Seraphim of Sarov

Seraphim with bear

The Holy Seraphim of Sarov ( Russian Серафим Саровский , scientific. Transliteration Serafim Sarovskij * 19 ^{. Jul} / 30th July  1759 ^greg. In Kursk ; † 2 ^jul. / 14. January  1833 ^greg. In Sarov ), civic Prokhor Moschnin (Russian: Прохор Мошнин), was one of the most famous Russian monks and mystics of the Orthodox Church. It is called the largest Elder ( Staritsa ) of the 19th century.

He tried to impart the monastic teachings of contemplation and self-negation to the laity and taught that the goal of a Christian life is the attainment of the Holy Spirit . Seraphim was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1903 .

By Nicholas Motovilov , one of his "spiritual children", the main part of his spiritual teachings was communicated in writing for posterity.

Life

youth

Isidore and Agathia Moschnin were the parents of Seraphim. The father, a merchant and brickmaker, took part in the construction of a cathedral in Kursk. However, he died before completion. Now the mother had to take care of the upbringing of her son alone. Prochor had an excellent memory and learned to read and write very quickly. From early childhood he liked to attend church services, where he was completely absorbed in prayer, read the Holy Scriptures and many saints' lives .

At a young age, he was miraculously healed several times after having an apparition from the Mother of God . These events slowly made him decide to go to a monastery later.

When he expressed this wish to his mother, she was immediately convinced of his new path in life and gave him a copper cross, which he wore under his clothes on his skin until the end of his life.

Way to the monastery

Seraphim now left Kursk and made a pilgrimage to the cave monastery, the Kiev Lavra , to venerate the icons of the saints there. Here he met Father Dositheus, a nun disguised as a monk (Daria Tjapkina). She gave him the blessing and indicated to him to go from here to Sarov to the monastery.

After a short stay in his parents' house, he said goodbye to his mother and family. On November 20, 1778, he arrived at the Sarower monastery , which at that time was headed by Father Pachomius. One of his first tasks was to keep the cell of his spiritual father, Father Joseph, in order, and he was also entrusted with work in the bakery and in the carpentry.

asceticism

With the blessing of Igumen Pachomius, he abstained from all food on Wednesdays and Fridays and withdrew into the forest, where he practiced the Jesus prayer in seclusion . He had just been a novice in the monastery for two years when he fell ill with dropsy and his whole body swelled up. The disease dragged on for three years and the monks wanted to call a doctor several times. Seraphim refused, however, because all his hope was in God and the All Pure Mother . While the monks were praying for him, he had a vision of Saint John and the Blessed Virgin. After that he was healed.

After eight years as a monk he received the tonsure and the name Seraphim and after another year he became a hierodeacon . At this time his spiritual experiences deepened and this spurred him on to constantly extend his prayer times during the night.

He was ordained a priest monk in 1793 and from then on he celebrated the Divine Liturgy every day . After the death of Igumen father Pachomius, he received permission from the new abbot Father Isaiah to move to a lonely wooden hut on the Sarovka River. The little house consisted of a room with a hallway in which there was a coffin. Outside he had a small vegetable garden in which he also kept bees.

During this time he spent 1,000 nights standing or kneeling on a stone, like one of the pillar saints of the early church. In 1804 he was the victim of a robbery. The robbers who hoped to find money on him struck him down with his own ax. He lay on the floor for a long time until he finally regained consciousness and dragged himself into the monastery covered in blood.

While struggling with death for a week, he had an apparition of the Mother of God and of the Apostle Peter and John. The Mother of God said to the apostles: "He is one of us." Now he had to stay in the monastery for six months until he was able to look after himself again; however, from this point on he was only able to move on a stick.

In 1810 he returned to the monastery on the orders of his bishop , as it had now become too difficult for him to walk from his hut to the monastery once a week to attend the church service. Here he immediately locked himself in a cell, which he left for the first time in 15 years.

Help to the believers

Seraphim of Sarov on an icon

After an apparition of the Mother of God, he opened his cell door on November 25, 1825 and from that time on was there for all people who came to him as a spiritual advisor. Word quickly spread among the believers about his gifts of heart knowledge, prophecy and healing . He welcomed all people with a kneel and the greeting: “My joy, Christ is risen.” Just as he had strictly rejected any contact with women when he was still living in his hut in the forest, he now turned to them especially .

Above all, he took care of the nuns of the Diwejewo monastery, who had placed themselves under the rule of the monastery in Sarov. He called some of these nuns to him and they were allowed to participate in his apparitions and miracles. Through them all the wonderful events that had occurred in the life of the saint were documented.

The nun Jelena had always expressed the wish to die before the saint. When her brother, the landlord Maturow, became critically ill, Seraphim asked her: “Your brother is critically ill. I still need it. Can you die for him.? ”As if it were the greatest independence in the world, she immediately agreed and everything went as the saint had planned.

St. Seraphim attended the liturgy on New Year's Day 1833, received the holy sacraments and said goodbye to his brothers. He went into his cell and he could be heard singing Easter songs well into the night. On the morning of January 2nd, the brothers saw smoke coming out of his cell and they opened his door. A candle fell and the saint was kneeling in front of the icon of the Mother of God. He sat motionless, eyes closed and arms crossed. But his soul had already stepped before the face of God, as one put it in religious circles, that is, he had died.

After his death

After the death of Seraphim, the Holy Synod tried to ignore the devotional worship of the common people through indifference. Monks destroyed furnishings in his forest house and the stone on which he had stood for 1000 nights. The miracles have been questioned and viewed as a threat to orthodoxy.

After Seraphim's death, the Synod initiated an investigation into his canonization , but was not prepared to accept around 80 proven miracles as evidence. With the support of his wife Alexandra and the bishop and metropolitan Tschitschagow (1856–1937), the author of a biography of Seraphim, Tsar Nicholas II opposed the decision of the synod, whereupon the canonization was initiated again.

But the synod was still unwilling. Now the tomb was opened on the assumption that a saint must be incorrupt. However, Seraphim's skeleton was found with his copper cross. The commission drafted a report, which the Tsar commented in writing: “ I read with the greatest respect. Immediately glorify (ie canonize) ”.

District Judge Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov's diary notes about a conversation with the saint are said to have been rediscovered by Sergei Nilus in a pile of books around 1903 and were published in a book and a Moscow newspaper. Otherwise, Nilus is best known for his edition of the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion .

In 1903 the tsar couple went to Sarov for the celebrations of the canonization. The Tsar was given a letter written by the saint over 70 years ago. The letter carried the inscription: " To the tsar who will come to Sarov ". In it St. Seraphim the end of the Tsar's life and he prophesied that Russia would be free again at the end of the same century.

The relics of the saint were confiscated by the Soviet authorities as an exhibit for the Museum of Atheism in Leningrad , they were later lost and were only found again shortly before Christmas 1991.

In 1923 all the monasteries in Sarov were closed and converted into arms factories during World War II . The Russian Federal Nuclear Research Center has been located here since 1946, the city was renamed "Arsamas-16" and removed from all maps.

2003 marked the hundredth anniversary of the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, which was celebrated with great festivities. All relics were returned and Sarov was given his old name again.

Memorial days

August 1st, January 15th and January 2nd

literature

• Dmitri Mereschkowski u. a .: The last saint. Seraphim of Sarov and Russian religiosity. Stuttgart 1994.
• Lazarus Moore: St. Seraphim of Sarov. A Spiritual Biography. Blanco (Texas) 1994.
• Michaela-Josefa Hutt: The holy Seraphim of Sarov. Miriam-Verlag, Jestetten 2002, ISBN 978-3-87449-312-3 .
• Igor Smolitsch : Life and Teaching of the Starzen. Freiburg 2004.
• Metropolitan Seraphim: The Eastern Church. Stuttgart 1950, p. 282 ff.
• Paul Evdokimov : Saint Seraphim of Sarov. In: The Ecumenical Review , April 1963.
• Ivan Tschetwerikow: The Starzentum. In: Ev. Annual letters 1951/52, p. 190 ff.
• Claire Louise Claus: The Russian convents at the turn of the 18th century. In: Church in the East , Volume IV, 1961.
• Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Motowilow: The instructions of the Seraphim of Sarow. Sergijew Posad 1914 (Russian; after Smolitsch, Leben, 1936, Seraphim's teaching on the Holy Spirit, the core of the teachings, first appeared in the Moscow newspaper in 1903).
• The famous conversation with Motowilow was first published by Sergei Nilus under the title Duch Boschi javno potschiwschi na otze Serafime Sarowskom v besede jego s NA Motowilowym , in: Moskowskije Vedomosti , 195–197, 18. – 20. July 1903 (also separately Moscow 1903). In German translation in the voice of Orthodoxy (January and February 1990), as well as as an appendix to the book The Last Saint (see above, pp. 201–239).
• Serafim's famous prophecy "Velikaya Diwejewskaja taina" (The great secret of Diwejewo) first appeared in: Sergej Nilus: Na beregu Boschjei reki c. 2, San Francisco 1969, 192f. In detail, Michael Hagemeister : The prophecies of the holy Seraphim of Sarov about the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world. In: Joachim Hösler, Wolfgang Kessler (ed.): Finis mundi. End times and world ends in Eastern Europe. Festschrift for Hans Lemberg on his 65th birthday (= sources and studies on the history of Eastern Europe 50). Stuttgart 1998, pp. 41-60.
• Martin Tamcke :  Seraphim von Ssarow. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 1402-1404.

See also

• Hesychasm

Web links

Commons : Seraphim von Sarov  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Seraphim von Sarow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Seraphim: Sources
• Saint Seraphim of Sarov ( Quatember 1965)
• Rule of prayer of St. Seraphim of Sarov to the All Holy Mother of God