Story told me when I was a kid is driving me insane

r/

I am unsure how to begin.
I was born and raised by my mother and grandmother in a tiny apartment in Moscow, USSR then Russia. My father left is when I was around 3. I would see him only occasionally, maybe once or twice a year.
He got lucky and became well off. Him and his family would go on these lavish vacations all the time, while I stayed in Moscow with my mom and grandmother in the same tiny apartment. He never attended any of my summer events or sport events.

I digress. He would invite me over once a year to his big apartment to fee rate his birthday and would hang out with me maybe once or twice a year by himself. One such time I was invited to his birthday party when I was sat next to this guy. He was wearing all black, had long greying hair in a ponytail, long unruly beard. He showed some interest me, a kid and we got talking.

Stupidly enough I did not recognize his dress, but then it clicked for me. He was Russian orthodox priest. He told me that my father was doing a lot of good in the Eastern portions of Russia. He complained how government was not laying attending and Catholics and Mormons were pushing onto “truly ancient Russian lands”. He told me that several churches were build using my fathers money. I nodded and we continued to chat.

As a kid I was fascinated with aliens, science fiction, demons, and such. I flat out asked him whenever he thought demons were true. He became silent and didn’t speak for several long minutes. I remember him pulling on his beard and running his hands through it. When he finally spoke he asked me if I truly wanted to know the truth. I said, “sure!”

He told me that before becoming a priest he spent 25 years of his life serving USSR as Alpha special forces soldier, only when he came back from another operation, think he mentioned Chechnya. He said he did not have it in him to serve anymore. He left the unit, left his family and signed up to serve God. Several years later he same he became a priest.

His interest was to help people who truly needed it, long forgotten villagers far East. Not the “new Russians” in their red suits and 600 Mercedes.
So, he travelled and was able to raise some money to build those churches with the help of people.

He said that true demons did not show face to public. He believes that those in power were corrupted one way or another by the devil. He said something along the lines of “they will not show their true face in public, only one on one”. I asked him what he meant.

He told me a story of a religious family bringing him a kid 12-14 year old, thin as rail kid. Family thought that there was seriously something wrong with him. They didn’t know if he had psychological issues or was possessed. The priest said he didn’t believe at first, so he kept the boy with him as help, but also to learn more of him.

He said during day time for several days he was acting normal, perhaps awkward and quiet. Then one night priest said he woke up feeling odd. Be looked around the room and saw two eyes staring at him. He blinked and rubbed his own eyes, then recognized that it was the kid. He asked the kid what he wanted and the kid said he was admiring his adversary. Priest said he was confused and asked him what he meant. Kid explained that in all his lives he was able to convert boys, girls, men and women, virgins and sinners easily. However, he said he was never able to convert a priest and that was his wish to do so sooner or later. Priest laughed and told the kid to cut it out. The kid then started speaking in Old Russian and then in Greek, and Latin. According to priest they conversed all night and well into the midday of the next day. The kid trying to prove to him that there is no point serving God and priest trying to get the creatures name. Priest said that he was so tired closer to the evening that he closed his eyes for what he thought was a moment only to wake up in the morning the next day. I asked the priest to what happened to the kid and he shrugged and said that God won.

I somehow suppressed this story I heard from this guy all these years ago, 25-30 years ago. I’m in my 40s now. Somehow, about two days ago I remembered and now all I can think of. Was this priest fucking with me or not.

Comments

  1. gothbbydoll Avatar

    Dude. It was nonsense. Made up.

  2. Far_Fun_55 Avatar

    You asked the priest what happened to the kid and he said God?
    What’s that mean? He was killed?

    Interesting story though but who knows if it was made up or not.

  3. Artistic_Box5184 Avatar

    Wow. That’s fucked up

  4. Ilovegirlsbottoms Avatar

    I think that priest was just having a nightmare.

    Or he made it up.

  5. ArthurArkans Avatar

    That’s fascinating. Obviously none of us can say whether or not anything he said was true, but I think it’s a very interesting tale.

  6. Healthy-Grape-777 Avatar

    Probably not messing with you, there are a lot of things in this world seen & heard by holy or enlightened people like those who meditate or have diligently taken a path of spiritual exploration or self exploration that people who do not

  7. snackmaster169 Avatar

    The name of this post should be “War veteran puts children’s lives in danger.” If this guy was not fucking with you, he was suffering from PTSD.

  8. Majestic_Bet6187 Avatar

    I believe the priest believed it. Whether it actually happened or not is it for a person to decide

  9. fibonacci_veritas Avatar

    Mental Illness is powerful when people involve religion.

  10. GenericAnemone Avatar

    He wasn’t specific about the type of priest. Im sure the roman Catholic ones are super easy to convert.

  11. Uniturner Avatar

    Psychosis. It was probably all real to him, but not reality.

  12. OneGunBullet Avatar

    Well, the way I’d think about it, is that I seriously doubt the priest would tell you how he beat a child to death in order to prove to you that demons are real. So he probably woke up to find the kid acting normal.

  13. motherofspoos Avatar

    this is a very “two wolves” story.

  14. Sunny_Hill_1 Avatar

    It might have been possible that the priest was suffering from a severe PTSD from war. It’s unlikely that the kid actually existed, and would be really strange for the parents to send their son off to live with a random priest instead of psychiatrists, as 25-30 years ago in post-Soviet Russia the faith was just reawakening and not as many people would even go to churches on regular basis. The priest might have seen the kid in his parish, the parents might have even spoken to him about their son’s strange behavior, and then his mind made up the rest of the story.

  15. rightwist Avatar

    Was the priest fucking with you?

    From my perspective it’s more likely you’re making it up. So maybe that is relevant to whether you should think the priest made it up.

    Having worked with some mental health patients I fully believe it’s possible some mental health patients would make up everything the kid said, and throw in bits of languages there seems no explanation for them to know. I’m less sure it’s possible there is any paranormal explanation for that. I also think it’s entirely possible that the priest is the mental health case. Or that you (OP) are the one manifesting a mental health problem.

  16. TuneMore4042 Avatar

    Psychosis. Probably PTSD from all the fucked up shit he must’ve saw in Chechnya.

  17. Colonel_Sandman Avatar

    I once had an older coworker tell me a crazy ghost story that happened to her. I asked if she was on anything at the time and she said she had barely smoked any weed and just a bit of acid.

  18. blackwillow-99 Avatar

    Honeslty, a good genuine priest, typically has some interesting supernatural stories. The kid could have had a mental disorder as we are not even well verse in it as a whole world, so who knows.

  19. Gen_JohnsonJameson Avatar

    And that little boy grew up to be Putler…

  20. Cultural_Horse_7328 Avatar

    Why the fuck do people always make up stories about demons speaking Latin and greek…languages popularly spoken for brief flashes of human history?

  21. WittyBunny25 Avatar

    Humans love fucking with other humans

  22. hulks_brother Avatar

    It’s a story that had been passed down from one person to another for generations. Each story teller tweeks it a little to suit their needs.

    Similar stories have been told in other parts of the world. They work because they are so over the top. They always leave one questioning the validity of the story, the teller, and the reality.

  23. anameuse Avatar

    That wasn’t a priest. Priests don’t talk like this.

    Or it’s something you imagined.

  24. Silver-creek Avatar

    Lets imagine it is true for a second. Priests are the only ones who can’t be converted by evil?!

    Priests are the most easily corrupted people

  25. Solo_is_dead Avatar

    How is this a “confession”?

  26. waifuxwillow Avatar

    yeah that story’s def stuck in ur head for a reason 😳 maybe he believed it or maybe he was just tryna scare u, hard to say… but u were a kid and that was a lot to hear. not weird at all that it’s resurfacing now

  27. BigCcountyHallelujah Avatar

    It’s a good story that gets at a truth about being a person. We are tempted to corruption in our lives.