Seraphim of Sarov

Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833), monk. Born at Kursk, the son of a builder, he studied hard as a boy and became a monk at Sarov, near Moscow, in 1779. The regime was austere: total abstinence from meat and only one meal a day (but none on Wednesdays and Fridays) seemed insufficient for the long hours of study of Scripture and the Fathers, choral prayer, and manual work in the bakehouse and carpenter's shop. In 1780 Seraphim fell ill and he remained bedridden for three years, during which time he was consoled by visions of the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles. When he recovered, he made an altar of cypress wood for the infirmary chapel.

Ordained priest in 1793, he celebrated the Eucharist every day, then a rare practice in Russia. In 1794, greatly saddened by his abbot's death, he became a hermit in a small wooden hut in the depths of the forest, two hours' walk from the monastery. His regime, not unlike that of Godric, included woodcutting, cooking bread and home-grown vegetables, and caring for wild animals such as foxes, hares, wolves, and bears.

In 1804 he was attacked by brigands with his own axe: they left him for dead, but he managed to drag himself to the monastery. Five months later he returned to his hermitage, with a perpetual stoop and needing a stick for walking. In 1807 the abbot of Sarov died: Seraphim was offered his post but refused it. He submitted himself to the ‘trial of silence’; speaking to nobody until 1810. He then returned to the monastery, living in a cell without bed, heat, or lighting. Another vision of the Virgin led him at this point to give up his solitary life and devote himself instead to the numerous visitors who came to see him and to the nuns of Diveiev, whom he directed with firmness and understanding.

On 14 January 1833 he was found dead in his cell, his clothes burnt by a candle which had fallen from his hands, his face turned towards an icon of the Virgin. His teaching was recorded during his life by Nicolas Motovilov but not published until seventy years later. In his emphasis on the Holy Spirit, source of light who transfigures the soul of the mystic, and on the importance of service and of poverty, Seraphim was a characteristic representative of Russian spirituality. He was canonized by the Council of the Russian Church after some opposition in 1903. Feast: 2 January.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• C. de Grunwald, Saints of Russia (1960)
• V. Zander, St. Seraphim of Sarov (1975)
• G. P. Fedotov (ed.), A Treasury of Russian Spirituality (1950)
• I. Gorainov, The Message of St. Seraphim (1973)