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Dedicated to sharing the life, teachings, and spiritual lineage of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of Platina and promoting his veneration and glorification (canonization) by the Orthodox Church
“If we truly live the Orthodox world-view, our Faith will survive the shocks ahead of us and be a source of inspiration and salvation for those who will still be seeking Christ even amidst the shipwreck of humanity which has already begun today.”
—Fr. Seraphim Rose
https://youtu.be/BUewUSTEzp0?si=3G1AQkMrDHiW89UT
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From a Life of Fr. Seraphim written in the style of the Lives of Saints found in Vita Patrum by St. Gregory of Tours:
Finally, when the soul of the blessed one was sufficiently purified, it departed unto the Lord. Fr. Seraphim's body was brought to his monastery to be buried on his beloved mountain, and, for the three days following his repose, was kept in the monastery church. There, as Fr. Seraphim lay in his simple wooden coffin, his face became radiant and smiled with such a serene smile that all were moved by the sight.
During the funeral, the church was filled to overflowing with faithful pilgrims. All came up to his coffin to kiss the blessed hands which wrote so many soul-profiting books, articles and church services. When the coffin was about to be taken from the church and buried nearby, one of the pilgrims, a woman named Helen, was vouchsafed to see Fr. Seraphim shining with celestial light above the coffin, facing the altar and swinging a censer.
Forty days after Fr. Seraphim's repose, a bishop named Nektary came to the monastery and led the singing of a Glorification hymn: "We glorify thee, our holy Father Seraphim, instructor of monks and converser with angels." During his sermon, he called Fr. Seraphim "a righteous man, possibly a saint." The verity of this appraisal is attested to by the numerous miracles which Fr. Seraphim has performed since his death.
-Fr. Damascene Christensen, Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers by St. Gregory of Tours, Epilogue, p. 325-326
Tour of the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in 2017, including Fr. Seraphim Rose’s cell, the Monastery printshop, and a brief word from Abbot Damascene
https://youtu.be/Wut0IC2K0co?si=sOljTmYu8kGOIjhR
https://youtu.be/MASB6RbpN7o?si=5I6NERavi01XQfEN
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Fr. Seraphim Rose from Orthodox Survival Course, Lesson 11: Evolution
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https://youtu.be/lI-e2qzgztw?si=en0f3EgE3rWYBbdc
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https://www.youtube.com/live/16Mdj6bF7WQ?si=1St_6D7MdhIAaJh9
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Today the Church commemorates the Holy Elders of Optina
Photo: Icon of the Synaxis of the Saints of Optina and their relics at the St. Herman Monastery in Platina, CA
Eugene Rose with his twin nieces, Cordelia Mendoza, left, and Cathy Scott, right, in the Big Sur, California, woods during the summer of 1966.
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A New Orthodox Saint: St. John of Kronstadt
Celebrating the Glorification of St. John of Kronstadt (October 19, 1964)
-Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose, The Orthodox Word, Jan-Feb 1965, #1
https://youtu.be/E_Wc5EEd0Qg?si=OSDJkkdL8MXJeOeL
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“Every Orthodox Christian should know the Lives of the Fathers of the desert, which together with the Lives of the Martyrs give us the model for our own life of Christian struggle. Even so, every Orthodox Christian should know of Valaam, of Solovki, of Svir, of Siya and Obnora and White Lake, of the Skete of Sora, and of the angel-like men who dwelled there before being translated to heaven, living the Orthodox spiritual life to which every Orthodox Christian is called, according to his strength and the conditions of his life. Every Orthodox Christian should be inspired by their way of life and struggle far from the ways of the world. There is no ‘romanticism’ here.”
- Fr. Seraphim Rose, The Northern Thebaid
Fr. Seraphim reposed on August 20/September 2, 1982. He was only forty-eight years old. As it is written in the Wisdom of Solomon: He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted He to take him away from among the wicked (Wisdom 4:13).
Fr. Seraphim’s repose occurred during the “Afterfeast” of the Dormition, a sign to many that the Mother of God had indeed granted Fr. Seraphim a special protection at the hour of his death. His suffering, intense but brief in the face of eternity, marked the last chapter in his spiritual development, leading him to the threshold of Paradise. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (II Cor. 4:17).
-Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Ch. 102 “Repose”
Today marks the 54th year since the repose of Blessed Gerasim of Alaska. It was Fr. Gerasim who inspired Gleb (Fr. Herman) to start the St. Herman brotherhood.
As Gleb later wrote: “Fr. Gerasim’s standard was the basic Christianity of the heart. He was a genuine transmitter of the authentic experience of Orthodox Russia, placed in the context of twentieth-century America, and yet so few valued him.” Neither at his seminary nor elsewhere had Gleb met an ascetic desert-dweller of this kind. Fr. Gerasim had lived on Spruce Island since 1935, caring for Blessed Herman’s grave and relics, keeping monasticism alive on the island that Blessed Herman had called “New Valaam” in memory of his beloved Valaam Monastery in Russia. Gleb understood that Fr. Gerasim was indeed the one whom Blessed Herman had prophesied a hundred years earlier, when he had said: “A monk like me, fleeing the glory of men, will come and settle on Spruce Island.”
-Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Ch. 23 “Holy Russia in America”
https://youtu.be/VuD5Qpy8Q80?si=M3d-8I1Tv46ZbCUR
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https://youtu.be/Z_p1zmVv-Sc?si=yAjwXA8X26rG38Tr
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The “Location” of Paradise
-Fr. Seraphim Rose, Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, p. 406 (Part 1, Ch. 10: Questions and Answers)
Today is the 26th anniversary of the martyrdom of Brother Jose Munoz, the protector of the “Montreal” Iveron Icon
Icon from Russia, left to right: St. John, Br. Jose, and Fr. Seraphim
On Jurisdictions, Zealotry, & The Fragrance of True Christianity
Fr. Alexey Young relates:
He was himself a “zealot,” but not to the exclusion of charity. Near the end of his life he once said to me: “I regret many of the ‘pro-zealot’ articles we published in The Orthodox Word in the earlier years: we helped to create a monster, and for that I repent!” He was quite emphatic about that....
-found in both the most recent and original versions of the Fr. Seraphim biography, chapters 99 and 100, respectively. Photos in the post are from Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works
Additionally:
We fear that all our articles about “zealotry” in the past years have helped to produce a monster!
-Fr. Seraphim to Alexey Young, June 2/15, 1976
And do you really think that we have changed in recent years over The Orthodox Word of old? Except for the meekening of our tone, at the request of our bishops, we have not changed at all.
-Fr. Seraphim to Fr. Demetrios, Sep 25/Oct 8, 1981
Update on Fr. Alexey Young 🙏🏻
https://www.givesendgo.com/GADND
Purchase books on the Lives of the Optina Elders from St. Herman Press here:
http://www.sainthermanmonastery.com/mobile/Category.aspx?id=1822
While Eugene’s beard became matted in the last years of his life, he eventually combed it out…. Mary Manser, a spiritual child of Eugene's, said it was always evident when Eugene had visited San Diego. "We always knew when he came back from his mother's, because his beard would be fluffy, clean. He had showered. He was an ascetic as much as he possibly could be, so he didn't shower regularly."
-Cathy Scott, Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters, pp. 202-203
Note: this book is supported by Fr. Alexey Young, who also wrote the Foreward
Note: photos above appear to show Fr. Seraphim with a matted beard and then brushed beard
We are already in the age of “impious bishops’ which St. Seraphim prophesied, and already in many places (most notably Russia) a degree of “hiding” from or even outright disobedience to bishops has already become a spiritual necessity, and one which it is by no means easy to justify always on dogmatic or canonical grounds. This by no means changes the “rule” which you cite [about obedience to bishops], but alas, there are people (also in our Russian Church Abroad!) who are only too anxious to take advantage of such “rules,” not for the good of the Church or the bishops, but for their own private purposes. And after all, everything depends on the “interpretation” of such rules: whether broadly and with the heart, or narrowly and coldly and calculatingly. Let’s not give any ammunition to certain pharisees! Enough said?
-Fr. Seraphim Rose, letter to Alexey Young, May 29/June 11, 1973
“Now it is quite true to say that curiosity, exactly like its analogue, lust, never ends and is never satisfied; but man was made for something more than this. He was made to rise, above curiosity and lust, to love, and through love to the attainment of truth.”
—Fr. Seraphim Rose, Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, p. 53
The monastic life, indeed, even in our times of feeble faith, is still above all the love of Christ, the Christian life par excellence, experienced with many patient sufferings and much pain. Even today there are those who penetrate the secret of this paradise on earth — more often through humble sufferings than through outward "correctness" — a paradise which worldly people can scarcely imagine.
-Fr. Seraphim Rose, Introduction to Vita Patrum
In 1963 at the time of Vatican II, Fr. Seraphim Rose knew that the demonic “ecumenical movement” that prepares the world to embrace Antichrist would be led by Rome:
“In the last days faith is to be almost entirely extinguished. And yet the appearance of faith will probably be maintained; Antichrist, we know, will attempt to imitate Christ. Probably the “world Church” that is being formed by the “ecumenical movement” today (whose center, of course, will be Rome) will keep intact most of the externals of Christian worship and dogma—but its heart, true faith, will be missing, and so it will be simply an imitation of Christianity.”
-Fr. Seraphim Rose, letter dated Sept 12, 1963
https://thoughtsintrusive.wordpress.com/letters-of-fr-seraphim-rose-1961-1982/
Fr. Seraphim Rose in his discourse on “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”:
“It is interesting here to note that, of all the groups in the world, the Jews are the ones who are strongest in [media control], because it is not possible to mention the Jews in even a slightly critical tone without having a representative of the Anti-Defamation League come to visit you. That is why Orthodox publishers are very careful not to say anything about the Jews because they know that someone will come around and begin checking up on them, and if there is something they don’t like, they’ll start conducting a campaign of slanders and arousing public opinion and all sorts of things against you.”
-Orthodox Survival Course, Lecture IX “Revolution”
https://russian-faith.com/history/fr-seraphim-rose-discusses-jewish-question-protocols-zion-n2386
Eugene Rose, eleven, wears big ears on Halloween, 1945
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