A Miracle of Candle Burning Recorded by Anastasius the Librarian (Bibliothecarius)

Ss. George and Demetrius

But we do not believe that that which we heard from the most holy archbishop ought to be omitted here. For he told us about a certain custodian of the temple of the martyr Demetrius, Onesiphorus by name. “When one day I was going to to church of the aforementioned martyr, I found the aforementioned custodian Onesiphorus lying half-dead before the door of the holy martyr. And when, troubled, I wept at the illness of my friend, Onesiphorus came to, saw me crying, and said, “Why are you sad on my account, Lord Eusebius ? If you love me, do not be troubled, but order my tomb to be readied, and toss me alive into it.” Disturbed by this, I said to him in my sadness, “What is the reason for this, brother ?” He replied, “Because I roused the holy martyr to anger by my guilt. For the holy martyr appeared to me, a sinner, in my sleep, and addressed me in a sweet voice, “Brother Onesiphorus, that which you do does not please me. The salvation of a soul pleases me more than thousands of pounds of gold. Do you not realise that the longer the candle which is offered up for sins blazes, the longer it continues [to move] the saints to intercede for sinners ? So allow the greater and smaller candles to blaze away, for it is altogether fitting for my house gleam with candles.” But wretched me when I awoke, I thought that I had seen a phantom, and said to myself, “The saint does not appear to sinners.” Twice, indeed, and three times did I receive the same warnings in my dreams, and I wished to heed these things, and desired to obverse [them] right up to the end [tonight]. On this very night, indeed, a certain devout man came to the church bringing [some] big candles. After he had prayed, he left the church. I decided to put his candles out, forgetting about the martyr’s decree. And when I began to move in order to exstinguish the candles, saint Demetrius spoke to me, shouting out from his silver chamber in a loud and terrible voice, “O greedy man !”, and again, “O greedy man !” In great misery, indeed, and extremely terrified, do I lie almost dead [here] where you found me, having been cast down upon the ground and thrown out the doors of the monastery.” Our father the archbishop often told us these things. And so we ought to obey the commands given to us by the saints with divine authority. May their kindness always protect us and make us persevere in the instructions of Christ, Amen.