Dear listeners, I would like to share with you today a story that I heard a long time ago from an old friend, Michelle Argyropoulos Costidakis. Michelle had a great opportunity to go to Ionian Village, our Archdiocesan summer camp program on the Ionian Sea. Michelle had been struggling at home and her parents had let the director of the program know, Fr. Costa, that she wasn’t doing so well — and indeed she wasn’t.

One night, Fr. Costa was in their cabin explaining to all of the campers that they were going to see a modern saint the next day. They were taking a trip to the island of Zakynthos to visit St. Dionysios of Zakynthos and behold and venerate his incorrupt relics. Fr. Costa mentioned how St. Dionysios is a patron for the camp and would often, in a supernatural manner, visit the camp and do miracles for the campers. He said that even last year St. Dionysios had come to this very cabin and we knew he was here because of the trail of the sand and the seaweed outside of the cabin that led into it, and he was seen by a camper who was on this bunk right here. When he said that and put his hand on the bunk. It happened to be the bunk that Michelle was sleeping in.

Michelle was not very happy with that news and she said to him, “That’s a bunch of…”, well, you can fill in the words that she used. He said, “Michelle, it’s not good for you to speak that way. We’re talking about holy things — things of God.” And she said, “I don’t believe it. You’re just saying that to try to scare me.”

Later that night, Michelle snuck out of the cabin with a friend. Fr. Costa, being the good camp director that he was, did not immediately send them back to the cabin, but rather, watched them from a small distance to make certain they were okay, remembering that Michelle was working through some things.

Michelle and her friend from the cabin went down to the shoreline and began throwing the stones into the water, and as they stood there and talked, they noticed that there was a light coming from the direction of the island of Zakynthos towards them. They continued to talk and throw stones, but noticed that light was coming closer and it didn’t appear to be like any light on a boat — it was somehow different. They began to give the light more interest. They watched as the light came closer and closer until they realized that light was actually a person who was all light — a person who was walking on the water. 

At that point, Michelle screamed, “It’s a ghost!”, and she turned around on the beach and went running up towards the cabin, right by the bush where Fr. Costa was watching them. Fr. Costa jumped out from the bush, caught Michelle, and held her tight. She said, “Let me go, let me go! I believe, I believe, I believe!” And he said to her, “No Michelle, I’m not going to let you go. This has happened for you. You must see this.”

And holding to her, he turned her around, and he, she, and the other girl watched as St. Dionysios, who they could clearly see, dressed in the vestments of a bishop, but also a being that was completely light, so that they understood that he was somehow just a soul and transparent, came closer and closer to them until he was only a hundred yards off of the shore. Then he abruptly turned and went up along the coastline.

Michelle, Fr. Costa, and the other camper went back to the cabin, and woke up all the girls. Michelle excitedly told all of the girls, while they were still dreary-eyed and waking, that she had seen St. Dionysios. The girls had had enough of Michelle and told her, “Right, you saw St. Dionysios.” They disbelieved her. However, the next morning they were surprised to see that St. Dionysios had again even visited the cabin, that once again there was a trail of sand and seaweed leading up from the shore, into the camp, and right up to the cabin.

That day when they went to see St. Dionysios and the monastery on Zakynthos, Fr. Costa asked Michelle to ask the monks about the reliquary — St. Dionysios’ reliquary which holds his entire intact body dressed in vestments and particular slippers that they put on his feet to take off and give to the pilgrims. Fr. Costa asked Michelle to ask if there was anything unusual about the relics the night before. As the monks at the monastery relate, when the saint is “visiting” others, serving the Lord, and answering their prayers, the reliquary will not open on its own, even if they try having more than one monk open the reliquary, but then when the saint returns, the reliquary can open again easily. Sometimes even, to their amazement, they behold sand or a bit of seaweed on his feet. So she asked and the monks confirmed that that night they had noticed they could not open the reliquary during the service.

You could imagine the effect that this had on Michelle. It turned her life around and she gladly shared this story in her love and admiration for the saint with me.