will see the difference.”
I raised the cross slightly and quietly said, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I did not even make the sign of the cross over her. I only moved it slightly.
Then I asked, “Tell me, what do you see inside here? ”
She moved her hand like this. At that moment, I understood. I thought, “She has raised her antenna.”
She moved her hand and suddenly let out a terrible scream.
“Light! Light! Light is coming out of there! I cannot bear it! I have to leave! I am burning!”
I said, “Tell me what this light is.”
“I can’t! ”
She stood up to leave, and the others tried to restrain her. They said, “Sit down.”
I said to her, “If it is from the angels and from Christ, then in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, tell me what it is.”
“I can’t,” she replied. “I am burning.”
While saying “I am burning,” she got up and headed for the door. At that moment, Father Iakovos was coming in carrying lemonade.
You can imagine what happened. She panicked, and the glasses nearly spilled.
She was burning so intensely because of the relics of Saint Neophytos that she rushed outside into the garden of the metropolis, shouting, “I am burning! I am burning! What is that man carrying that makes me burn like this?”
Our friend from Solea remained there with his wife and the other Bulgarian woman. The poor Bulgarian woman who had brought her niece ran after her.
I said to them, “Do you understand now that this is not from God? If it were from God, then the light she sees would have enlightened her.”
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