II

At the very hour of Saint Seraphim’s repose, Elder Filaret of the Glinsk Hermitage in Kursk province saw a pillar of light ascending from earth to heaven, and perceiving by the spirit the repose of the righteous man, explained to those surrounding him this vision as an image of the ascension to heaven of his angelically pure soul. And the small wooden coffin in which the honored body of the departed was placed could barely be buried—only on the eighth day after his repose—with the appointed church hymnody and prayers for the repose of the soul of the departed and with heartfelt sighs, at the grave near the south wall of the monastery’s cathedral church chosen by the departed himself—such was the great throng of his venerable admirers who had come to Sarov from wherever it was possible, all wishing to give the last kiss to the departed elder.

And this path of the people to the Sarov monastery—to the little grave and to the coffin hidden within it of Saint Seraphim—from that time was never empty and never overgrown, not for a single day one might say; but branching out from that dear grave as from a center along radii or rays across the entire face of the Russian land, it encompassed all of it—Holy Russia—to her most distant corners and remote backwaters even in Siberia, and each of those branches, returning from its outermost limits and on its way absorbing more and more new tributaries, merged like a mighty river at its center with others like itself—here, by the very grave of the saint, forming as it were an entire sea of his glory.

The singing of memorial services for the departed hieromonk Seraphim, with the offering of the bloodless sacrifice at his grave, did not cease for a single day throughout all 70 years from the day of his repose until July 19 of the present year. Throughout that entire time, it undoubtedly resounded on all those paths along which pilgrims made their way here. Everywhere the name of hieromonk Seraphim was entered into memorial commemorations. Depictions of him—as a bent elder, either in a white cassock or in a short monastic mantle and stole—both individual and episodic, went out not by thousands and tens but by hundreds of thousands into the dwellings of the Orthodox and were often placed near the icon corner, as if ready to be sanctified as proper icons. In no smaller quantity, though undoubtedly with even greater honor as sacred objects, the unburied relics of the saint were carried everywhere from Sarov—items and objects that had either been in his use or stood in close relation to him: sacred and spiritual books, worn garments, pieces of wood and even stones that he had gathered here and there; it is known that the two enormous stones upon which the saint prayed for a thousand days and as many nights are preserved in Sarov only in small remnants, while the greater part, broken into small pebbles with images of Saint Seraphim on them, has been carried to the most distant corners of Russia. Even the sand from the saint’s grave was taken by pilgrims as a sacred object.

Yes, all these and many other relics of the saint—which in the world’s judgment are trivial as dust—are kept and preserved by the faithful not simply as a memento of him or as an expression of veneration, but as sacred objects. Praying for the repose of the soul of the departed servant of God Seraphim, his venerable admirers also turned to him in prayer, asking his instruction, comfort, and deliverance from troubles, sorrows, and sicknesses. It was in connection with these prayers to the saint—by those who had no possibility of coming to his grave—as a partial fulfillment of his dying testament, that all those unburied relics of his were employed. These relics appeared in the eyes of those who kept them as intermediaries between themselves and the saint who had left them, as visible instruments for conveying their petitions to him and for receiving from him, through the grace of God inherent in him, the requested mercies. They believed that these inanimate objects can be and are permeated with divine grace, and with this faith they kissed them, placed them upon themselves—on their foreheads, their breasts, and other ailing members of the body—poured water over them and drank that water as sanctified—filled through this pouring with the grace of God inherent in the saint himself. And it is impossible to depict all the manifold forms in which this kind of prayerful petition to Saint Seraphim poured forth during the entire seventy years of the resting of his body in the grave, across the breadth of all Orthodox Russia, and still less to count all the instances of such prayerful approaches to him by the faithful. But it is equally certain that inexhaustible is the sea of miracles that occurred in the process—of those manifestations of God’s mercies to those who came to the saint in such prayers that are incomprehensible to human reason and unattainable by the present forces of nature. One can say only that those who called upon Saint Seraphim in their prayers with faith and love did not go away from him empty, whatever their position, rank, or station; beginning from the most destitute sufferer of life who has no corner of his own, and ending with the chambers of our most pious sovereigns themselves—everywhere there were and remain memorable cases of miraculous help from God through prayers to Saint Seraphim, and often precisely through the mediation of such unburied relics of his. These heavenly signs served as the finger of God, pointing to the supreme council of the chief pastors of the Russian Church to accomplish what was just accomplished on July 19—the celebration of the church’s glorification and the opening of the holy relics of Saint Seraphim—which may be called the beginning of the third, the highest stage of the saint’s glorification on earth.

Here is how this is stated in the “Act of the Most Holy Synod of January 29, 1903,” printed in the first issue of our journal: “Fully sharing the people’s faith in the holiness of the ever-memorable Elder Seraphim, the Most Holy Synod more than once recognized the necessity of proceeding to the proper arrangements for the glorification of the righteous elder.” Having spoken further of the investigation conducted at its behest by the Bishop of Tambov in 1892-1894 in 28 cities of European Russia and Siberia into the miraculous signs and healings manifested through the prayers of Father Seraphim to those who asked his help with faith, and likewise of the records kept by the Superior of the Sarov Hermitage concerning the numerous miracles that occurred thereafter, the Most Holy Synod writes: “In the past year 1902, on July 19, the birthday of Elder Seraphim, it pleased His Imperial Majesty to call to mind both the prayerful labors of the departed and the general people’s devotion to his memory, and to express the desire that the matter already begun in the Most Holy Synod concerning the glorification of the devout elder be brought to completion. The Most Holy Synod, having examined in full detail and with every possible care the circumstances of this important matter, found that the numerous cases of gracious help through the prayers of Elder Seraphim, properly investigated, present no doubt whatever as to their authenticity and by their nature belong to those events that manifest the miraculous power of God, poured out through the intercession and protection of Father Seraphim upon those who with faith and prayer have recourse in their spiritual and bodily ailments to his grace-filled intercession. Together with this, the Synod, desiring that the most honorable remains of the ever-memorable Elder Seraphim should be the object of reverent veneration by all who come to his prayerful intercession, entrusted to His Eminence the Metropolitan of Moscow the task of conducting their examination. On January 11 of the present year, Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow and Bishops Dimitry of Tambov and Nazarius of Nizhny Novgorod, having joined to themselves the Archimandrite Seraphim of Suzdal and the Procurator of the Moscow Synodal Office, Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, and four more clergy, conducted a detailed examination of the coffin and of the very remains of Father Seraphim, concerning which they drew up a special act signed by all in their own hand. On this basis the Most Holy Synod, in full conviction of the truth and authenticity of the miracles wrought through the prayers of Elder Seraphim, having rendered praise to the Lord God wondrous in His saints, who ever bestows His benefits upon the Russian state firm in ancestral Orthodoxy, and who even now in the days of the blessed reign of the most pious Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich, as in former times, was pleased to reveal through the glorification of this devout ascetic a new and great sign of His beneficences to the Orthodox Russian people, presented to His Imperial Majesty a most humble report, in which it set forth the following decision: 1) to recognize the devout Elder Seraphim, who reposes in the Sarov Hermitage, in the rank of the saints glorified by the grace of God, and his most honorable remains as holy relics, and to place them in a shrine specially prepared by the zeal of His Imperial Majesty for veneration and reverence by those who come to him in prayer; 2) to compose a special service for the Venerable Father Seraphim, and until such a service is composed, following the day of the glorification of his memory, to serve the general service for venerable saints, and to celebrate his memory both on the day of his falling asleep, January 2, and on the day of the opening of his holy relics; and 3) to announce this for general public knowledge by the Most Holy Synod.”