A wonderful conversion through the intercession of St. Philomena the Wonder Worker

This story comes from Sydney, Australia.  It is related by the mother of the boy, who is the recipient of the favour.

When one of our teenage sons began drinking heavily, smoking pot and being involved with a heavy metal rock band, my husband and I decided to give him over to the care of Saint Philomena, who we had heard was a patron saint of youth and a wonder worker.  We had heard her story and had been impressed by the many miracles which had been attributed to her intercession.

We prayed a novena and went to our first Mass in her honour.  As the Saturday night binges progressed to the whole weekend and then to week nights we decided to pray the novena continuously, imploring Saint Philomena desperately as our son’s condition continued to worsen. By this stage he would come home from work and prowl around restlessly until the phone rang and then he was out again. His pores oozed the sweet/stale smell of beer continuously.

Usually he was very gentle – even when he was drunk, but he became more agitated, blaming us for filling him with all the “God stuff” as he was growing up.  This occurred on the Saturday night of the August Mass in honour of Saint Philomena. The week that followed was very distressing.  He went off to work on the Friday at 5am as usual and I was surprised when he came home at 1.15 p.m. – his usual home time on Fridays, but lately he had gone straight to the pub and we were lucky to see him all weekend.  My son came out of his room and put a broken CD into the bin. I was again surprised and so had a look at the title of the CD. He had dozens of heavy metal CDs. It was named “Diabolos Music.” I said, as I had often said, that means Devil’s music and that it was dangerous.  Usually he would laugh if off, but this time he said “I know mum.”

He brought out the printed lyrics of the song and said that the words to this song kept going through his mind and that he felt that he was going mad, but that he was at peace now. I was almost too scared to ask him why? how?  when? I just asked if he had called on God and he said “Yes.”  At work that morning he had experienced an overwhelming sense of peace and love. A feeling of great burden had lifted off him.  He felt the presence of a woman.  He looked around but there was no one there.

My son still had the music filling his head – so I gave him a much better tape to listen to. When his mate rang that night, before he left, he asked us to pray for him and said that he would not be

late. After a couple of Rosaries and Divine Mercy Chaplets, we were disappointed as the night wore on, because our son did not turn up.  Finally around 2 to 3am he came in.  My husband hurried out and I started another Rosary – hoping that my husband wouldn’t ruin the obvious start that my son had made.  When my husband finally came back to bed a few hours later, he said that they had been talking and praying the Rosary together.

My son had waited back to make sure that his friends got home safely. He wanted to go and tell them about his experience. They were not interested and as he listened to them, all he would hear was “hate” in their talk. That morning August the 15^th was the feast of the Assumption.  He went to the Sacrament of Confession and afterwards he shed many tears.  Our eyes were also filled with tears of joy. He went to three of the four Masses that weekend and did so for many months after.

He has never drunk alcohol, smoked pot, nor has he listened to heavy metal rock music since that time.  He threw out all his CDs and heavy metal T-shirts.  His conversion was sudden. We felt that it was miraculous. He now has a great love for Jesus and Mary, for Saint Philomena, the Pope and for the Catholic Church.

Looking back now we can see the strong spiritual battle that was going on for him in those last few weeks.  He even said a couple of times that he was tempted to go and kill someone.  We continue to pray the novena to Saint Philomena for our son for his continuing conversion and thanksgiving and “with joy in our hearts, we will bless God who is admirable in His Saints.” Our son attended the World Youth Day in Rome.  (M.W.)

Editor’s note: This conversion took place in the late nineties and is still going strong today.

This is one of the many story in my book entitled: Help from Heaven (Answers to Prayer), which can be read free on-line by clicking here.

Please pop over and have a look.  I promise that you will not be dissappointed.

Help the Holy Souls in Purgatory and read inspiring testimonies of their  powerful intercession for their benefactors

and then teach this devotion to others, so that they will pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory as well.

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The Medal of St Benedict

The Saint Benedict medal is one of the most famous medals in the church. It commemorates Saint Benedict working miracles through The Sign of the Cross. The blessing formula for the medal has a special exorcism blessing against all things coming from the devil and the evil spirits. It also has a special blessing for the sick.

The undesirable tenants  (The Medal of Saint Benedict)

Jill lived next door to a rental house.  Three successive groups of tenants lived in the house. The tenants in each of the three groups were drug addicts. They usually slept all day and stayed up all night disturbing the neighbours with their noisy rowdy parties. The third group of tenants skipped through without paying the rent. Jill’s mother then placed a blessed Saint Benedict medal in the foundation of the rental house, after that much quieter tenants moved in.

The noisy neighbours  (The Medal of Saint Benedict)

In a similar incident to the previous one, Kim placed a Saint Benedict Medal in the foundations of a rental house across the road from her own home.  The tenants in this house used to blast the neighbourhood with unbearably loud music.  After the Saint Benedict Medal was placed in the foundations, the tenants moved out and quiet peaceful tenants moved into the house.

A noisy blast at the supermarket  (The Medal of Saint Benedict)

Every Friday night my husband and I went to the supermarket to buy our weekly groceries. The supermarket played on the loudspeaker a heavy metal rock radio station.  This caused me to develop headaches during the shopping excursions.  After many weeks of this I came up with the idea of placing a tiny blessed Saint Benedict medal behind the cans of food.  The next Friday when we went to the supermarket to shop, the supermarket staff had changed the radio station to a much more pleasant music channel.

Trouble in the park  (The Medal of Saint Benedict)

A friend of our family lived near a park.  For many years hoodlums gathered in the park at night.  All kinds of unacceptable behaviour took place.  The police were called repeatedly over a number of years.  They were never successful in improving the situation. Finally our friend placed a blessed Saint Benedict medal under one of the park benches.  From that day on the hoodlums never returned.

Stress in the workplace  (The Medal of Saint Benedict)

Gail’s father works as a policeman.  He was under constant stress because of trouble that he was having with a senior police officer.  The senior police officer was very argumentative and troublesome. The problem had been ongoing for about a year.  Gail gave her father a blessed Saint Benedict medal and said a prayer for him, starting from the very next day the senior police officer was much easier to get along with.

Protection of a house from fire  (Saint Benedict)

While Melanie was working at the back of her house doing the laundry, she said a prayer to Saint Benedict asking him to protect her home.  Ten minutes later there was a knock at the front door.  It was a man who alerted her to a fire in her front yard which had been started by someone throwing away lit cigarettes. The fire had already started to spread.  There was no tap in that area, so Melanie ran back into the house to get a bucket of water, by the time she got back a passerby had put out the fire with his work boots, without his help the fire could had caused considerable damage.

The feast day of Saint Benedict is celebrated on July 11.

From my book:  Help from heaven (Answers to prayer) which can be read free on-line here.

The Heroic Act (in favour of the Holy Souls in Purgatory)

There is a way which you can help the Holy Souls in Purgatory after your own death. The following information will show you how to do this. The Heroic Act, consists in offering to God in favour of the Souls in Purgatory all the works of satisfaction we practice during life and all the suffrages that will be offered for us after death.  If God rewards so abundantly the most trifling alms given to a poor man in His name what an immense reward will he not give to those who offer all their works of satisfaction in life and death for the Souls He loves so dearly. This Act does not prevent priests from offering Mass for the intentions they wish, or lay-people from praying for any persons or other intentions they desire.  We counsel everyone to make this act. Will you be disadvantaged by doing this? The following story shows that this is highly unlikely. 

St. Gertrude was fiercely tempted by the devil when she came to die.  The evil spirit reserves dangerous and subtle temptations for our last moments.  As he could find no other ruse sufficiently clever with which to assail the saint, he thought to disturb her beautiful peace of soul by suggesting that she would surely remain long years in the awful fires of Purgatory since, he reminded her, she had made over long ago all her suffrages to other souls. Our Blessed Lord, not content with sending His angels and the thousands of souls, she had released, to assist her, came Himself in person to drive Satan away and comfort His dear saint.  He told her that in exchange for all she had done for the Holy Souls He would take her straight to heaven and would multiply a hundredfold all her merits.

More ways to help the Holy Souls in Purgatory   and also information on their powerful intercession for their benefactors.