Living in the stone cell...
he himself built 6.5 kilometres outside Mariupol...
Saint Ignatius gave up his spirit peacefully to his Creator on February 3rd 1786, after a two-week illness.
He was buried in the first church in Mariupol, that of Saint Charalambos...
according to oriental custom: his body in full hierarchical garb placed on a chair in the crypt...
which later became an important pilgrimage site.
In 1936, after the terrible atheist regime came to power...
the church of Saint Charalambos was destroyed.
They opened the grave and found that his holy relics were incorrupt.
Later they were taken elsewhere.
In WOII, in the course of the liberation of Mariupol...
the city was burned by the Germans...
and the relics of the saint suffered the same fate.
In this way, a prophecy of the saint was fulfilled...
for he had said that his relics would be burned along with the city !
A portion of his bones were saved, however...
and are now kept in the church of Saint George, in Mariupol !
[bron]
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