CHILDREN: An Introduction to St. Seraphim, the Saint of the Light.

St Seraphim of Sarov, the translation of whose relics we celebrate today, remains one of the outstanding examples of Christian holiness. He was born in 1759 and was a native of Kursk in Russia. Brought up by devout Orthodox parents he was encouraged to attend Church regularly. When he was a child a miraculous healing was attributed to the Kursk icon of the Theotokos. He entered a monastic community at the hermitage of Sarov when he was 19, recognised a monk at 27 and ordained a deacon. St Seraphim received visions of both Angels and Christ, notably during the Divine Liturgy.

St Seraphim was ordained a priest when he became 34 and from then onwards he took up the spiritual guidance of the Diveyevo convent. Shortly after this he left the community for a hermitage in the forest. His life was organised around maintenance of a small cabin in the woods and dedicating as many hours as possible to prayer, fasting, and the reading of the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers. St Seraphim returned to the Monastery Church on Sundays to receive Holy Communion and participate in monastic fellowship.

St Seraphim was attacked by bandits in 1804. He was almost beaten to death and received permanent injuries. His spine was damaged and he found it difficult to walk without the aid of a stick. His response was to pray more fervently and consistently.  It is recorded that he prayed incessantly for a thousand days and a thousand nights. He spent much time kneeling on a stone close to his cabin and would cry out aloud: “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Following this he spent 3 years in absolute silent seclusion. When requested to do so, St, Seraphim returned to the monastery of Sarov (in 1810). Here he continued to live in prayer, and silent seclusion for 10 more years.

St Seraphim ended this silence and began to preach and counsel his fellow Christians, but only when instructed to do so in a vision. He would greet all who came to him with a prostration, a kiss, and the words of Easter: “Christ is Risen!” He called everyone, “my joy.”

Eventually (in 1825) he returned to his forest cabin and made himself available to receive all and sundry. Thousands of pilgrims came to consult him from across Russia and beyond. It was believed that he had “knowledge of hearts and minds” and that his prayers and intercessions worked wonders. St Seraphim of Sarov died on January 2, 1833, while kneeling before an icon of the Theotokos. His guidance, consolation and example had successfully transformed the direction of many lives and rekindled Russian spirituality. The immediacy and warmth of both his teaching and example sustained Russian Orthodoxy through the terrible upheavals and persecutions of the twentieth century.

A spiritual son of the saint, Nicholas Motovilov met with the saint in November of 1831 and faithfully recorded their conversation at that time. These notes were later published by Sergius Nilus. In the preface he declared that St Seraphim’s revelation was truly extraordinary and a gift to the entire world already drifting towards materialism. 

From the account of this famous encounter I quote the following key text.  It shows how we can all walk into the Light, which is Christ, the Light of the World, and thus enlightened become Light, set upon a stand that cannot be hidden.  By the same Light, Christ, shall all be drawn to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Here is what happened on that cold winter’s day with the snow falling gently around them and the sun shining brightly so many years ago.

[Then] Father Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said: “We are both in the Spirit of God now, my son. Why don’t you look at me?”

I replied: “I cannot look, Father, because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain.”

Father Seraphim said: “Don’t be alarmed, your Godliness! Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God yourself; otherwise you would not be able to see me as I am.”

...After these words I glanced at his face and there came over me an even greater reverent awe. Imagine in the centre of the sun, in the dazzling light of its midday rays, the face of a man talking to you. You see the movement of his lips and the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you feel someone holding your shoulders; yet you do not see his hands, you do not even see yourself or his figure, but only a blinding light spreading far around for several yards and illumining with its glaring sheen both the snow-blanket which covered the forest glade and the snow-flakes which be-sprinkled me and the great Elder. You can imagine the state I was in!

“How do you feel now?” Father Seraphim asked me.

“Extraordinarily well,” I said.

“But in what way? How exactly do you feel well?”

I answered: “I feel such calmness and peace in my soul that no words can express it.”

What else do you feel?” Father Seraphim asked me.

“An extraordinary sweetness,” I replied.

And he continued: “This is that sweetness of which it is said in Holy Scripture: They will be inebriated with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy delight (Ps. 35:8) [16]. And now this sweetness is flooding our hearts and coursing through our veins with unutterable delight. From this sweetness our hearts melt as it were, and both of us are filled with such happiness as tongue cannot tell. What else do you feel?”

“An extraordinary joy in all my heart.”

And Father Seraphim continued: “When the Spirit of God comes down to man and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration [17], then the human soul overflows with unspeakable joy, for the Spirit of God fills with joy whatever He touches.

What else do you feel, your Godliness?”

I answered: “An extraordinary warmth.”

“How can you feel warmth, my son? Look, we are sitting in the forest. It is winter out-of-doors, and snow is underfoot. There is more than an inch of snow on us, and the snowflakes are still falling. What warmth can there be?”

I answered: “Such as there is in a bath-house when the water is poured on the stone and the steam rises in clouds.”

“And the smell?” he asked me. “Is it the same as in the bath-house?”

“No,” I replied. “There is nothing on earth like this fragrance.

And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said: “I know it myself just as well as you do, my son, but I am asking you on purpose to see whether you feel it in the same way. It is absolutely true, your Godliness! The sweetest earthly fragrance cannot be compared with the fragrance which we now feel, for we are now enveloped in the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God.