The girl, Danica Grljanović, daughter of Đorđe Grljanović from Bigrenica, was 17 years old when she was preparing extensively for marriage. She worked tirelessly to prepare things for the wedding, sewed, embroidered and crocheted every day, regardless of holidays and Sundays.
Not only she, but also the rest of the household did not know about fasting, nor about the Orthodox faith, nor about the church; we tried only for what can be seen, and we did not know what is not seen and what is most necessary for the soul – says father Danica’s father Đorđe.
Danica was a hardworking girl, but without faith in God, just like her father and mother, grandparents and everyone else.
In May 1962, Danica went to visit her neighbor Ruža, to knit girls’ clothes. They worked there until some time, and late at night Danica returned home and went to sleep completely healthy. In the morning, when she woke up, she had something to see: the fingers on her left hand were bent into the palm and she could not straighten them.
Danica became extremely sad, but so did all of us in the house, as well as her boyfriend Stevo. She couldn’t feel her hand, the whole thing, from shoulder to hand, as if it wasn’t hers. We were all horrified. I, Danica’s father, as well as all the family members, started to calm Danica, telling her not to worry, because the doctor, we say, will heal her hand, so she will be as she was. When we took her to the doctor, he looked at the hand and said that it was paralysis, and that it was in danger of spreading to the other hand.
They started treating her. A month passes and the hand dries up more and more, two months pass and the hand starts to stink, it stank terribly, three months pass, the hand started to lose its color and becomes completely dark and all rotten. The doctors then decided to amputate the arm up to the shoulder and fit it with a prosthesis. And I, as a father, didn’t even want to hear about it. After that, the doctors said that they were discharging her, because they had used all the possible medicines, so from their side the treatment was over.
Crippled Danica remained unhealed. She was the only one who could take care of the pigs. She took the stick in her right hand, and hid her left so that people wouldn’t see how ugly she looked, and how unbearably she smelled. Danica mourned for her hand, because she saw that it would remain crippled for the rest of her life.
A lot of time has passed, and the medicine is nowhere to be found. Many suggested that she go to the spa or use some other medicinal waters and herbs, but for me, these were all fables, which I did not accept.
A grandmother from our family recommended that we go to church in Ravanica, Manasia and the monastery of St. Petka. She told us to knead three cakes and note down and designate each cake for one monastery, and Danica to choose one of the three cakes. So whichever one he chooses, to go to that one church. Since Danica looked after the pigs, her mother, before letting the pigs graze in the morning, told her to go to the kitchen and get a cake. Danica did so, and when she left, Ruza, her mother, told me that our daughter took a cake designated to Saint Petka, which means that Saint Petka will heal our daughter.
I, sinful Danica’s father, accepted with all my heart that we should go to St. Petka’s monastery, even though I didn’t know about God or the church.
In the evening, I told my daughter that early in the morning we would go to the monastery of St. Petka where she will treat her hand. When she heard, she was so happy, as if she had a premonition that we had found the right doctor.
So my daughter and I went to St. Friday at the morning Liturgy. When we arrived at dawn, we were met at the church door by the priest, Fr. Lazar, and we told him why we came and asked him to see her hand. When he saw it, he asked us if we had been to the doctor? I say that we were there and that the doctors said that there was no point in treating such a hand, because it had gone into disintegration. When I heard that from the doctor, and since I was one hundred percent convinced that he would cure my daughter, I lost faith in everything in this world, but even then I still didn’t believe in the loving and true God.
I said to the priest: “Here, now I have come to the church to seek a cure for my daughter.” And the priest said to me: “It is your sins that have fallen on your daughter.” I answered him: “I am sinful from head to toe.” The priest then told me: “If you repent, you will get what you want from God”, and he went to the church to start the service. Then two nuns came to the church, and I showed them my daughter’s hand and told them everything. They told us to enter the church and to stand nicely: men on the right and women on the left. They told us and emphasized that we should not leave the church during the service: regardless of what happens to us, we have to endure it, because it is not good to go out during the service. As soon as I entered the church, I felt nausea, and weakness and some kind of burden, I couldn’t breathe, my back, legs, shoulder, neck hurt, my stomach was swollen, my soul wanted to come out, I wanted to die, but I firmly decided that I don’t leave the church during the service, so if I die, let me die in the church.
When the service ended, the priest came out with a cross in his hand and started to distribute some bread – I didn’t even know what it was. And he said, whoever hasn’t eaten anything should take it. Since I hadn’t eaten anything, I couldn’t wait to take that bread, so that it would be a little easier for me, but I barely moved from my place, I went over and took it with effort, put it in my mouth and barely, barely swallowed it. My soul wanted to come out, and when I finally swallowed, I felt a weight, like a millstone, come off my back. I suddenly became cheerful as I had never been before.
After that, Fr. Lazar told us to go to the well of St. Petka and to wash our faces there, and when we come back, to come for lunch at their place. And we accepted with joy and had a light lunch: black bread, beans and salad, because it was Friday.
Both my daughter and I experienced an extraordinary uplift in mood, finding relief from our sadness and troubles. When we arrived home, all the family members asked us – how did we spend time in the monastery? We told them everything in order. My daughter Danica and I still remained in a good mood, and the rest of the household, my father and mother, wife Ruža, son Dragoljub, who was 15 years old at the time, remained sad as they were. In that, night fell and it was time to sleep.
In the morning, when Danica got up, she had something to see. Her hand was completely healed as it was before, only a hollow remained on the palm where the fingers were pressed together. Now Danica has two hands and we were all happy.
I, a sinner, am especially happy, because I see that the Church is our helper and that there is God. And so, day after day, I began to search for the Orthodox faith, to buy pious books and to read. Then I bought the book “Lives of the Saints” and read it all. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for letting me spend the rest of my life in the monastery. For me, this world is like garbage, ashes and the open sea. No earthly beauty and wealth attract me, nor anything material, only spiritual, nothing earthly, only heavenly, where the soul should go. Amen.
The miracle happened in 1962, and this was written by Fr. Georgije from Ravanica monastery, formerly Đorđe Grljanović from Bigrenica, Danica’s father.
Taken from the book “Miracles of God in the XXI Century”, Obraz svetački, Belgrade 2017.