I

The beginnings of this truly “triumph of Orthodoxy” were laid long ago—even in the days of Saint Seraphim’s ascetic life. Already then, people came to him—to him who from his youth had withdrawn from the world and its fleeting joys and vain glory into the remote Sarov monastery, and then from the very monastic brotherhood of the monastery into the distant and nearer hermitages, and thereafter into solitary enclosure, and who, both there and here, humbled himself to the point of bowing to the ground before every visitor and kissing the hand that received his own blessing—already then they came to him, to poor Seraphim in his white cassock and bast shoes, some for instruction and blessing, some with supplication for deliverance from ailments of soul and body; not only the monks of the monastery and the surrounding inhabitants, but people of every rank and station from the most distant regions of Russia, for his fame had penetrated even there—they came in tens, hundreds, and thousands in a single day. Already then, the humble monk Seraphim was known and honored, it seemed, by all and everywhere—already then the glory of Seraphim not only encompassed the whole Russian land, but penetrated to heaven itself—to the very throne of the Lord of Glory, and the Queen of Heaven herself with a whole host of angels and saints of God came down more than once and more than twice to her beloved, and illumining his very cell with heavenly light, called him blessed as a man of her own kindred, while the King of glory, the Lord, blessed him with a heavenly blessing, and the face of the elder shone, eyewitnesses related, like the face of an angel of God. Already then, the tireless people’s intercessor in prayer and teacher of the Church—as if in complement to his prayerful vigils before the icon of the Mother of God, “the Joy of all joys,” whose lamps and candles he kept abundantly lit as a sign of the spiritual churchliness of his prayers and as a pledge of their grace-filled power for those who thirsted for it—he would either anoint those who came to him with oil from the lamp, or give them holy water to drink and blessed bread to taste, and would give everyone dried bread crusts, saying: “Soak them and eat them in good health.” And a wondrous thing! Health came to those who received with faith and love these visible pledges of the elder’s grace-filled prayer—sufferers of life who were held fast by various ailments—it came even in those cases where, by the natural order of things, it could not have been expected. And how many infirm consciences were comforted by the grace-filled word of the teacher of meekness! How much light and warmth was poured out by this our joy—by blessed Seraphim—even during his lifetime!

The end of Elder Seraphim’s strictly ascetic life in Sarov was drawing near, and in response to a word of grief over the nearness of that end, expressed by a Diveyevo elder woman who venerated the blessed one, he said: “But when I am no longer with you, go to my little grave. Come close to the grave and tell me, as you would a living person, everything you are in need of. I will hear you and help you.” Thus spoke the blessed one in prophetic foreknowledge of his posthumous glory and in spiritual joy over that glory, as over the happiness of service to one’s neighbors through the all-powerful grace of God—as if sharing that joy with those whom he loved and whom he hoped to serve.

Understood in this sense, how much does this prophetic word of the beloved of the Mother of God call to mind her own canticle, in which she rejoiced in spirit in God her Savior, for He has regarded the lowliness of His servant; for behold, henceforth all generations shall call her blessed (Luke 1:46–49)! And the elder’s desire was fulfilled and his prophetic word came to pass; for from the very day, one might say, of the blessed repose of the servant of God—who had fled human glory all his life and had exhausted his flesh by labor, fasting, and prayerful vigils, mortifying what mortified him—there began that beatifying of him which the Lord was pleased to crown and seal, as it were with the seal of His Spirit, in the celebration of July 19 that has just taken place.