“On the fifteenth of August, 1898, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, I was Blessed to see for the first time the Queen of Heaven in a dream, clearly, face to face, and to hear her most sweet, Blessed, encouraging voice: ‘Ye are the dearest children of the Heavenly Father.’ Then, acknowledging my own wretchedness, I gazed on her Most Pure countenance with trembling and thought: ‘Will the Heavenly Queen not reject me in anger? O, that Most Holy and most splendid countenance! O, those eyes, sky blue and gentle, kind, humble, peaceful, majestic, Heavenly, Divine! O wondrous eyes! I shall not forget you.’ This vision lasted for but a moment; then she unhurriedly withdrew from me, stepped over a small ravine, and was no more to be seen. From behind I beheld the progress of the Heavenly Visitor. At first I saw her as though in an Icon, distinctly – then she separated herself from it, came forth, and set off on her way. That very evening I had been writing a sermon for the day of the Dormition and had gone to bed late, at two o’clock in the morning. At the vigil I had read the Akathist and Canon for the Dormition of the Mother of God in the Dormition Church with great compunction.”
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