VIDEO: The possessed woman and Holy Communion (Fr. Ioan Iovan)

Subtitles: English, Romanian
Full transcript: https://otelders.org/testimonies/possessed-woman-holy-communion-fr-ioan-iovan/

Fr. Ioan:
The woman ended up in state of madness, hated by everyone, she would spit, speak dirty, lift her clothes… Many of these things… she didn’t want to be brought to the monastery and they barely managed to bring her inside the church. and… when she entered, she began to defile the whole church: insulting, cursing, talking dirty… and the poor believers, they all gathered in a corner waiting to see what I would do…
The poor husband of this woman named Ilinca… together with her brother they brought her and they hardly managed to hold her in place, so the nuns had to help because she didn’t want to stay… she was always running at the door…
I tried to read her some prayers… with no success… she was spitting, hitting with her hands, her legs… with everything she could… I was desperate, I mean, worried about this situation, thinking what to do…

I remembered that in my bachelor thesis I wrote that in serious cases like this, one can make use of the Holy Communion, can touch the tongue of the sick, and God Himself can perform a miracle…
I didn’t think that a miracle would happen…
And those present warned me: “What are you doing, Father? Do not bring the Holy Mysteries, she will defile them, will spit them out, throw them, take them out of her mouth, will hit your hand!
I was young… I think I had a spiritual fire bigger than now!
And I went and took a small piece of dried Holy Communion which is offered to the sick. And I held it in such a way that it would not touch her lips or her tongue, so that only my fingers would secure the small piece so I was thinking to slightly touch her…

What do you think happened? She was there, she had an ugly reaction:”No, no, no! I don’t want! I don’t want!” It was the devil… Well, then I got the courage: “Well, it seems you devil know that here is God! You run away from Him, you don’t want Him… Why? That He may bring you out… ”
I said to the nuns, “Help us to hold her!” And another 5 nuns came from the workshop. They immobilized her and… her poor husband was struggling together with his brother-in-law… After a terrible fight I managed to touch her tongue with the Holy Mysteries!

What do you think happened? The miracle of miracles, I’ve never feared so much in my entire life… She fell to her knees and tears began to flow from her eyes… The first thing she did was to arrange her hair, she arranged her clothes, everything… I was speechless! Although I was young, but I was speechless, it was a kind of fear and consternation, astonishment: “How, my Lord? This fool? This possessed woman? She who doesn’t recognize anyone! Why tears are flowing from her eyes?”
God helped me, helped me to recover, I gained power and then this woman’s eyes turned to her husband, she put her hand on him and said, “My dear, you are!”
And then our tears mixed with those of the family, of the nuns, of mine, those of her, poor woman…
She cried out in tears: “Father, give me Christ as He is sweet! Bitter was the devil they gave me!” The pentecostals gave her the devil, the sectarians…
I didn’t tell you why this happened… because she converted to pentecostals and she asked her husband to go there. And the husband said, “No, I’m not leaving my faith! It’s your problem! You can go, I won’t go!”
And when her husband was away from home, she took the icons from the prayer corner and instead of putting them in the closet, she tore them to pieces and said they were idols… and when she removed the Mother of God from her place of honor, she fell to the ground and got mad. Then the husband took her to their preacher, “Heal my wife! What did you do with her?” They couldn’t do anything…

Then what did I do? Forgive me if I repeat it… I could say it every day, it’s a miracle that can be verified, people still live, it’s not fiction…
I went to the altar having that small piece that I was hiding from the woman. I put it in a teaspoon, I came in front of the royal doors, she was there, and I said: “Ilinca, say after me:’I believe, O Lord, and I confess that Thou art truly the Christ…'”
She said it clearly to the end, I offered her communion, she healed fully and became a preacher. When many people came to the monastery she would speak to them, “Look, I went crazy because of the icon of Mother of God, and I was healed at the same icon of Mother of God through Holy Communion.

More than a quarter of the village returned to [Orthodox] faith through this miracle!