Nicholas!!!
Zoya remained standing for 4 months (128 days
Zoya became “petrified,” standing motionless, with the icon of Saint Nicholas stuck to her chest. She remained this way for 128 days! She could not be moved, she took no food or water… The Russian communist army surrounded the house so that the news would not spread…
The film “The Miracle” (ЧУДО) by director Alexander Proshkin, which won a special award at the 31st Moscow International Film Festival, is based on true events— a miracle that shook the city of Samara in the Soviet Union in 1956.
A real event that lasted 128 days, shaken and bringing hundreds to repentance in the city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), in Soviet Russia, during communist rule.
Those who previously did not wear a cross began to wear one in those days, when even that was enough to cost a person his life…
In the city of Kuibyshev lived a family:
A pious mother and her daughter, Zoya.
On New Year’s Eve (31 December) of 1956, Zoya invited seven of her girlfriends and an equal number of young men for dinner and dancing…
At that time it was the Nativity Fast (according to the old calendar), and the mother begged Zoya not to hold an evening full of dancing and feasting. But the daughter insisted.
That night the mother went to church to pray.
The guests gathered, but Zoya’s fiancé had not yet arrived.
His name was Nicholas.
The girls paired with the young men and began dancing.
Zoya remained alone.
Embarrassed and without thinking, she took down the icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker from the wall and said:
“I’ll take this Nicholas and go dance with him,” ignoring her friends’ warnings that this was a blasphemous act…
But Zoya boldly replied:
“If God exists, let Him punish me!”
She began to dance, turned twice, and suddenly a terrifying sound filled the room, a whirlwind, and a flashing lightning-like light.
Joy turned into terror.
Everyone ran from the room in fear.
Zoya remained alone, standing motionless, with the saint’s icon pressed to her chest — petrified and frozen like marble.
Doctors arrived quickly but could not revive her.
The injection needles they tried to give her bent and twisted upon touching her hardened body!
They tried to move her to the hospital, but they could not lift her from the spot.
Her feet were as if nailed to the floor.
But her heart was beating!
Zoya was alive, but could no longer eat or drink…
In the first days the house was surrounded by crowds: believers who came even from far away, curious people, doctors, and clergy.
But soon the house was closed to visitors by order of the authorities.
Two policemen guarded the place, rotating every eight hours.
Some of the guards, still young (28–30 years old), turned completely white from fear as they heard Zoya’s terrifying cries every night.
For long nights her mother prayed beside her.
“Mother, pray!
Pray, because I am perishing for my sins!
Pray!” Zoya would scream…
The Patriarch was informed of everything that had happened and was asked to pray for Zoya’s healing.
He replied:
“The one who punished her is the same one who will show her mercy!”
Among those later allowed to visit Zoya were:
— A famous professor of medicine who came from Moscow.
He confirmed that her heart had not stopped beating.
— Priests whom her mother invited to remove the icon of Saint Nicholas from Zoya’s hands.
But even they could not separate the icon from her petrified fingers…
