My wife gave birth to our second son on 12/25 February (Forgiveness Sunday) this year [1990]. We were both very anxious about the birth because our first son, born in 1988, nearly died at birth (thankfully he is all right now) and my wife had been told that for any future children she would have to have a cesarean. A few days before the birth I anointed her with some oil from Blessed John's sepulchre, and his prayers before the throne of God were wonderfully answered for us. My wife gave birth quite normally (no operation was required) and she was in labor for only three hours! It all happened so quickly in the early hours of Forgiveness Sunday that we were all taken by surprise, including the doctors, who were preparing to operate on that day. The baby proved to be larger than our first one, which just added to the confounding of the doctors, who were sure my wife could never deliver a baby normally.
Then, about a month ago, my wife, who is breast-feeding the baby, developed all the symptoms of having a breast abscess. She had a nasty one after the birth of our first son and ended up having two operations and contracting septicemia which made her very ill. Once again I anointed her, and within forty-eight hours all the symptoms had gone! God is truly glorified in His Saints.
Naturally we are very thankful and, although Blessed John has not been officially canonized, we have named our son Iain (Gaelic for John).
unworthy priest Ian Prior, Aberdeenshire, Scotland