Seraphim Rose and his ministry of the church

In September 1982, a prominenta religious leader who founded on the American continent an Orthodox monastic abode - Hieromonks Seraphim Rose. Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since his death, interest in his life has not weakened, and admirers living on many continents are eagerly awaiting the day when the Orthodox Church will announce the canonization of its faithful son.

Childhood and youth of the future ascetic

A prominent figure of the Russian Orthodox Church forHieromonk and religious writer Seraphim Rose was born on August 12, 1934 in the American city of San Diego, California. At birth, he received the name Eugene, Seraphim also began to be called only in adulthood after the adoption of monasticism.

Graduated with honors from the school, and then college, heentered the Academy of Oriental Studies in San Francisco in 1956. From the biography of Seraphim Rose, it is known that his parents were Protestants, but he himself was keenly interested in the most diverse religious trends.

In search of the spiritual path

Within the walls of the academy, he studied Buddhism in depth,Sufism, Judaism, Hinduism and a number of other religions. It is interesting to note that each of them, Seraphim Rose studied in her native language, which speaks of his extraordinary linguistic abilities. He also owned most European languages.

Thanks to the in-depth knowledge of Latin andFrench, Rose was closely acquainted with the works of René Guénon, a prominent philosopher and metaphysician of the first half of the twentieth century, who pushed him in search of an authentic, that is, the most complete and authentic religious tradition. In his searches, he tried to maximally expand the range of religious and philosophical views he studied.

In the bosom of the Orthodox Church

An important point in Rose's life was visiting themin 1961, the Russian Orthodox Church, located in San Francisco. The impression of what he saw was so great that in the subsequent time he began to regularly attend divine services, and also went deep into the study of Russian and Church Slavonic. In the same period, the first of the books of Seraphim Rose is being prepared for publication. She was devoted to the spiritual state of his contemporaries. To complete it, the young man was forced to interrupt his studies at the academy.

Acquaintance with the works of the fathers of the Orthodox Church,which he studied already in the original, allowed him to make the final choice of his spiritual path, and in mid-February, 1962, Seraphim Rose, having passed the sacrament of chrismation, became one of its members. Soon after his baptism, he met a Russian emigre, a graduate of the Orthodox seminary, Gleb Podmoshensky, with whom he was bound for many years by the unity of spiritual aspirations.

Start of active work

In the early 60's, young people started publishingbrochures of religious content "Orthodox Herald", and then opened their own store, where they sold Orthodox books and icons. Over time, it has become one of the spiritual centers of America. Parallel to this, Rose was trained in a theological school and served as a reader in the city's cathedral.

However, this Rose and his friend Hleb did not stop there. Wanting to establish a spiritual brotherhood, they purchased a plot of land in a forest in northern California and opened a monastery there, in many respects reminiscent of those created by Russian ascetics of Orthodoxy in the past centuries. Moving into it, friends accepted monasticism in October 1970, and Eugene took the name of the very revered saint - St. Seraphim of Sarov, and Gleb - of Herman of Alaska. So the Orthodox world has found two new monks of Seraphim and Herman. A photograph of their cell completes the article.

In the office of the priest

In the monastery founded by them, Seraphim Rose continuedthe writing of religious writings and, in addition, joined with his spiritual brother into active missionary work. They did not stop even the earlier begun publication of the brochures "Orthodox Herald".

The next step on the path of spiritual growth was hisordination to the rank, performed in 1977. From now on, hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) was given the right to personally perform the sacrament of baptism over those whom he and his brother Herman managed to convert to Orthodoxy (photo above).

Completion of the earthly path

The earthly path of Father Seraphim was interrupted unexpectedlyfor all of September 2, 1982, and the reason for this was the illness that tormented him over the past few years. A very interesting passage from the book of memories of the father of Seraphim, written by Archbishop Chrysostom, who took part in his burial.

In it the archpastor tells that allthose present were amazed at the unusual kind of body of the deceased, after which, even after a long time after death, even the slightest signs of decay were not visible. It seemed that the natural process of disintegration was disturbed by the holiness of this person's life. In his face there was at that time so much life and light that, contrary to the existing tradition, the brothers did not dare to cover it with a mourning veil.

In our time, Seraphim Rose's books have been translated intomany languages, and he himself is revered as an ascetic among the Orthodox people of many countries. It is known that during the past few years serious work has been done to prepare for his canonization. The same of his admirers, who are wishing to bring the coveted day with all their might, are already offering him prayers for the pre-written icons.