1. From His Birth to His Entry Into the Sarov Hermitage

Father Seraphim of blessed memory labored in the Sarov Hermitage for more than fifty years. Just as during his earthly life he edified, enlightened, comforted, and healed many through word, deed, example, and prayer, so too after his repose, the wondrous feats and teachings he left behind—passed from mouth to mouth by countless eyewitnesses, listeners, disciples, and all who had received any spiritual benefit from him during his lifetime—have never ceased to be instructive for all who worthily venerate his memory and desire to imitate his virtuous life and follow his teaching.

The provincial city of Kursk is memorable as the birthplace of Father Seraphim. The city’s residents, according to tradition, know this location to this day and point it out to visitors as one of the local sights worthy of note. It lies on Sergievskaya Street, in close proximity to the church of St. Sergius. Here stood the family home of Father Seraphim’s parents. Later, when the city was replanned by order of Empress Catherine II, they were assigned another plot at the edge of the city, near what are now the Moscow Gates—the site where Father Seraphim’s elder brother Alexei had his home and lived.

Father Seraphim’s parents were named Isidor and Agafya, with the family name Moshnin. They belonged to the respected merchant class of the city. Seraphim’s father owned brick factories near Kursk, worked as a contractor building stone structures—churches and private homes—and had a reputation as an honest man; he was devoted to the churches of God and possessed considerable material means. In the final years of his life he undertook to build in Kursk, at the expense of its parishioners and especially of the merchant Karp Efremovich Pervyshev, a new church dedicated to the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, the wonderworker of Radonezh—a church that was designated a cathedral in 1833. Its foundation was laid in 1752. When the lower church, with its altar dedicated to St. Sergius, was fully complete, the builder was overtaken by death in 1762. He left his wealth in the hands of his wife and entrusted her with the continuation of the church’s construction and the completion of the work.

Agafya, Seraphim’s mother, is remembered even more than her husband—both for her personal piety and for her charity toward her neighbors. During her husband’s lifetime and after his death she helped the poor, especially orphans, refusing no one, even in cases where the request was to help equip a poor girl’s household upon her marriage—something that naturally required a considerable outlay. In accordance with her husband’s wishes and her own inclinations, she continued the construction of the Church of St. Sergius for many years, personally overseeing the progress and quality of the work, and in 1778 she brought the church to its final completion. The church is adorned with stucco work both inside and out. The iconostasis occupies the entire eastern section up to the cupola itself; it is carved from solid wood and is said to have been prepared and finished over the course of ten years. The construction of the church is so solid that to this day no damage can be seen on it. Even the gilding, which was applied at the time of the church’s completion, has never been renewed and to this day has not lost its freshness. Such circumstances and virtues placed the Moshnin family among the prominent people of the city of Kursk.

Father Seraphim was born on the night of July 19 to 20, 1759, and was given the name Prokhor in honor of St. Prokhor, one of the Seventy Apostles and the Seven Deacons of the early Church, whose memory is celebrated on the 28th of that same month. He was not his parents’ only son: at the time of his birth he already had an elder brother, Alexei. Prokhor inherited his parents’ good qualities and above all their piety. He lost his father when he was barely three years old. His mother alone remained as his educator in childhood. She taught her young son chiefly by the example of her own life, and certainly her charity and her love for the churches of God and for prayer planted in the heart of Father Seraphim the seeds of that care for the poor and orphans, that love for the beauty of God’s temples, and that zeal for prayer which distinguished Father Seraphim from his early years. Meanwhile, to those attentive to the workings of Providence it was evident that from infancy Prokhor was under the special guidance and protection of Divine Providence. He was seven years old when his mother, going to inspect the construction of the Church of St. Sergius, took her son with her to the very top of the bell tower then being built. There Prokhor slipped from his mother’s sight and, left alone, fell through carelessness to the ground. In great fright Agafya ran down from the bell tower, expecting to find her son beaten to death; but with amazement and indescribable joy she saw him whole and unharmed. The child was standing on his feet. Questions followed: from what height had he fallen, and how had he survived—and the end of it was that the mother, with tears of joy, recognized the preservation of her son from death and injury as the work of special Divine protection and gave thanks to God. Three years later a new event revealed even more plainly the special protection of God over Prokhor. He was ten years old; he had a strong physical constitution; his mental faculties showed sharpness of mind and quick memory; in his conduct—meekness and humility. At this time he began to be taught church literacy. The boy showed both aptitude and ability for learning; but his studies had to be interrupted. Prokhor fell so gravely ill that recovery was not expected. At the most critical time of the illness, in a vision during sleep, Prokhor saw the Most Holy Mother of God, who promised to visit him and heal him from his illness. Prokhor, upon waking, told his mother of this vision. The dream revealed in the boy a pious disposition of soul and receptivity to religious impressions, while its fulfillment—which came about in a visible manner—showed the higher Providence at work over Prokhor. During one of the cross processions, the wonderworking icon of the Sign of the Mother of God was being carried through the city of Kursk along the street where the Moshnin house stood. A heavy rain began. To cross to another street, the procession most likely took a shortcut through the Moshnin courtyard to avoid the mud. Taking advantage of this occasion, Agafya carried her sick son out into the courtyard, held him up to the wonderworking Icon, and brought him beneath its shadow. It was noted that from that time Prokhor began to recover his health and soon was completely well. Thus was fulfilled the promise of the Queen of Heaven to visit the boy and heal him. Once his health was restored, Prokhor continued his studies successfully, learning the Book of Hours and the Psalter, taught himself to write, and developed a love for reading the Bible and spiritual books.

Since Prokhor’s elder brother Alexei was engaged in trade and had his own shop in Kursk, Prokhor was also made to learn commerce in that shop. “I am by birth,” he said later, conversing in Sarov with N. A. M., “from the Kursk merchants, and when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade in goods that bring more profit.” The objects of trade were things necessary for peasant life—such as straps, tar, rope, yokes, harnesses, bast shoes, iron, and the like—but his heart had no inclination toward trade and profit: it drew him to where he could acquire for himself the treasure of the spirit, the eternal salvation of the soul. He scarcely let a day pass without visiting the church of God. Unable, because of his work in the shop, to attend the Liturgy and Vespers at the church during the day, he would rise early and, after his prayers at home, hasten to the morning divine service so as to offer there his prayers to God. On Sundays and feast days he particularly loved to occupy himself with reading spiritually edifying books, sometimes gathering his companions to listen to the reading.

Although the desire to share the treasures of spiritual wisdom led Prokhor to gather companions around him, an inner, deep feeling drew him toward solitude and communion with himself alone. He sought close acquaintance only with those who could converse with him for the benefit of his soul.

At that time in the city of Kursk there lived a certain fool-for-Christ’s-sake, whose name is now forgotten but who was then held in general reverence. He was a native of Kursk and had taken up this difficult ascetic labor for the salvation of his soul from early childhood. Out of his own piety Prokhor first struck up an acquaintance with him and afterward attached himself to him with his whole heart. The fool-for-Christ also came to love Prokhor, and by his influence inclined Prokhor’s soul still more toward piety and the solitary life, which he himself led in the midst of family and acquaintances.

The direction his son was taking, openly and simply displayed, did not escape his mother; in her heart she agreed with it, approved of it, and rejoiced. Anxiety covered her face only when she looked into the future and pondered what occupation and manner of life her son would choose for himself. After a few more years this question too began to resolve itself. Prokhor began to speak of a monastery, cautiously sounding out his mother’s thoughts and asking as if hypothetically: “might he not go into a monastery?” Seeing that his mother did not oppose his wish—that she would rather let him go than keep him in the world—his desire for the monastic life burned all the more strongly in him. Then Prokhor began to speak of the monastic life with people he knew. In many he found sympathy for his intention and approval; and certain merchants—Ivan Ivanovich Druzhinin, Ivan Stepanovich Bezkhodarny, Alexei Semyonovich Melenin, and two others—gave hope of going with him to a monastery and remaining there forever for the salvation of their souls. At seventeen his resolve to leave the world and enter upon the path of monastic life had fully matured in Prokhor. And in his mother’s heart too a determination had formed to release him into God’s service. She was all the more prepared to do so without reservation since she would not herself be left in complete solitude: her other son Alexei—already known to us, quite unlike Prokhor in character, more inclined to worldly pursuits than to spiritual exercises—remained with her. Then the seventeen-year-old Prokhor Moshnin, following the ecclesiastical and civil provisions of the Spiritual Regulation, obtained his release from the Kursk city community, thus taking the first formal step of his renunciation of the world for the sake of monasticism. His parting from his mother was deeply moving! According to the Russian custom, after they had gathered everything and sat together for a while, Prokhor rose, prayed to God, and, bowing to the ground before his mother, asked for her parental blessing. Agafya let him venerate the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God, then blessed him with a copper cross. Taking this cross with him as the sign of his mother’s blessing—as the symbol in which all the obligations of a monk are united—Father Seraphim preserved it to the end of his life, wearing it always openly on his chest. Thus mother and son parted from each other. With bitter tears the widowed Agafya watched him go; the thought of keeping the young man at home turned in her mind; but the danger of drawing a person away from a good resolve, and the fear of bearing the ill consequences of such dissuasion, calmed the agitation of her soul. Prokhor surely wept no less than his mother, but grief—the natural companion of every parting—did not detain him at home; his thoughts pressed toward the place to which the ways of God were calling him. Making the sign of the cross before God’s church, the young man—with a pensive look and a secret thought in his heart—left, like Abraham, his homeland and his father’s house.

Monastery archive, div. 15, no. 13