UOC-MP prays for families dealing with autism

(Orthodoxie) - Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv gave his blessing to offer prayers for autistic children and their parents during the Divine Liturgy in all the churches and monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The specific date of March 24 was chosen, because it is the feast day of Venerable Alexis of Goloseyevsky Skete, who suffered from muteness until the age of 13, when he was cured at Pascha.

Alexis was born in Kyiv in 1840. He became a monk at the Kyiv Caves, then lived from 1893 on at Goloseyevsky Skete, where he became a known staretz, a clairvoyant, and spiritual father of many hierarchs and faithful. He died on March 11/24, 1917. The saint is now especially prayed for autistic patients.

A cure from this disease took place on March 24, 2019 at St. Nicholas Church in Kryvyi Rih (Ukraine). “After venerating the icon of St Nicholas, a 12-year-old child, who until then was not able to speak, uttered his first words. The teachers present at this event were deeply moved, and they testified that a true miracle had occurred through the prayers of the holy man of God, says the diocesan statement.

The students and teachers of the Kryvyi Rih Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Center had gone to St. Nicholas Church as part of the charitable event organized by the Metropolitan Ephraim of Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol, on St. Alexis of Goloseyevsky’s feast day. He is the patron saint protector of patients with autism and autism spectrum disorder.