In a sermon on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross, the late Metropolitan Philaret related the following incident:

Nowadays it is often said that miracles occurred only in ancient times.. But here is a miracle which took place just before Russia’s bloody devastation, a miracle attested by eyewitnesses, which clearly  demonstrates the life giving and saving power of the Sign of the Cross.

       A certain priest stopped at an inn. Other people were there and they, were all offered to dine When they had gathered at the table, the priest, as a pastor of the Church, said to the company: Brethren, before we begin to eat, let us first say a prayer. Everyone stood up The priest said the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father..” and then, turning to the table, he made the sign of the cross over it, blessing the food At that very moment, a large pitcher of mead standing on the table, without any visible reason, without anyone’s touching it, burst into smithereens. The mead spilled out; everyone gasped. The hostess, clutching her head ran out of the room with a shriek. The next minute she rushed back arid threw herself at the feet of the priest. Then arid there she confessed that she had placed the pitcher on the table by mistake. The mead it held was poisonous. She had prepared it in order to poison her husband. She had intended to bring out a pitcher of good mead for the guests, but the two pitchers looked alike and she had inadvertently taken the poisoned one. Had they not said the Lord’s Prayer, had the priest not blessed the table with the sign of the Cross, there would have been a fatal catastrophe. Their lives were preserved by the Sign of the Cross. And this is not an isolated case…

(Translated from The Sermons and Teachings of Metropolitan Philaret)