Prayers to Saint Charalambos
St. Charalambos has a special gift of healing pestilent diseases, and has often halted the epidemics of typhus, cholera and the plague. Hence, in some icons the saint is painted trampling upon or hitting a monstrous creature which represented the plague or some other contagious disease. This gift of his is attributed to the final prayer which he prayed during his martyrdom:
“If it pleases Your goodness to ask a gift of You, I beseech Your majesty and dominion to grant this favour: to whomsoever should find or possess a portion of my relics, and in whichsoever land he may be celebrating the memory of my martyrdom, may he never suffer from hunger or plague or pestilence or an untimely death …”
Since the time of his martyrdom, numerous miracles of healing from disease have been attributed to him, and especially to places where his relics visited. Among these, he delivered…
…the island of Zakynthos from black plague in 1728.
…the village of Tripi near Sparta from the plague in 1753.
...the town of Lixouri in Cephallonia & the nearby villages from cholera in 1811.
…the city of Preveza in Epirus from the plague in 1852.
…the city of Pyrgos in the Peloponnese from the plague in 1860.
...…Mount Athos from a deadly epidemic in 1908.
…the village of Avra in Kalambaka from scarlet fever in 1930.
Let us persevere in prayer.
Here are some prayers addressed to our beloved patron:
Χαιρετισμοί στον Άγιο Χαράλαμπο
Акафист священномученику Харалампию
Παρακλητικός Κανόνας στον Άγιο Χαράλαμπο για προστασία από λοιμικές νόσους