How Saint Ieronymos Disarmed a Potential Murderer

The Elder (Saint Ieronymos Simonopetritis) related a story of something that happened to him at that time (about 1928, when he was still Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras):

When I was in Thessaloniki the father of one of my spiritual children was moved by action of the devil and took it badly that his son wanted the follow the path of God. The man considered that I was responsible and decided to kill me.

As I was going down a sloping street, I was warned not to continue, because I would be killed. But I said: ‘If that’s God’s will, so be it’.

And, indeed, I saw the man who had threatened me aiming and shouting at me. I stopped and said, ‘By God’s grace’. He immediately let the weapon drop from his hands and bent and kissed my hand, begging forgiveness.

The Elder told this story later to a spiritual child who had a family problem, instilling in him: ‘If I can’t bear the temptation of one of my spiritual children, what sort of spiritual father am I? I’d do better to go back to the Holy Mountain’.