Ilya Muromyets

Ilya Muromyets was a Russian peasant and he was administered a miraculous beverage, called Ilya's beverage.

Ilya, born to poor parents in southers Russia, remained completely motionless in his cradle throughout his infancy and was not even strong enough to cry. Even when he grew older he lay on his bed too weak to move, with nothing but his breathing to show that he was alive. For the first thirty-three years of his life his parents had to attend to Ilya's every need. They were wondering what would become of him after their deaths when two strolling minstrels called at the cottage to ask for food. The old couple responded generously, and the minstrels repaid them by curing their son with a miraculous beverage made from wild honey.

When Ilya rose from his bed he quickly became a great hero to the Russian people. Having captured a flying horse, and using arrows which would split an oak tree, he led their armies in victorious battles against the infidels. When he had made Russia safe for Christianity he built the great Kiev Cathedral single-handedly, and then turned himself into stone as a perpetual guardian of the Russian people. The proof of this story is that, until recently, the stone figure of Ilya Muromyets might be seen in Keiv Cathedral.