Childhood, adolescence, youth, years of study and teaching at the Trinity Lavra Seminary of Metropolitan Philaret

This unity of Rus' at the grave of the great righteous man should shed what an abundant stream of light and life into the feelings and consciousness of the Russian people! Such great celebrations cannot be created artificially. Such great days did not pass in vain. The wave of the right hand of the Most High is at work here. Here the finger of God is visible, showing the way to the nations. Archpriest Peter Smirnov. Sacred celebration The book you are holding in your hands is not a collection of materials from a hundred years ago, as it might seem. It is not intended as an archival monument. It is not only about the glorification of St. Seraphim, which took place in 1903, but also about the celebrations of 1991 (when his relics were miraculously rediscovered and transferred with great national triumph to Diveevo) and 2003, when all of Orthodox Russia, even the entire Orthodox world, again gathered at the holy relics of the Venerable One. About one, single event that relates not to the “past”, but to the present. In 1903, Orthodox Rus', led by the Tsar, met (and partly literally, on foot and a thousand miles away) at the holy relics of the revered and glorified saint. “Such a living and close union of Russian people in the church fence has not been seen for a long time,” writes a contemporary, “and it so reminds us of our good old times, when Holy Rus' gathered and finally gathered under the united authority of the Orthodox Tsar, when in the fence of the Church everyone felt as if in the house of the Heavenly Father, when there was no this sad division between the people and the higher strata of society, as if cut off from the people and floating on their own a special boat, and this disastrous separation of the intelligentsia from the church, which constitutes the especially felt evil of our time” 1 . Reading the memories and descriptions collected in this book, we cannot help but see what was hidden from the participants in those events. It was not just the Tsar who bowed to the Reverend, but the Tsar-Passion-Bearer. We know that these days the Emperor received a mysterious letter from St. Seraphim predicting his fate. We know that after the Sarov celebrations, the long-awaited heir, the passion-bearer prince Alexy, was born. Next to the Royal Martyrs is the future martyr Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna with her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who would be torn apart by Kalyaev’s bomb just a year and a half later. Explanations are given to high-ranking persons by Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), the author of the Diveyevo Chronicle, the main initiator of the glorification of St. Seraphim, also a hieromartyr. And the Hieromartyr Philosopher of Ornatsky speaks sermons that sink into everyone’s soul and memory... Really, physically, in great triumph, that Holy Rus', about which we sing: “the host of the Divine,” to whom we pray, the saints glorified by the Church - and not yet glorified, and it is impossible to count how many of them, already inscribed in our calendar, was then, in 1903, in Sarov. Those who came together themselves did not know any of this - they did not know, but they also had a mysterious presentiment, they saw, “as through a dark glass,” with their inner eye: this is shown by fragments of memories. We, from the distance of time, can see it. But we can only if we ourselves are there, at the shrine. And, I think, those who will be at the Seraphim celebrations in 2003 will be able to truly see and feel where they are only when they unite in vision and perception with those whose voices are heard in this book. Reading these memoirs, every participant in the 2003 celebrations (and those who were not honored to be in Diveevo on the very days of the holidays, but were there during the second discovery of the relics of the saint in 1991 or even at other times fell with all their hearts to this shrine) will see what remained half-hidden from him in his own feelings. First of all, probably, that the Royal Passion-Bearers and New Martyrs of Russia have now met at the shrine of the holy relics of the great saint of God Seraphim. That Holy Russia has come together here and that it is alive, and that it is stronger than everything that seems to our clouded gaze as force... Let us give the floor to those early participants in our common great, lasting celebration, who said their word a hundred years ago. “But what united the Tsar so closely with the people and the people between The spirit of reverence for the saints, the spirit of Orthodox truth, the spirit of ancient piety, the spirit by which Holy Russia lives, by which Holy Russia is strong and strong. This numerous gathering of people, this splendor of celebrations, everything that has happened here during these days - all this phenomenon is not accidental: it was brought into existence by the essential, fundamental primordial foundations of the historical life of the people. In him, the people's consciousness found its justification, and that is why such inexpressible joy gripped all Russian hearts. The Orthodox Russian spirit, with which Holy Rus' has lived and strengthened since ancient times, with which every Russian heart lives and breathes now, has found in this phenomenon the highest expression of its truth, a convincing confirmation of its truth. That’s why everyone’s faces glow with this victorious rejoicing. Drawn solely by this spirit, the Russian people gathered here, in one place, from all sides, in such a countless number. And this multiple gathering from everywhere of all representatives of the Russian people and the Russian spirit expresses a great significant moment in historical life. This is a general Russian gathering. This is a national Russian cathedral. Is this not the “cathedral” that well-known guardians of the people's welfare, heralds of new teachings and new orders have been talking about so intensely lately? While studying the phenomena of social life, how could they overlook this fact of such enormous importance? Now they are dreaming of convening a people’s “called Zemsky Sobor” in order to reorganize all public life in a new way. But here, in addition to all orders and convocations, on their own, drawn only by inner feeling, by the strength of spirit, prompted by the ripe time, this people gathered to express to each other their cherished thoughts, their innermost feelings. And here they saw each other come together “from the Caucasus to Altai, from the Amur to the Dnieper” and, shaking hands with each other, secretly agreed among themselves - to stand for the Orthodox faith, to stand for the Russian Tsar, to stand for everything native, for everything holy - Russian... Here there was, as it were, a new oath in the very face of the Tsar, here there was a new assurance in the truth of one’s faith, a new affirmation in the strength and immutability of the existing foundations of state life.” 2 “No, you need to be a great artist of words, you need to have the free flight of a high poetic soul in order to adequately portray this whole picture of religious folk life, as it unfolded and was revealed in all its beauty, in all its completeness in the events of the Sarov celebration. If this picture were depicted fully and artistically, in accordance with reality, then a wonderful poem of people's life, a poem of the people's religious spirit, would be composed. Where are you, the great writers and thinkers of our days? How many deep thoughts you would gain here! How many wonderful subjects would you find, grateful topics for your work! How many unexpected discoveries would be witnessed here! But you are not interested in this area. You seem to be afraid to look into a person’s soul when it rises to heavenly heights, and, on the contrary, with visible pleasure you reveal all its nakedness when it plunges into the abyss of vice... If such a popular movement, such a rise in the religious spirit were seen in a schism or in some sect... oh, then everyone would trumpet the trumpet, they would begin to spread about the meaning of religion in human life, they would solemnly prove that every faith has its own share of truth! But Orthodoxy is something old, obsolete, and moreover, it is some kind of brake in the historical movement of the people along the path to progress, and therefore how can one testify to its triumph? Isn’t it better to remain silent?” 3 “In conclusion, I ask you again, brothers: let us pray to the Lord God, that he may spread the glory of the reverend and God-bearing Seraphim throughout the entire Russian land, that churches in his name may multiply, that the Russian people may assimilate in them and through them all the benefits of the holy faith and the Church, for, let us repeat the words of the saint: “We have an Orthodox faith, a Church without any blemish. For the sake of these virtues, Russia will always be glorious and terrible to enemies, and insurmountable, having faith and piety - as a shield and armor - the truth: the gates of hell will not prevail against these.” May this prophetic word of strong faith and fiery love of Saint Seraphim for the Mother Church be the conclusion of all the Sarov celebrations. Amen" 4 Hieromartyr Philosopher Ornatsky