Lives of saints
The Life of St Seraphim of Sarov
The elder of Sarov and his teaching on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
Life
Prokhor Moshnin was born in Kursk into a merchant family. In 1778 he entered the Sarov Hermitage and in 1786 was tonsured with the name Seraphim. He passed through the ascetic feats of desert-dwelling, a thousand days of standing on a rock, and reclusion; from 1825 he received visitors.
Eldership
The saint greeted everyone with the words “My joy, Christ is risen!” His conversation with N. A. Motovilov on the aim of Christian life — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit — was recorded by Motovilov and published in 1903. He died on 2 January 1833.
Glorification
Canonized in 1903. His relics, lost in the Soviet period, were found again in 1991 and translated to Diveyevo.