Română
In this video recording, Fr. Serafim (Badila) of Casiel Monastery, Romania, tells us the story of an atheist philosopher who converted to Christianity being inspired by an old woman.
© TRINITAS TV, Romanian Orthodox Church, July 2020
Watch the full interview on TRINITAS TV channel.
Fr. Serafim:
An atheist philosopher, as there are also atheists, declared himself an atheist… He reached old age as a widower, without children and… He used to send his dirty clothes to a neighbor and brought them washed and ironed.
The woman [his neighbor] received 10$ for her work each time.
But his neighbor passed away… as I will do and each of us, because we are only for a test in this world. And then comes eternity… And then another neighbor, when she washed and ironed his clothes, even though she was poor, sick, helpless, dried of old age, when she noticed that he wants to pay her 10$, as he knew that this was the fee for washing and ironing, She said: “God forbid I receive 10$ from you, sir! Because I only spent 1$ for detergents… It would help me as I am poor… but forgive me, I don’t want to take your money, because I want God to pay me! Because soon I will have to go in front of God. Don’t be upset that I don’t take your money!”
The word resounds, the deed thunders! The deed thundered into the soul of the atheist.
He went home and said to himself: “Hey, I declared myself an atheist, I’m illiterate, I don’t know anything about God. I need to find God’s book so I learn something myself. He read, he believed, he then found the second source of knowledge, the Holy Tradition… And with the oratorical gift he had, he brought 10,000 people to faith in Christ.
And he used to tell them: “I was brought to faith in Christ by the act of a woman who gave up 9$, and through me, 10,000 people.”
Look what a great effect the good deed has!
