In
September of a certain year, there was a great
deal of turmoil observed in the Department of
Oncology of the University Hospital of Rion.
Little Dimitri was asking urgently for the
Hospital's priest. He was insisting on
immediately receiving Holy Communion...
He was
13. He had been in that specific clinic for
about one and a half years. A minor headache had
led him there. The doctors had diagnosed brain
cancer. His native town was Fieri of Albania;
his parents unbaptized. They had lived in Patrae
for several years. Shortly after his
admission to the Hospital, the young boy had
asked to be baptized. He had heard about
Christ, and wanted to become a "child" of His.
He was baptized, "in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" - after the
necessary catechesis of course.
Everyone
in the clinic was extremely fond of him. The
cancer had progressed considerably, and had by
now deprived him of his sight. He was entirely
unable to see, anything and anyone. But he could
listen, with the utmost and amazing patience.
He never complained. He would say that God
loved him very much. He prayed, and would ask
his parents to do the same.
All
those who visited him could perceive that there
was something different in that boy. He
spoke constantly about God. He was always
courteous and happy. His face shone.
He wanted to partake of the Precious Gifts
frequently. When his mother would sometimes be
in another area of the clinic, he would shout
out to her:
"Mother,
come quickly! Papa is coming, with Christ! He
is coming up the stairs! Come and get me ready!"
And that
was exactly what would happen: the priest would
come, and he would find little Dimitri sitting
upright in his bed, with his mouth wide open and
crossing himself with reverence. Even though he
never knew the exact time of the priest's
arrival, he could "see" him coming, with his
gift of insight - and despite the two closed
doors that came between his room and the
corridor that the priest was coming from.
This has been verified by the pious Mrs. Maria
Galiatsatou, who had volunteered to look after
that boy.
"Mrs.
Maria, I want to tell you something", he
said to her one day. "When Papa comes
together with Christ, I can see him approaching
as he walks up the stairs, and next to him are
two tall, beautiful people with pure white
gowns, who lean towards the Holy Chalice to
protect it, with their arms outstretched."
One
time, when the doctor asked him: "How are
you, my little Dimitri?"
He
replied: "Mister Doctor, can I tell you
something privately? I am just fine. But you
shouldn't worry so much because your wife went
away. God will be with you, because you are a
good person."
The
doctor remained frozen for an instant. No-one
else knew about the grievous incident that had
occurred the previous day at his place: that his
wife had abandoned him, to be with another
man.....
"Now
that is a child of God" was what those who had
met him would say.
The last
time that he received Holy Communion, he was
unable to sit up in his bed, but he did receive
Christ with joy and longing as he lay there.
"Thank
you very much", he whispered and then
went to sleep forever. When the priest
went to the morgue the next day to read the
Trisaghion Prayer over little Dimitri, he
remarked:
«It's
the first time in my life that I have seen a
corpse like this. His face was smiling...it was
aglow.... and it had the colour of amber*».
His
parents came to love Christ very much, and they
now want to be baptized also....