Seraphim of Sarov

Saint Seraphim of Sarov — born Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin — is among the most beloved monastic saints of the Russian Church. He was born at Kursk, most commonly dated to 1754, into a pious merchant family; his parents, Isidore and Agathia Moshnin, were known for their devotion. Two well-known traditions attach to his childhood: a fall from a church bell-tower from which he came away unharmed, and a grave illness from which he recovered after the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God was brought to him.

In 1778 he entered the monastery at Sarov, was tonsured with the name Seraphim in 1786, and was ordained in turn hierodeacon and hieromonk. After years in the community he withdrew to a forest hermitage near Sarov, where he gave himself to strict asceticism — prayer, silence, manual labor, and the reading of Scripture. When robbers attacked and badly injured him, he refused to seek revenge and forgave them; he later entered a long period of seclusion and silence.

In 1825 he opened his door again and became known as a spiritual elder, a starets, to whom pilgrims came in great numbers for counsel, prayer, and healing. He was closely bound to the women's monastery at Diveyevo, which he guided spiritually, and his best-known teaching survives through Nicholas Motovilov's account of their conversation on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit — among the most influential texts of modern Orthodox spirituality.

He reposed on January 2, 1833, found kneeling in prayer before an icon of the Mother of God. The Russian Church glorified him in 1903 amid great celebrations at Sarov attended by the imperial family and thousands of pilgrims. His relics, concealed during the Soviet anti-religious campaigns, were rediscovered in 1991 and are now enshrined at Diveyevo.