Venerable Seraphim Sarov

Venerable Seraphim of Sarov (born Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin) was born on July 19 (30), 1754, in Kursk into the family of a pious merchant and church-builder. As a child he survived a fall from the scaffolding of a church under construction, and as a youth he was miraculously healed of a serious illness by the Mother of God, who appeared to him. In 1778 he entered the Sarov Hermitage as a novice; in 1786 he was tonsured with the name Seraphim, and in 1793 ordained hieromonk. From 1794 he lived as a hermit in a forest cell, where in 1804 he was brutally beaten by robbers demanding money — an assault that left him permanently stooped, though he forgave his attackers. From 1807 to 1810 he kept a thousand days and nights of prayer kneeling on a rock. He later embraced strict silence and enclosure. From 1815 he began receiving the vast numbers of pilgrims who came to him for counsel and healing, greeting each with the words, "My joy, Christ is risen!" In 1831 he held his celebrated conversation with Nicholas Motovilov on the purpose of Christian life and the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. He also cared deeply for the Diveyevo convent, which he helped establish. He reposed on January 2 (15), 1833, at Sarov Hermitage, found kneeling in prayer before the icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness." He was glorified as a saint on July 19 (August 1), 1903, at Sarov in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and the imperial family.