Saint Seraphim, Sarov ascetic and wonderworker of all Russia

Who in Holy Rus' does not know the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov? There is no corner in our God-saved fatherland where the true children of the Holy Orthodox Church do not honor this great saint of God, for there is no corner in it where there are no wondrous signs from the Sarov wonderworker, where believers do not receive from him one or another miraculous healing, one or another miraculous relief from their infirmities. All sorts of wondrous signs, all sorts of miraculous healings from Saint Seraphim were performed on those living in all corners of our vast fatherland. They were committed on those living in its middle zone, they were also committed on the inhabitants of the outskirts - in the Caucasus, and in Arkhangelsk, and in Poland, and in various places of our vast Siberia... And a great many of them were committed - both during the life of the saint of God himself, and after his death. - especially at the discovery of his relics. They are happening even now, in very recent times... Everywhere, everywhere this great saint of God is known, everywhere believers resort to him for help in their troubles, misfortunes and illnesses and by faith they receive what they ask for, for he is a great saint, for he is a light, a bright ray of That Light, which, according to the saying of the Apostle John the Theologian, “shines in the darkness and His darkness is not embraced.” God is marvelous in His saints, the God of Israel! Since childhood, Saint Seraphim has been God's chosen one. The providence of God was vigilantly vigilant over him. He protected him from great troubles, he saved him from incurable diseases. So, being 7 years old, Prokhor (as Saint Seraphim was called in the world) was once taken by his mother, Agafya, to the top of a stone bell tower under construction. Agafya busied herself inspecting the work and stopped watching the boy for a while. He somehow stumbled and fell to the ground. Thinking that the boy had fallen to death, Agafya rushed down the stairs with a scream and tears, but to her great surprise she found him unharmed and standing calmly on the ground. Another time, three years after this, the boy became dangerously ill, so that everyone lost hope for his recovery. According to human understanding, he should have died, but the Lord judged differently: He saved this precious treasure of the Orthodox Christian world, He raised it from his deathbed, He made the impossible possible. At the height of his illness, the Mother of God appeared to the boy in a dream and promised to come to him and heal him from his illness. In Kursk, the hometown of Saint Seraphim, at that time there was a religious procession in which they carried the ancient Kursk shrine - the miraculous icon of the Sign of the Mother of God. The religious procession took place right along the street where the house of Prokhor’s parents, whose last name was Moshnin, was located. Suddenly it started pouring rain. We had to cross to another street. To shorten the path, the procession headed through the Moshnins' courtyard. Agafya then carried out the sick Prokhor and placed him next to the miraculous icon. Then the icon was carried over the boy himself. From that time on, the ill Prokhor began to quickly improve his health and soon completely recovered. - Thus, the Providence of God was vigilant over the young Prokhor, the future lamp of the Russian land. Such protection of God to the young man showed that he was not an ordinary young man, was not like other young men, but that he deserved the special mercy of God. Indeed, Prokhor’s life from a very early age was unusual and in many ways different from the lives of his peers. From his very childhood, he strove with all his heart to serve the One Whom the heavenly world, the world of heavenly beings, continually serves, Whom the whole world of angels cries out with “incessant voices”: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” While still a boy, he visited the church of God every day with particular eagerness, and on a holiday, in addition to attending Divine services, he, as a well-versed reader, also read Divine and all sorts of soul-saving books, often gathering his comrades around him so that they could listen to the reading. But over time, little by little, with particular persistence, his inclination towards an ascetic life began to manifest itself, so that at the age of 17, with the consent of his mother, he already set off to look for a monastery where he could devote himself entirely to serving God. Having gone to venerate the holy relics in Kyiv, he, with the blessing of one perspicacious man, the recluse Dosifei, who labored in the Kitaevskaya hermitage, not far from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, entered the Sarov monastery as a novice. It was here that the monastic life of Prokhor began, who received the name Seraphim in tonsure. - a life full of labors, exploits and voluntary deprivations, a life full of constant ascension of the mind and heart to the heavenly world, an unusual life, equal to the angels.... The entire long life of Saint Seraphim in the Sarov monastery was one desire for God, one desire for improvement in virtues. He directed every activity, every pastime so that it would bring him as close to God as possible. The first and most important thing that brings a person closer to God is prayer. And so prayer with Saint Seraphim was his first feat. While still a novice, he tried, as far as possible according to his monastic obedience, to be at all church services that were performed in the churches of the Sarov monastery. And when he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then after some time to the rank of hieromonk, he did not miss a single Divine service. With great reverence and fear of God, he performed Divine services and stood in prayer in the church of God. With all his heart, with all his mind, he considered the Church of God to be a place of God’s special presence. And therefore, standing in prayer or performing divine services in it, he felt as if he were in the presence of the Lord Himself, as if face to face with Him. And the Lord God, for such reverence for the holy place, honored His saint with special revelations during the Divine service, showed His saint that, standing in the church, he was really present in the face of the Lord Himself, really glorified Him along with the host of angels and archangels, always standing before the throne of the Most High and silently glorifying Him. According to Saint Seraphim, often during his service in the church he saw lightning-fast young men who served and sang together with the brethren. These were the angels of God who descended from heaven to attend the Divine Service together with Christian believers... Their singing was so pleasant that, according to the saint of God, it could not be compared with any music on earth. “My heart felt like it was melting with indescribable joy,” said Saint Seraphim, remembering these visions. “And I didn’t remember anything from such joy; I only remembered how I entered the holy church and came out of it.” But of all such visions to Saint Seraphim during the Divine Service in the church, there was one remarkable one that struck him especially strongly. This is how the monk himself spoke about him. "It happened to me to serve with Father Pachomius and Treasurer Joseph on Maundy Thursday. The Divine Liturgy began at two o'clock in the afternoon, and, as usual, at vespers. After the small entrance and paremias, I cried out as a poor man: 'Lord, save the pious and hear us,' and, entering the royal doors, I pointed the orar at those who were coming. exclaimed: “and forever and ever.” Then a ray of sunshine illuminated me. Looking at this radiance, I saw our Lord Jesus Christ - in the form of the Son of Man in glory, shining with an indescribable light and surrounded, as if by a swarm of bees, by heavenly forces - angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim. He walked through the air from the western church gates, stopped opposite the pulpit and, raising His hands, blessed those serving and those present. Then He entered His local image, which is on the right side of the royal gates. But I, earth and ashes, was honored to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air and be blessed by Him. My heart then rejoiced purely, enlightened, in the sweetness of love for the Lord.” But the great ascetic was not content with prayer in the church. He tried to devote as much time as possible to prayer. So that nothing would prevent him from giving himself up to prayer, he often went into the dense forest surrounding the Sarov monastery at night. The extraordinary silence of the forest, the extraordinary silence and tranquility in nature among the vast forest space especially attunes the human soul, unusually draws it upward, into the heavenly world to the One Who is Himself immense, Who Himself is unlimited by any space... And Saint Seraphim completely, with his whole being, surrendered there to a prayerful mood, completely merging in prayer with his Creator. Whole nights passed with him in prayer, and he often did not notice how the morning came and daylight appeared. Having finished the night prayer, he returned to the monastery and again, at the appointed time for Divine services, rushed to the church, again prayed together with the monastery brethren... And when he left the monastery for a long time to live in the forest, in a secluded cell (where he lived first for 15 years almost hopelessly, and then for about 8 more years, coming to the monastery at night), then almost all of his time there was spent in prayer. He prayed in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at night. He prayed when he was working, and he prayed when he was resting. Prayer for him was food and drink, prayer for him was a need, the breath of his life.... One can say that Saint Seraphim fulfilled in its entirety, in the literal sense, the apostolic commandment “pray without ceasing.” To make prayer more pleasing to God, Saint Seraphim combined it with various physical exploits. So, living in forest solitude, he voluntarily took upon himself the great feat of stylite life. In the forest not far from his cell there was a large and wide granite stone. Saint Seraphim climbed onto it and prayed all night long. The ascetic spent a thousand nights on it in prayer. And in order to carry out the same feat during the day, Saint Seraphim brought a slightly smaller stone into his cell and prayed on this stone for another thousand days. In addition to stylite life, the great ascetic also took upon himself a voluntary vow of silence. Man has been given the gift of speech so that he can speak and speak. Usually, when meeting people, he exchanges his thoughts with them, chats, talks. This gives great joy to his life; - one might say, this is one of the things that a person lives by. And so Saint Seraphim, partly in order to sin less (for speech often leads a person into sin), but mainly in order for the sake of God to have less joy in earthly life, temporarily deprived himself of the gift of speech, stopped his lips and was silent for several years, not speaking a single word to anyone 1 . Usually, when someone met him (in the forest), the silent saint, in order to prevent anyone from attempting to enter into conversation with him, fell on his face and lay there until the person he met moved away from him. But this was not enough for the great ascetic - he also took upon himself the feat of seclusion, i.e. entered his monastery cell, did not leave it for a long time (about 15 years), and for some time did not even receive anyone or talk to anyone 2. The novice who brought him food usually approached the cell and said a prayer out loud, placing what he had brought at the door. The great recluse then opened the door and took food for himself. In order not to see anyone, and so that no one would see him, he covered his face with a large canvas. Saint Seraphim did not open his doors (in the first years of seclusion) to distinguished visitors. So, at one time, Tambov Bishop Jonah, who was later exarch of Georgia and metropolitan, came to Sarov. Wanting to see the recluse, he, together with the abbot of the monastery, Nifont, came to his cell. But Saint Seraphim did not open the doors for them; Niphon offered to remove the door from its hooks, but Bishop Jonah did not agree to this, saying: “Lest we sin.” The seclusion was so strict that the holy hermit did not leave his cell even for the holy sacrament of communion. With the blessing of the abbot, on Sundays and holidays the Holy Gifts were usually brought to him in his cell. Devoting himself wholeheartedly to prayer combined with deeds, Saint Seraphim, in his free time from prayer, also carried out ordinary everyday labors. Work frees a person from idleness, and that is why the great ascetic loved him. As a novice, he worked in the bakery, and in the prosphora, and in the carpentry; together with his brethren, he then floated the forest, chopped wood, etc. Later, when he chose the forest and his deserted cell as his main residence, he also carried out various labors there. In winter, for example, he chopped his own wood for the fire and carried it to his cell himself; in the summer he cultivated the ridges in his garden, which was near his cell, planted potatoes, onions, beets, etc. on the ridges, reaped sedge with his bare hands, followed the bees; to fertilize the soil in the garden, he collected moss from marshy marshy places, etc. But even during his work, Saint Seraphim did not forget to lift his thoughts to God. He used to say: “The deed is in the hands, and the prayer is in the lips.” Therefore, while performing some task, he sang various chants, such as, “Worldwide Glory,” the sedate antiphon of the first tone, “The incessant Divine desire is deserted,” various irmos, etc. And sometimes, while doing some work in the forest, he suddenly, imperceptibly for himself, stopped it; his hands then dropped down, whatever was in his hands - a spade or an ax, etc. - fell out of them and he stood silently for some time, immersed in the thought of the heavenly world.... He then saw nothing and did not hear anything that was happening around him... Another activity of Saint Seraphim in his free time from prayer was reading the word of God and various edifying books. His first and favorite book was the New Testament, which he constantly carried in his bag over his shoulders. Usually he read every day several passages from the Apostle and the Gospel and at the same time explained what he read to himself. In addition to the Holy Scriptures, the Monk Seraphim loved to read the works of the holy fathers and teachers of the church. - and especially ascetic or ascetic creations, such as St. John the Climacus, Ephraim the Syrian, Isaac the Syrian, Margaret and friend. But even when reading, as well as during everyday work, he did not cease to ascend in thought to the heavenly world, did not cease to take care that his mind imagined the Almighty more vividly and clearly. Therefore, Saint Seraphim considered reading the word of God and the works of the holy fathers an important matter, necessary for the improvement of man and for the salvation of his soul. He called such reading “supplying the soul” and even left instructions on “how to supply the soul.” Needless to say, he was a great ascetic and a great faster. His food consisted of bread (mostly stale and dry), oatmeal, chopped cabbage and the few vegetables that he grew in his garden. And at one time, when Saint Seraphim lived in forest solitude, he even stopped taking bread and everything that was brought to him from the monastery, so that the brethren wondered how he could support his existence. The matter was clarified only later. The holy ascetic grew the bitter herb snit in his garden and cooked himself a stew from it. He himself told a person close to him about this shortly before his death. “Do you know the snitka?” he said to him: “I tore it and put it in a pot; Sometimes you would pour a little water into it and put it in the oven, and it would turn out to be a glorious dish." “His food was so meager. And he ate it in very small quantities. On Wednesday and Friday he ate nothing at all, and on the other days of the week he ate food only once a day. During fasting in the first week of Lent, he did not take food until the very communion of the Holy Mysteries, i.e. until Saturday. The life of Saint Seraphim in the Sarov monastery was difficult; great were the feats he took upon himself for the sake of saving his soul. It’s hard for a person to endure everything like this, and it was hard for Saint Seraphim during such a life. But this severity was aggravated by the cruel attacks on him by the enemy of the human race - the devil, or, in other words, by the temptations of the devil. The devil saw how high the life of the holy ascetic was and could not bear this height. As a hater of everything holy, as an enemy of human salvation, he could not leave Saint Seraphim alone. And so the persecution of the ascetic begins from his side. Wanting to evict him from his cell and completely remove him from the desert, where the Monk Seraphim was ascending to greater and greater perfection, the devil began to act with terror on him. The monk heard the furious howl of wild animals outside the doors of his cell when he stood in prayer in the silence of the night; it was as if a crowd of people were breaking down the doors and throwing such a huge ridge at the feet of the praying elder that only a few people could hardly bear it; then suddenly an open coffin appeared, from which a dead man rose. It even happened that the devil lifted the ascetic up and suddenly hit him on the floor with such force that, if his guardian angel had not been with him, all his bones would have been broken. And so on, etc. But the saint overcame all the attacks and intrigues of the devil with the power of his prayer and the sign of the cross. Then the devil began to act against him with the help of evil people. On September 12, 1804, three people in peasant clothes approached him. The monk was chopping wood at this time. Those who came brazenly demanded money from him. In vain did the holy ascetic assure them that he had nothing. Then the villains pounced on him and began to beat him. One of the villains, taking an ax, hit the saint so hard on the head with its butt that blood gushed from his mouth and ears and he fell unconscious. The villains then dragged the hermit to his cell, continuing to inflict heavy beatings on him. They tied his hands and feet with ropes and laid him in the hallway, while they themselves rushed into the cell, hoping to find a lot of money there. But not finding anything there, they, driven by some kind of fear, ran away. Meanwhile, the Monk Seraphim woke up after some time. Having difficulty unraveling the ropes with which he was tied, the next morning he gathered his last strength and went to the monastery. There he was put to bed. The monk suffered greatly and would not have been alive if the Mother of God had not continued to heal him. Appearing to him in a dream vision, accompanied by the apostles Peter and John, She stopped near his bed and said: “This is of our generation.” From that time on, the patient’s strength began to quickly return, and after five months he completely recovered. For such an incessant striving (in prayer) for God, for such labors and exploits, the Lord God exalted His saint during his lifetime and exalted him to the highest degree. The heavenly world was revealed to Saint Seraphim during his lifetime; Even during his lifetime, either the Lord Himself, or the Mother of God with one or another saint of God, or the angels of the Lord appeared to him in visible images in reality (in addition to repeated dream visions). We can say that he was a true “Seer of God.” It has already been said above how the Lord God appeared to Saint Seraphim one day during the liturgy, surrounded by a host of heavenly and incorporeal forces, and also how more than once during divine services he saw lightning-fast youths singing with the brethren in the choir and serving with them. But this is only part of his God-visions. He had many visions of God. Most often, the Mother of God appeared to him, whom he especially revered and to whom he fervently addressed in prayer. This is how, for example, She once visited Saint Seraphim, a year and nine months before, informing him of his death. It was early in the morning on the day of the Annunciation, March 25, 1831. One of the nuns of the Diveyevo Monastery witnessed the wondrous visit of the Mother of God to St. Seraphim. Embraced by trembling joy, kneeling and raising his hands to the sky, the elder waited for the heavenly Guest. First there was a noise similar to the noise of a forest during a strong wind; then the sound of church singing was heard, and finally the door to the cell opened of its own accord. An extraordinary light and fragrance filled the elder’s home. Two angels walked forward with branches, followed by Saints John the Baptist and John the Theologian in white, shining robes, and, finally, the Mother of God Herself in a light robe and a brightly shining crown, accompanied by 12 virgins, holy martyrs, who followed Her in pairs. This phenomenon terrified the nun, and she fell to the ground. The Queen of Heaven then said to her: “Get up, maiden, do not be afraid; we have come to visit you.” Having encouraged the nun, the Mother of God began to graciously talk with the holy elder and, finally, blessing him, said: “Soon, My beloved, you will be with us.” The vision is over. The heart of the holy elder was filled with unspeakable joy. Turning to the nun, he said: “Behold, mother, what grace the Lord of the poor has vouchsafed to us. This is the 12th time that God has appeared to me.” Visiting Saint Seraphim in his earthly vale, the Lord God, at his request, like the Apostle Paul, delighted him while still alive into the heavenly world and showed him those heavenly abodes that are prepared for the righteous for their virtuous life on earth. This is how the monk told one Sarov novice about his ascension to heaven. “I will tell you about the poor Seraphim,” he said to his listener: “I have taken delight in the word of my Lord Jesus Christ, where He said: “In the house of My Father are many mansions” (John 14:2). At these words of Christ the Savior, I, poor one, stopped and longed to see these heavenly abodes, and the Lord did not deprive me, poor one, of His mercy. He fulfilled my desire and request: so I was caught up in these monasteries; I just don’t know, with the body or apart from the body, God knows, it’s incomprehensible. But it is impossible to tell you about the joy and heavenly sweetness that I tasted there." The righteous elder fell silent. He was unable to convey in words the spiritual delight he experienced. His face shone with joy, shone with some wonderful, unearthly light, as if he was now looking at something with tenderness, listening to something with amazement. About half an hour passed like this. But then the monk spoke again. Extraordinary tenderness was heard in his voice. "Ah, if you knew what joy, what sweetness awaits the soul of the righteous in heaven, then you would decide to endure all kinds of sorrows, persecution and slander with gratitude in your temporary life. If this cell were full of worms and if these worms ate our flesh throughout this temporary life, then with every desire you would have to agree to this, so as not to lose that heavenly joy that God has prepared for those who love There is no sickness, no sorrow, no sighing, there is sweetness and unspeakable joy!! Honoring Saint Seraphim with such Divine appearances and revelations, the Lord God generously endowed His saint with His various great gifts. Thus, He awarded him the gift of insight. What was in the distance, which could not be seen by an ordinary person, Saint Seraphim saw clearly, as if it were before his eyes. He knew the future as well as the present, and read the thoughts of every person like a book lying before his eyes. So everything was open to him, so everything was accessible to his insight. Here are examples of his insight. One day a very alarmed and distressed peasant came running to the Sarov monastery. The hat was in his hands, the hair on his head was disheveled.... Having found the Monk Seraphim, he fell at his feet and said: “Father! My horse was stolen, and now I am completely poor without it. I don’t know how I will feed my family; but they say you can guess.”... The merciful seer did not leave the unfortunate man without help. Affectionately patting the peasant on the head, he told him: “Protect yourself with silence and hurry to such and such a village. When you approach it, turn off the road to the right and pass the backs of four houses. There you will see a gate, enter it, untie your horse from the block and silently lead it out.’ The peasant went and actually found his horse in the place where Saint Seraphim indicated. The builder of the Vysokogorsk desert, Hieromonk Anthony, was greatly embarrassed by persistent thoughts about death. Wanting to find advice and peace of mind, in January 1831 he went to Sarov to visit St. Seraphim. When he arrived in the desert, it was already about five o'clock in the evening. It was getting dark. The elder returned as usual from his hermitage to the monastery. O. Anthony immediately approached him. - “What are you doing?” asked the old man. - “To you, father, with a sorrowful soul,” the one who arrived answered, “Let’s go, my joy, to the cell,” the elder warmly invited. Together they entered the ascetic’s dwelling. Father Anthony told the elder the thoughts that had never left him for a minute about his imminent death and together asked for advice on whether he should resign from his position in order to spend the rest of his time preparing for eternal life. The elder listened to Fr. Antonia, holding his hand and looking at him lovingly. When he finished, the ascetic said: “You don’t think so, my joy, not so! God’s providence entrusts you with a vast monastery.” Then the monk began to ask him to mercifully receive from the Sarov monastery those who would come to the monastery or would be sent by him (St. Seraphim). “Do not leave my orphans when the time comes to you,” he said. And then, having given Fr. Anthony received some advice on how to manage the lavra; he blessed him with the cross hanging on his chest and said: “Now come in the name of the Lord.” O. Anthony hurried to his hermitage. He was immersed in deep thought, because he could not understand what the words of the blessed elder meant. Suddenly he hears the monk riding with him crying bitterly. It turned out that he was crying about the imminent separation from his abbot, since Saint Seraphim said to him: “Well, now you are facing separation from your builder.” Meanwhile, time passed. Great Lent has arrived. On Monday of the first week, March 2nd, Fr. Anthony is given a letter from Moscow Saint Philaret. who called on the Vysokogorsk builder to take the position of governor of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra instead of the deceased Archimandrite Athanasius. The words of the perspicacious old man spoken about two months ago have now become clear. Another great gift that the Lord bestowed upon His saint was the gift of healing human ailments and illnesses. No matter what illnesses anyone came to the holy elder with, he healed everyone (if, of course, the one who came deserved this mercy from God). He healed the paralytic, the deaf, the dumb, the possessed, and so on. Everything was within his power, every illness, every ailment was inferior to him, for the Lord gave great strength to His saint. 40 versts from Sarov there is the village of Nucha. The landowner of this village, named Manturov, became seriously ill. The best doctors could not unravel the disease and completely refused to treat him. Manturov, who had heard a lot about the Sarov ascetic, decided to turn to him for help. With great difficulty, the serfs led the landowner to the elder’s cell. The elder went out into the vestibule and, seeing the sick man, mercifully asked: “Why did you come to look at the poor Seraphim?” Manturov fell at the elder’s feet and tearfully asked to be healed of his terrible illness. With the most lively sympathy and fatherly love, the monk asked him three times: “Do you undoubtedly believe in God?” Manturov sincerely answered: “I believe without a doubt.” - “My joy!” The monk said: “If you believe, then believe that everything is possible for a believer from God, and therefore believe that the Lord will heal you too, and I, poor Seraphim, will pray.” Then the monk sat the sick man in the hallway, and he himself retired to his cell. After a little time, he came out from there with oil taken from the lamp in front of the cell icon and anointing the sore spots with it. said: “According to the grace given to me from the Lord, I heal you first.” A great miracle happened: Manturov immediately felt completely healthy and strong. In unspeakable joy and reverent horror, he threw himself at the saint’s feet, kissing them and thanking them for the miraculous healing. And the humble elder raised the healed man and instructively said: “What are you saying, father! Is it Seraphim’s business to kill and to live, to bring him down to hell and to raise him up? This is the work of the only Lord, who does the will of those who fear Him and listens to their prayer.” Give thanks to the Almighty Lord and His Most Pure Mother.” One winter, a sick woman was brought on a sleigh to the monastery cell of St. Seraphim. Despite the multitude of people crowding in the hallway, the monk ordered to immediately bring her to him. The patient was all hunched over. They carried her into the elder’s home and laid her on the floor. The monk asked the sick woman: “Where are you from, mother?” “From the Vladimir province,” answered the patient. – “How long have you been sick?” – “Three and a half years.” – “What is the cause of your illness?” asked the elder. “I was before, father, of the Orthodox faith,” said the woman: “but they gave me in marriage to an Old Believer. For a long time I was not inclined to their faith and was still healthy. Finally, they persuaded me: I changed the cross to a double finger and stopped going to church. And then one evening I went to do household chores in the yard. There, one animal seemed to me to be fiery; I fell in fright, I became break, contort, and I’ve been sick ever since.” – “I understand.” answered the old man. “Do you believe in the holy Orthodox Church again?” “Now I believe again, father,” answered the patient. Then the monk folded his fingers in the Orthodox manner, put a cross on himself with his fingers and said: “Cross yourself like this, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity.” “I would be glad, father,” the sick woman answered, “but I can’t control my hands." The elder took oil from the lamp near the cell icon and anointed the sick woman’s chest and hands with it. Suddenly she began to straighten up and immediately recovered completely. The rumor about the miraculous healing of the sick woman spread widely, and the humble ascetic said: “It was not the poor Seraphim who healed her, but Queen of Heaven." The third gift that the Lord bestowed upon Saint Seraphim was the great power of his words, the great persuasiveness of his speech. Anyone who listened to his instruction felt in his heart some special tenderness, some special sweetness, and immediately became as if a different person, immediately in his soul he received the determination to lead a new life. One day a husband and wife came to Saint Seraphim. They found the old man at work - in the garden beds. Those who came bowed to him to the ground. The elder blessed them and, placing his hands on the husband’s head, read the troparion to the Dormition of the Mother of God. Then he sat down on the garden bed and ordered those who had come to sit down as well, but they involuntarily knelt in front of him and began to listen to his conversation - about the future life, about the life of saints, about the intercession and intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos for people, and also about what people need in earthly life for eternity. The conversation lasted about an hour, but, as the husband said afterwards, such an hour cannot be compared with his entire life. Throughout the conversation, he felt in his heart an inexplicable heavenly sweetness, which cannot be compared with anything on earth and which he could never remember afterwards without tears of tenderness and without special, lively joy. This is how people felt when talking with St. Seraphim. Even callous, inveterate or proud people could not resist the power of the saint’s speech; they were touched by their souls and seemed to be reborn. One proud general, hung with orders, had to be in Sarov. An acquaintance of his was with him. This acquaintance, having the intention of visiting Saint Seraphim, persuaded the general to go with him. He did not agree at all. Finally, yielding to the persuasion of his companion, he went. As soon as they entered the elder’s cell, he bowed at the feet of the proud visitor. The general’s companion left the cell, and the general talked alone with the elder for about half an hour. Suddenly crying was heard from the cell - the general was crying like a little child. In tears, covering his face with his hands, he left the elder. Later he admitted that he had traveled through many countries, knew a great variety of people, but had never seen such humility with which the Sarov recluse greeted him, and had not heard of such insight with which the elder revealed his whole life to him, down to the most hidden details. Possessing such great gifts, Saint Seraphim did not exalt himself at all. On the contrary, he was distinguished by great, even extraordinary humility (which was also witnessed by the above-mentioned general). - He considered himself a sinner and unworthy servant of God. So, talking with Hieromonk Anthony, the builder of the Vysokogorskaya desert, he said: “I, sinful Seraphim, think that I am a sinful servant of God.” Usually he liked to call himself the wretched Seraphim, as can be seen from the stories we cited above. So great was the humility of the great elder. Another great virtue of Saint Seraphim was his great love for man, as God’s creation and his brother. In the last years of Saint Seraphim’s life, when he gave up his feats of silence and seclusion, a great multitude of people (in the thousands) flocked to him. From morning to night, visitors crowded around his cell. They came to him for different purposes - some to receive blessings for this or that business, others to receive advice on how to live in order to achieve eternal salvation, others to receive healing from their illness, and so on. and so on. From the multitude of people he did not know a moment’s peace, he was exhausted, nevertheless, he did not turn away from anyone (except from some hypocrites who came with some dishonest purpose), he did not remove anyone from himself, but he accepted everyone, talked to everyone, gave everyone the necessary advice, tried to encourage and inspire everyone. And he received everyone with love, affectionately, some he affectionately stroked with his hand, others he kissed. Usually he addressed everyone with the words: “Hey, what, my joy?” And indeed, spiritual communication with a person was a joy for him. He loved a person so much that he devoted himself entirely to serving him, that for his sake he completely forgot himself. Because of this love for man, in advance, even during his life, he asked the Lord God for one mercy - namely, he begged the Lord God to give him the great gift of helping everyone who came with their sorrow to him, Saint Seraphim, at the grave. So, he said to his admirers and admirers surrounding him: “When I am gone, you come to my grave. Whenever you have time, go; the more often, the better. Everything that is in your soul, no matter what happens to you, no matter what you grieve about, come to me, and bring all your grief with you to my grave. Falling to the ground, as if alive, everything and tell me; and I will hear you, all your sorrow will fly away and pass. As you have always spoken to the living, so here I am alive for you, and will remain forever.” That's what the monk said. And indeed, as subsequent time showed, his words were fulfilled and continue to be fulfilled exactly. Many people who visited and are now visiting Sara at the tomb of St. Seraphim received and are receiving great mercies. This is how the great love of the great saint of God for people was and is being reflected even after his death. Great and glorious is the saint of God Seraphim. He is so great, so great that it is difficult to imagine that such greatness, such holiness could be achieved by a person sinful by birth. With his unceasing prayer to God, his great labors and exploits, he so cleansed himself from the sin innate to man and everything sinful that he became like the first man Adam, who emerged clean from the hands of his Creator. And the very life of Saint Seraphim in the Sarov Forest resembled the life of our forefather in paradise. All animals were submissive to Adam (before his fall). - even those who later became predatory and hostile to man. They were friendly to him, affectionate towards him and served him according to his instructions... And to Saint Seraphim, just like to Adam, the forest animals were friendly; they also caressed and served him. Everyone knows how a bear went to the cell of the holy ascetic, how the holy ascetic fed him bread from his hands, how he sometimes sent him to bring honey from the forest to treat visitors, etc. - Adam in paradise had direct communication with God. The Lord God often appeared to him and talked with him. In the same way, Saint Seraphim, in his forest solitude, had frequent communication with the heavenly world - with the Lord Himself, with the Mother of God, with angels and saints. The Mother of God, as stated above, appeared to him more than once and talked with him. -So Saint Seraphim was like our forefather, the “primeval” Adam. He also became like the disembodied angels. Just like the angels, he could stay in the air without touching the ground, as if he had no body. One day Saint Seraphim began to pray for a sick boy who had been brought to him. The boy lay there, with his eyes closed. After a while, he opened them and looked towards Saint Seraphim. Suddenly he screamed in horror. It turned out that he saw the saint of God praying in the air, high above the ground. The great saint, noticing the boy’s fear, ordered him to keep silent about what he saw; “Otherwise,” he told him, “The Lord will punish you.” Thus, the holy saint of God, Seraphim, was great and glorious in his life. His death was also glorious. She was marked with a special miraculous sign. In those minutes when he died and when, consequently, his soul ascended to the heavenly world, an extraordinary light was visible in the sky. One of God’s chosen ones, Hieromonk Filaret of the Glinsk Hermitage, together with others, came out of the church that morning at the end of the Divine Service, pointed to this light to those around him and said: “This is how the souls of the righteous ascend to heaven! This is the soul of Father Seraphim ascending.” Having retired from the visible world to the invisible world, to the Lord of hosts, Saint Seraphim undoubtedly became close to the throne of God. The Apostle Paul compares the glory of righteous people after the resurrection of the dead with glory or with the light of the heavenly bodies. He says: “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another of the stars; and star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead.” 3 Applying the image of the heavenly bodies to Saint Seraphim, we can say that he is a star of the first magnitude, a star close, closer than many others, standing to the Eternal Sun. The light of this star is brilliant, and for us living on earth, it brightly illuminates the path to heaven. In the light of this star, everyone can freely go where the inevitable path lies for all of us - there, to our eternal fatherland, common to all. Therefore, Orthodox Christian, take a closer look at the light of that bright star, do not close your eyes from it, and with its help you will come to the Unevening Light Itself... At the same time, Orthodox Christian, increase your reverence for this lamp of God, strengthen your reverence for it as an extraordinary receptacle of the glory of God. In your needs and misfortunes, hurry to him. If something unfavorable happens to you - some kind of sorrow or illness - go to his “tomb”, pray to him there, kiss his multi-healing relics, go to his healing source and you will get relief. The great saint of God will hear you, hear your prayer, your sighing to him and will help you in your needs, as he himself promised people during his lifetime. For he has acquired the great grace of God and, standing close to the throne of the Most High, powerfully intercedes before Him for all of us, his brothers in the flesh. It is through this powerful intercession that you will be fulfilled with everything that you ask him for with faith and zeal 4 . The vow of silence lasted about 12 years. Namely: a few more than 2 years St. Seraphim carried this vow, living in forest solitude, and for about 10 years - in a monastery cell (in conjunction with another vow - with the vow of seclusion, which is discussed below). Auto. The strict feat of seclusion of St. Seraphim carried for the first five years. For the second five years, he opened the doors of his cell and allowed those who wanted to see him. For the third five years, he already entered into conversation with those who came and gave instructions to everyone who wanted to. Auto. Information about the exploits and miracles of St. Seraphim are taken mainly from the book “Reverend Seraphim, Sarov Wonderworker” by priest N. Ivanovsky. St.-Pet. 1903