A US priest has spoken words of mercy and faith after a series of "wildly improbable events" saved his life after being stabbed in the street by a stranger with no apparent motive.
Father Matt Marino - who ministers in Trinity Parish church in the city of St Augustine, Florida - told local TV news channels of his compassion for the young woman who committed the senseless act which nearly took his life.
Early morning in October, he was sitting with friends at a coffee shop. A woman he did not know approached him and said: "I have problems."
Fr Marino told the local TV news channel First Coast News (FCN) of his first reaction to her words: "Pastors instinctively go, 'oh, well, tell me your story.'"
But as he leaned forward to help her, she pulled out a rusty knife and plunged it into his chest. "I just looked down and said, 'hey, you just stabbed me'," he told the news channel.
"Then she kind of got this look on her face like, 'and now I'm gonna finish the job' and it reminded me of, Lord of the Rings when Gollum sees his precious."
She was not able to make another attack as others intervened. Initially the priest did not realise the seriousness of what had occurred. But when he coughed and saw blood which was also running down his leg, he realised he was in danger, and fell to the ground. He was told later that he had lost 2.5 pints of blood – half of his total.
As he lay down, looking at the sky, he thought, "what a random way to die" and said to God: "I don't really want to go today. So not today, Lord.'" He believes that God responded: "OK."
Then a series of unlikely coincidences came together to ensure that his life was saved as first responders arrived and a local friend accompanied him to the hospital.
The first extraordinary event was that as he lay on the street, driving past was "the one person in the county who had a combat chest seal in his car," who happened to see a man on the ground and stopped to help.
According to sales websites, a combat chest seal is designed to seal open chest wounds and prevent one of the main causes of death on a battlefield. They are not widely used in the civilian population, however, so the likelihood of one being in the vicinity of a street stabbing appears very low.
"The chances of me being here are the result of several wildly improbable events and an amazingly good set of first responders, trauma docs and ICU people at Florida Memorial," he told FCN. "So because of a great fire department, a guy pulling over in his car, a really fast ambulance driver, a guy in the back who had a kid who goes to our preschool, keeping me with him mostly - I was in and out, but mostly with him - and then this army of trauma docs, here I am."
Within several hours, a 22-year-old woman was arrested on the charge of attempted murder and has appeared in court.
Fr Marino has been involved in young adults ministry and said that experiences with that helped him to have concern for the young woman who attacked him. His church website describes him as "an adolescent atheist turned Episcopal priest" who is "in wonder at the grandeur of the One who made us and calls us home through the cross and empty tomb."
He blogs on "The Gospel Side" where he has called for more grace for our political opponents and spoken of his intention to pray for people he disagrees with.
Despite his ordeal, Fr Marino said he did not feel fear or pain until the interventions needed to save his life began, which had to be done without anaesthetic and was "not a comfortable experience". Instead, he expressed concern for those around him.
"This was not as mentally painful for me as the people around me," he told FCN. "I mean, whatever this poor girl was going through, it was surely worse for her.
"Who wakes up on a Wednesday morning and says 'I'm going out to knife people'? You know, whatever she was going through was worse. The people who had to see me laying there in a pool of blood, I'm sure that was traumatic. For me, I was looking at the sky."
He also spoke of his understanding of why he might have to suffer in this way. "I don't know what God is doing in this, but it seems to me that people who are pastors or first responders, they have to go through things that are not for their benefit but for the benefit of others," he said. He cited Isaiah 55:8-9 as to how we cannot understand what God has planned because his thoughts are higher than ours.
The priest said it was not difficult to forgive his attacker and spoke of being inspired by his faith. "I mean, Christianity is 'you are forgiven through the love of Jesus'," he told FCN, on the verge of tears. "So, how could I not forgive her? I've been forgiven so much. How could I not extend that forgiveness? Now, the law is gonna do what the law is gonna do and it's gonna make sure that that society is safe and hopefully get her help."
He said he hoped to see her in person and tell her himself of his forgiveness for her.
He also cited a verse from 1 Peter 4, to rejoice when you experience the sufferings of Christ. "I thought, Christ died for us, so we don't need to," he reflected.
"Then I realized Peter said, no, sometimes you get to suffer as someone who follows the Lord.
"You know, the truth is that a pastor is always gonna be the easiest target in a community, because we've made a life commitment to be open handed and open hearted to other people and to have the love of Jesus for them."
Heather Tomlinson is a freelance Christian writer. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
