I remember years ago going into the large, cool pantry at the monastery. The monastery, having been built in the 15th century, had some very old places that look quite unique. The door leading to this particular room was small, you had to duck to enter, and crooked. The room was very spacious but had various non-perishable foods neatly stacked on selves. We had gone in to load some crates that were piled in a corner in order to bring food over to the kitchen.
“What do you think, Constantina?”
“I like it. It’s nice and cool.” I said, having grown tired of the humid summer heat.
“We’re having an icon of St. Tryphon painted in order to hang it in here since his prayers keep unwanted critters away.”
“Really? I didn’t know that,” I responded.
“I’ll have to remember that because John and I have some of our own unwanted critters taking up residence in our kitchen. We’ve tried everything to get rid of them.”
“Some old apartments in Thessaloniki just have that problem,” she assured me.
Almost immediately on arriving home from the monastery I sketched an icon of St. Tryphon to place in our cupboard. Other than the Korean roaches we had to live with during the summer for the year we were in Seoul I was not accustomed to sharing space with bugs and my tendency to startle caused a great deal of screaming from me and fright for my husband whenever I caught sight of a “filthy runner” as I preferred to call them.
I placed St. Tryphon on the door and begged him to make the unwanted pests go away. After about a year they disappeared and we never had them again. Later I found out the year we had that problem some untidy young men had moved out of their apartment and thus caused the roaches to look for new homes. Some of the apartment owners paid for a treatment to the building and I assume this is why, together with the prayers of St. Tryphon, we never had them in the kitchen again. Thank God!
So, if you have any unwanted visitors, or residents, place an icon of St. Tryphon the Great-Martyr (February 1) in your home and ask his intercession. But I don’t think he helps get rid of post-university aged children living at home, sorry.
matushka constantina
That’s really funny! I should consider that for our house. Living in southern Mississippi in a very old house, there’s no escaping them. If I didn’t keep everything so clean we’d be overrun, but as it is I only shriek every once in a while. (: I’ve had a terrible fear of them for as long as I can remember. I should move to Siberia or something.