Kursk, Russia·1754 – 1833
Преподобный Серафим
St. Seraphim of Sarov
The Joy-Bearing Elder
He acquired the Holy Spirit and a thousand around him found peace.
“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and a thousand souls around you will be saved.”
Life
Born Prokhor Moshnin in 1754 in Kursk, Russia, he entered the Sarov Monastery at age nineteen. After sixteen years of communal monastic life, he withdrew into the forest for twenty-five years of solitary asceticism — living in a small hut, praying on a rock for a thousand days and nights, enduring an attack by brigands that left him permanently stooped.
In 1825, following an inner directive, he opened his cell to visitors. What emerged was not the severe ascetic the world expected but a figure of overwhelming warmth and joy. He greeted every person — peasant or noble — with the Paschal greeting: “My joy! Christ is risen!” He counseled thousands in his final eight years.
He died on 2 January 1833, found kneeling before his icon of the Theotokos, a candle still burning. His conversation with Motovilov on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit remains one of the most remarkable documents in Christian mysticism.
One Heart
“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved.”
Teachings
Acquisition of the Holy Spirit
The true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Prayer, fasting, and good works are not ends in themselves but means to receive the Spirit. When the Spirit descends, the soul is transfigured.
The Uncreated Light
In his conversation with Motovilov, Seraphim’s face shone with a light brighter than the sun. This was not metaphor but the direct manifestation of divine grace — the same uncreated light witnessed on Mount Tabor.
Joy as Spiritual Fruit
The mark of a soul that has found God is not severity but joy. Seraphim’s unshakeable joy in the face of suffering was itself his teaching.
Works & Publications
Conversation with Motovilov
The recorded dialogue on the purpose of Christian life and the transfiguration of a soul by the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual Instructions
Collected counsels on prayer, fasting, humility, and the inner life, preserved by his visitors and disciples.
An Inspiration
Seraphim’s teaching that the aim of life is acquiring the Spirit parallels the Advaitic recognition of one’s true nature. His joy echoes the ananda that is the Self’s own nature.