The life of the Reverend Father of our Sampson the Stranger

The memory of June 27 The great Sampson, whose fame spread everywhere, was born in a glorious city - ancient Rome; his parents were rich and noble people and were of royal blood.

Having studied all the wisdom of the world, Sampson also studied the art of medicine, but not out of want or selfishness, for he was quite content with his own wealth, but partly to avoid idleness, and partly with the purpose of serving the poor with the help of God through the knowledge of medical wisdom.

In addition to his outward worldly wisdom, Sampson possessed an understanding of the Scriptures, exercised himself much in the reading of the holy books, and, stirred by faith and hope, was strengthened in the love of Christ.

When the parents of St. Sampson were deceased, and he became the owner of vast estates, the saint not only did not cease his works of charity, healing the poor without reward, but even began to exchange his temporary and perishable wealth for the imperishable and eternal, following the word of the gospel (Matthew 6:20); at the same time, generously distributing alms to the poor, according to the command of God - he spent his wealth with both hands, seeking to satisfy all needs

They want to fill their belly with what will perish, so that they can get riches that will never perish.

And he did so all the days of his life, because mercy was in his mind from his birth, and it was strengthened in his heart by his education.

So he gave up all his riches, which were bound as with a band, and contented himself with one garment and one rope to bind his loins, and desiring to enrich his soul with his spiritual riches, he despised the world and all that was of the world, and, imitating Christ, he became a stranger, leaving his relatives and acquaintances, he left ancient Rome and settled in a desert, like the prophet Elijah.

But God, for the benefit of many, brought his faithful servant to the new Rome, that is, to Constantinople; here, having found for himself a temple, Saint Sampson settled in it, resting the strangers and the poor and serving them in every way.

Just as the sun shines its rays, and fire naturally heats everything it touches, so Sampson's diligence and love for the poor, the sick, and the wandering were as if inherent in him.

And God, who does not leave without His blessing the works of mercy done for His own sake, and who accepts the charity of the neighbor as a sacrifice to Himself, revealed a special power to the care and labor of St. Samson for the benefit of the sick: all who suffered from incurable diseases, whom he received in his house, received miraculous healing.

But the holy gift of miracles which God had given him he hid under the guise of medicine, because he was humble, and would not receive the glory and honor of men for himself.

When the patriarch of Constantinople heard of him, he summoned him to himself and ordained him as a presbyter, although the saint did not wish to do so. The fame of the virtues of the saint and his extraordinary healing art reached the royal palaces.

And they called for the physicians, and they disputed with the king, as they used to do; and they gave the king vain hope with their words, but they could not heal the king's sickness, or even relieve his suffering.

And the king was wroth with them, and commanded them all to be cast out of his sight; and he turned unto the Lord God, the Creator of all things, and gave himself up unto him, and cried unto him with tears, and God did not despise the king's prayer, and he awoke, and saw in a vision many physicians standing before him in bright garments.

Then a bright young man approached him and began to show him each of the physicians, telling him what rank they held and how old they were; among them he showed the king a man of humble countenance and with gray hair, dressed in priestly garments; pointing to him, the bright young man said to the king: "He, and no one else, can heal you, O king, from your mortal disease".

And the king awoke from his sleep, and blessed his God, and remembered the vision of the man that he had seen in his dreams, and called for the physicians, and the scribes, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, and the physicians, the physicians, and the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physicians, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician, the physician,

And the king said unto the king, Behold, I am the king of the Jews, and I am the king of the Chaldeans; and I have come unto thee, and I have spoken unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have spoken unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee, and I have come unto thee.

Finally, one of the king's servants, who was known to the king himself and was a friend of St. Samson, remembered the saint, saying that he, being a physician of the infirm, was quite like the physician described by the king.

And when the saint came in to the king, the king saw him, and immediately he knew that it was the man whom he had seen in a dream. And he was filled with joy, and rose up quickly from his seat, and came near to the saint, and embraced him, and touched not only the mouth of the old man, but also his head and his hands, and said, Truly thou, my father, art he whom Jehovah God has appeared to me in a dream, saying, I will heal by thy hand.

And when he had said this, he brought him into his chamber, and sat beside him, and enjoyed his countenance; and he put the hands of the saint upon his eyes, and wiped them with tears, hoping to be healed.

Let not the king do so, and humble not himself, lest he cause me to sin with pride, and the iniquity of my judgment upon the righteous judge be upon thee; for wherein am I better than men? I am a poor sinner, and need the mercy of the Lord to heal my sin.

Only your great faith in the Lord and your warm hope in his mercy will bring Christ the Heavenly King to his mercy and heal you, for he can do whatever he pleases.

And Samson put his hand on the sore of the king's body, and made as if he had healed, and hid the miracle of the healing that God had given him; and the king was healed, and was made whole.

And the king was glad when he was healed, and rejoiced greatly, not only that he was healed, but also that he had seen such a great and pleasing man; and he gave him gold and silver in abundance, to give him thanks.

"I have much gold and silver and possessions, but for Christ's sake I have given them all away, that I may have eternal treasures in heaven. But if you please me, let me do this for God's sake and for your salvation: Build a house near my hut, where I can rest the sick and the strangers whom I have been accustomed to serve.

And when the king heard these words of the saint, he took his request as a gift to himself rather than as a request, and ordered to build an inn and a hospital, as the monk desired.

And when his soul departed from his body, his countenance was white, and he did not grieve, as grieve souls who are overwhelmed with sorrow, and are overwhelmed with many sins.

The Holy One knew who was calling him, from what labors and to what restful abode and comfort awaited his happy soul there, for each worker was worthy of his reward.

Thus the godly soul of St. Samson departed to the heavenly mountains [this was in 530 A.D.]; and his body was buried with honor in the church of the holy martyr Mochius, of whose tribe this great pleasing of God came by fleshly birth, being the spiritual heir of the virtues of the holy martyr.

He was a great pleaser of God, and became famous for the miracles he performed not only during his life but also after his death. Some of his miracles after his death we will recall here.

And the fire was so great that no man could do anything to put it out; and the flame spread rapidly, and burned up most of the palaces and the buildings that adorned the city, and the fire reached even to the inn of the holy man Samson, and surrounded it on every side, and the flame touched it not, and it stood in the midst of the fire as an unburning brass.

And many saw the holy man Samson, who went round the gate of the inn, and wrested away the flame from it, and the fire, as it were afraid of the face of the saint, and obeying his commandment, went away from the inn into another place; and suddenly thunder and cloud appeared in the sky, and immediately after that a heavy rain fell, which, by the prayers of the saint, put out the fire.

The saint gave cures for all kinds of diseases at his death, as he had done in his lifetime. It happened that one day a man, a noble husband named Theodoret, a sphapharius, was going down the stairs of his house, fell and injured his leg. His leg suddenly became ill and he went to bed.

For three days he could neither eat nor drink, nor sleep, nor speak, and he was as dumb as a mute; but he kept his sanity in his suffering, and prayed earnestly in his mind to God, and to his favour, to St. Samson, calling for his help.

And when he had said this, the saint was no longer visible. And immediately Theodoret felt himself perfectly well, and began to give thanks to God with a loud voice, and said, "Truly the great delight of God is in the holy Samson".

And when she had touched her foot, and had seen that it was healed, she arose and walked; and she came early in the morning to the sepulchre, and worshipped him, and told all that she had been healed.

And it came to pass, when the fourth day was approaching, when the doctor was to come to the sick, that Theodoret, who had been healed of his sickness, had a vision in the night.

He saw three men coming into the house of a sick nobleman; in one of them he recognized St. Sampson, whom he had seen in his sickness, and concerning the other two he thought that they were the penniless physicians Cosnus and Damian.

"My lords, you know that he suffers from a serious illness, and the doctors will come to him in the coming days to treat his injured leg".

And when the heel came to him, his foot was healed, and became as good as the other; and he went to the sepulchre of Samson, and gave thanks to him, and to all that were with him.

And when he was healed of his sickness, his whole body became sick again, and he lay upon his bed, as if relaxed, and all the members of his body were still.

But when he was anointed with the peace of the tomb of the saint, he was immediately healed.

In return for his repeated healings, thanks to the saint, the noble Leo took care of his hostess, who at that time was somewhat destitute, and provided her with enough from his estates for various needs.

It is not unreasonable to mention here that the manager of the inn was a certain Eunice, a lazy and careless man, who carelessly attended to the needs of the sick and the travellers. One night the monk Sampson appeared to him not in his sleep, but as if awake, and began to beat him with his staff, saying to him in anger, "Why are you careless to your service and do not care for the needs of the travellers and the sick?"

And when many came to him in the morning, he could not say anything to them, but showed them his body, which was blue from the beating; and he took a piece of paper and a staff, and wrote thereon how he had been punished by the saint for his sloth and negligence.

But when he saw that his body was completely bruised from the beating, he began to pray to the Reverend Samson with tears.

"O holy one of God", he prayed, "you know my faith and my zeal for you, and now fulfill my prayer that Eunice, whom you have reproved and who, writing in a letter, confesses both his sin and your rebuke to him, may be healed from his sickness, so that your miracle may be more widely known and the name of God glorified".

And it came to pass, as he prayed, that his tongue was loosed, and his lips were opened, and he told them all the things that had befallen him, and was perfectly healed.

Then some devout men, having taken counsel with one another, went to the patriarch and asked him to consecrate the inn and the church, and so it was done.

But after some time a certain Eustathius, who was a friend of the house, whose name was Leo, and who was a servant in the inn, said to him,

And he said unto Eustathius, If thou wilt not believe my words, I will give thee a certificate of my words. And he wrote to Eustathius, saying,

"I, Leo, trusting in the holy miracle-worker Samson, and holding fast my unwavering faith in him, commit myself to you as a pledge that if you give enough oil to the poor and the stranger, your eyes will be healed of the disease, for Saint Samson asks for your health.

And when he had received the letter, and promised to give oil to the sick, and to the travellers, he would heal his eyes the same day; but he was stingy, and gave no oil again.

Eustathius, frightened by this vision, summoned his friend Leo in the morning and gave him a great deal of oil, asking him to pray for him to St. Samson and to ask God's forgiveness of his sins.

Meanwhile, the day of the memory of the holy martyr Mochius arrived, when the doctors who had been with the sick man and all his family went to the church of the holy martyr for an all-night vigil, and the sick man lay in bed, very sad because he could not go to the church for the feast and worship the miraculous tomb of St. Sampson, which was in that church of the holy martyr.

And the man said, How can I stand? for all my members are weakened from the sore. And the old man said again, I say unto thee, Arise, and go to the church of the holy martyr Mochias, whose feast is now celebrated, and pray there by the sepulchre of St. Samson. And when he had said this, the old man became invisible. And the man rose up from his bed, and felt strength in his members.

Immediately he put on his clothes and went back inside. When they saw he was cured, they were all astonished and praised God.

And it was customary in those days that if any man fell sick, he should take him to the hospital of St. Sampson, and there he should be healed, according to his faith.

When the priest saw him, he was very angry with him for his unbelief, and sent him back to the hospital, ordering him to ask for the peace that had come from the tomb of the saint and to anoint himself with it.

I woke up at once and felt myself well". The same illness affected the wife of the church minister, Irina, who had a vision of St. Sampson, who came to her with the silverless saints Cosmas and Damian, and touched her, after which she was healed.

These and many other miracles were wrought and healings were given by the prayers of St. Samson, to glorify the wonderful God in his saints, to whom also we give honor and glory, worship and thanksgiving, now and pleasingly, and for ever and ever.

In your patience you have earned the reward of your father, the holy one, in prayer endlessly patient, the poor beloved, and the bright pleasant: but pray to Christ God, Samson merciful, blessed, save our souls.

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