Life of Saint Seraphim Sarov

The widow Moshnina did not abandon her husband’s business and continued to build churches, including the one that later became the Kursk Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan. St. Seraphim’s mother personally oversaw the construction of the church. Once, when her second son was 7 years old, she went up to the very top of the belfry to look at the construction. Little Prokhor ran up to the edge and fell down to the ground from a great height. Great was the mother’s gratitude to God when she ran downstairs and found her son standing unharmed on the ground.

Prokhor’s older brother owned a store. They wanted to train young Prokhor for the trade too, but he begged his mother to let him go into a monastery. The pious mother agreed and, when saying farewell to him, blessed him with a large copper cross which he wore his entire life. Prokhor was 18 years old at that time. He was a very strong and healthy young man, quite tall, but meek and humble, had a straight nose, very expressive and penetrating light blue eyes, bushy eyebrows, and light blond hair.

Taking leave of his mother, Prokhor went off to Kiev to venerate the holy relics. Here a certain clairvoyant ascetic advised Prokhor to go to the Sarov hermitage and remain there for good. That is what Prokhor did. In 1770 Prokhor came down with a very grave illness. At that time he was already so respected for his ascetic life, that the monks and the abbot himself took care of him. They offered prayers for him in church, and he took Holy Communion. And after that he had a vision: the Most-holy Theotokos appeared to him together with the apostles Peter and John, touched his feet with Her staff, and placed Her hand on his head. Prokhor got well.

In 1786 Prokhor was tonsured with the name of Seraphim, which means “flaming,” and two months later he was ordained a hierodeacon. St. Seraphim’s spiritual feats of prayer were so great that the Lord visibly manifested His benevolence towards him. Once, during the first week of Great Lent, St. Seraphim saw a vision in church: the Lord Jesus Christ entered the church with a host of angels, blessed all who were praying, and then entered His icon on the iconostasis. The vision so astounded St. Seraphim that he became numb: he was rendered immobile and had to be led into the altar, where he stood in a stupor for two hours.

In 1793 St. Seraphim was ordained a hieromonk and soon received a blessing to live in solitude in a dense forest located approximately six kilometers from Sarov. The saint’s cell was a small, simple hut surrounded by a vegetable garden. For many years he lived in this desolate place, which was later called the outer hermitage. He wore the same clothes in winter and summer: a white linen coverall, leather mittens, bast sandals, and old kamelaukion (priest’s headgear) on his head, and his mother’s blessing – the copper cross – on his chest. Living in the forest, St. Seraphim prayed and labored continuously. Often he made a thousand prostrations. On Sundays and holidays he went to the monastery to take communion and sometimes conversed with the monks. His main instruction to them was concerning the need for constant prayer, either the Jesus prayer or the Theotokos prayer.