Saint Seraphim of Sarov

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Saint Seraphim was born in Kursk, Russia on July 19, 1759 AD. and was named Prochoros. His parents, Isidore and Agathi Mosnin, were well-to-do merchants. His father had brick factories and at the same time undertook the construction of stone buildings, temples and houses. He once began to build a temple in Kursk in honor of Saint Sergius of Radonez, the Miracle Worker, but suddenly in 1762 AD, he died, leaving his wife in charge of the completion of the temple. Prochoros inherited the virtues of his parents and especially their piety.

At the age of ten he began to study the scriptures with zeal, but suddenly became seriously ill with no hope of recovery. At the most critical turning point of his illness, he saw in his dream the Virgin Mary, who promised to visit him and heal him. Indeed, one day a litany took place and the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary passed outside the home of the little sick child. At that moment it rained heavily. The procession stopped and the image was transferred to the yard of Prohoros's house, until the rain passed. Then Agathis' mother took down her sick child and passed him under the picture. From that day his health improved until he was completely restored.

A young man leaves his paternal home in the city of Kursk, and comes to consecrate in the monastery of Sarov. His ordeal to become a monk lasts eight years. On August 13, 1786 AD. a monk named Seraphim. In two months he was ordained a Deacon.

Guarded with the humble mind, Deacon Seraphim ascends to the Spiritual life "from strength to strength". As a Deacon he stays all day in the Monastery, serves in the Sequences, strictly observes the monastic regulations and performs his sermons. In the evening, however, he leaves in the forest, in his deserted cell, where he spends the night hours in prayer, and very early in the morning he returns to the monastery.

On September 2, 1793 AD. He is ordained a Priest and appears with greater zeal and love in the Spiritual struggle. He is no longer satisfied with the hard work of others for the coenobitic life, that is, common prayer, fasting, obedience, landlessness. The thirst for higher Spiritual exercises ignites in him. So, with the blessing of the Abbot, he leaves the Monastery and retreats into the dense forest of Sarof. He spends fifteen years there in perfect isolation, with strict fasting, unceasing prayer, study of the Divine Word and physical effort. For a thousand days and a thousand nights he imitates the old stylists of the Church. Raised on a stone and with his hands raised to the sky, he prays: "⁇ Θεὸς ἰλάσθητι μοὶ τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ".

At the end of his ascetic life he returns to the Sarov Monastery and is closed as a memorial in solitude for another fifteen years. For the first five he puts himself in the rule of silence. With unceasing prayer he enlightens the whole by Divine Grace and is claimed to experience Spiritual ascents even if he sees divine visions. After incarceration, now mature in the Spiritual life and old in age, he dedicates himself to the service of his neighbor, the little brother. With his strict ascetic life and his luminous form he had attracted around him a number of Christians, who loved him and firmly believed in the miraculous power of his holy prayers. Rich and poor, famous and insignificant, gathered daily in his cell to receive his blessing and spiritual guidance for their lives.

He confessed to many, healed patients, and gave others to kiss the cross he had hung on his chest or the image he had on the table in his cell. To many he offered as a blessing a ransom, holy water or rusks, others he crucified on the forehead with oil from the candle, while he hugged and embraced some of them saying: "Christ is Risen!".

On January 1, 1833 AD, Sunday, the Saint came for the last time to the Temple of the hospital of Saints Zosimas and Saturday. He lit a candle in all the pictures and kissed them. He received the Eternal Mysteries and after the end of the Divine Liturgy he asked for forgiveness from all the brothers, blessed them, embraced them and comforted them and said: Στέφανοι μᾶς ἑτοιμάζονται ». The monk Paul noticed that Osios that day went three times to the place he had indicated for his burial. He sat there and stared at the ground for a long time. In the evening he heard him sing in his cell the Easter hymns: "Resurrection of Christ we see ....", "Enlighten, enlighten the new Jerusalem ...", "Oh, the great Easter and most holy, Christ ...." .

Osios slept peacefully on January 2, 1833 AD. The monks saw him with the white vest, kneeling in a prayer position in front of the image of the Virgin, naked, with the bronze cross around his neck and his hands on his chest in the shape of a cross. They thought he had fallen asleep.

His holy relics disappeared during the October Revolution and were rediscovered in 1990 AD in St. Petersburg. In 1991 AD returned to the monastery Diveevo.

It celebrates on the 2nd of January of each year.