I should like to share with you how Vladika helped me in a difficult period of my life. In 1987, after being happily married for six years, my wife filed for divorce. Her attitude towards me became so aggressive that she not only convinced the judge to evict me from my own home, but she insisted that she be awarded all our possessions, and on top of that she demanded a substantial promissory note, plus money belonging to my relative.
The legal proceedings for these groundless demands had been going on already for a year and a half, when this relative, the priest of the Saint Sergius of Radonezh parish at the Tolstoy Foundation in New York, advised me to turn in prayer to Vladika John, pointing out that Vladika himself had suffered from unjust legal prosecution.
I took his advice and on Sunday the priest served a panikhida on behalf of Vladika John. The very next day I was informed that I had to appear in court for a final hearing. For some reason a new judge had been assigned to the case, quite different from the one who for the past year and a half had sided with my wife. To my surprise and immense relief, the judge cut through all this red tape and fairly divided everything in half.
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this was the result of a certain "interference" from above. The unexpected turn of events occurred right after the prayerful appeal to Vladika John.
I might add that for another year and a half my former wife tried to have the court ruling changed, but without success.
V.T., New York