Another thing they [Frs Herman and Seraphim] used sparingly was coffee. I remember learning how to make coffee Platina-style. You leave the old gounds in the percolator from the day before, and you just add two scoops. The next day you add two more scoops . . . and it gets stronger and stronger. That's what I thought coffee tasted like. That was my introduction to coffee.

--Thomas Anderson reminiscing on his days as a young man living at the St Herman monastery (The Orthodox Word, 43:3/no. 254, May-June 2007, p. 119)

So I also read during this period: The Soul After Death, God’s Revelation to the Human Heart, Heavenly Realm, his translation A Treasury of St. Herman’s Spirituality (Little Russian Philokalia v. 3), The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church, and another of translations St. Seraphim of Sarov (Little Russian Philokalia v. 1), Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, and two other of his translations, Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers, and On the Orthodox Veneration of Mary the Birthgiver of God.

Like his biography, my reading of these books carried some mixed emotions. I remember reading these books, particularly Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future and The Soul After Death, and being a bit mystified by them. Keep in mind that this was early on in my intensive investigations into Orthodoxy. On the one hand, much of what they said I could definitely agree with. The dangers of occultism and the lifting up of religious experience over dogma. The necessity of sobriety about one’s own death. But there were other teachings of ancient Christianity that struck me as, well, frankly, weird. Prelest, or spiritual delusion, and the necessity to focus on religious struggle. The reality behind the metaphor of the toll-houses.

A few months after finishing the biography, I read Father Seraphim’s Nihilism, as I commuted on the bus. I also remember my first experience with this book, and coming at it from a philosophical perspective. I thought, “Father Seraphim doesn’t understand the philosophers he’s criticizing.” But later, after than a year of Divine Liturgies under my belt, and something like a discipline of daily prayer, and being more grounded in my academic discipline, I thought, “Man, Blessed Seraphim is dead on.”

So, for several months I carried this ambivalence.

But it wasn't until May 03, a couple of months after finishing the biography that I knew Fr Seraphim was going to be my other patron saint. The event was entirely by “accident.” It was 30 May 2003, and I had gone to see the movie “X2: X-men United” in the early afternoon. After the movie I had had about an hour to kill till Anna left work to pick me up. I had originally decided to just cross the street and head into Borders for some coffee and to do some reading. For some reason, however, I thought I’d instead head to the library. But while on the way, I changed my mind yet again and decided it would be too far to walk to the library and back, and since Barnes and Noble happened to be on the way, I ended up stopping there and browsing. I had no desire to buy any books, nor did I even have any books in mind that I was really wanting to get. But as it happened, while browsing in the Christian section I happened upon the out of print original edition of Father Seraphim Rose’s biography, Not of This World. I was stopped in my tracks. This was a book I couldn't order online, and would have had a hard time getting anywhere. Barnes and Noble wouldn't even have been able to special order it for me. But there it was, providentially moved out of some warehouse somewhere and plopped down on the bookstore shelf, waiting for me to catch it in my peripheral vision.

I should at this point tell how St. Benedict came to be my patron. While I was still in Bible college, and only just beginning my journey to historic Christianity, I happened to be on a short trip to one of our sister colleges and seminaries in Lincoln, Illinois. I’d already done some reading about St. Benedict through my then-new interest in monasticism, and had read some snippets from St. Benedict’s Rule. While in the college bookstore–a conservative evangelical bookstore, mind you–I happened to notice a copy of the Rule. I bought it without a second thought. It was, at the very least, a serendipitous moment. And although I then had no concept of what a patron saint was, I began to have an affinity of sorts with St. Benedict, his rule, and monasticism.

So, there I was, more than five years ago, in Barnes and Noble having an almost identical encounter, some thirteen years after St Benedict "introduced himself" to me. Although I had not yet considered Father Seraphim my patron saint–that spot had long been held by St. Benedict–this “chance” encounter was so similar to how St. Benedict “found” me, that I took it as an indication another saint had “picked” me. That 30 May 2003 experience was a turning point.

Less than a year after that Barnes and Noble encounter, I ordered some CDs of one of Fr Seraphim's lectures. The hermit from whom I purchased them providentially placed in the package a vial of oil from Fr Seraphim's vigil lamp at his grave, as well as some earth from the gravesite as well. Since I received them, they've been on my prayer shelf.

Since 2003, I've grown in my appreciation of Fr Seraphim and his role in my prayers and understanding the Orthodox Faith. In fact, about a year and a half ago, I experienced an answer to one of his prayers for me.

In autumn 2005, I had been reading the book, by Anthony Coniaris, Confronting and Controlling Your Thoughts According to the Fathers of the Philokalia (which I just recently re-read). I had also read Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim's translation of a couple of works of St. Paisius Velichkovsky, much of which dealt with the Jesus Prayer. I also spoke with our parish priest about the Jesus Prayer and practicing it. I struggled in my undertsanding and actions to practice the Jesus Prayer.

It was difficult for me to make sense of some of what I was reading and the counsel I was receiving. I now see that such counsel was not essentially contradictory, but it felt to me as though I was being encouraged in two opposite directions, to both pursue and avoid the same things. I was quite confused.

But I knew better than to simply trust my own thoughts, or work toward my own conclusions on the matter. So I simply stood still, neither pursuing nor avoiding what I had been counseled on, and just maintaining my modest and irregular practice.

One thing I did do, however, was to ask the intercessions of Fr Seraphim, on my behalf, that I might be brought to both correct thought and correct practice on the matters that were confused in my own mind.

For the next several months, however, I shied away from reading certain books on the Jesus Prayer, and simply continued what I had been doing, doing it no more nor no less than had been the case. I had one book on my shelf, Igumen Chariton of Valamo's The Art of Prayer, which I frequently was drawn to read, but hesitated to do so, because I did not think I was at a point in my life where I would be making useful gain of such reading. I was concerned that reading it apart from a state of readiness to both receive and to practice the teaching would end up being spiritually harmful to me.

But in the fall of 2006, I had a sense of being more ready to receive direction about the Jesus prayer, and so began to read Igumen Chariton's book. And in so doing, I had at last, after about a year, the answer to my questions and to Fr Seraphim's prayers on my behalf.

I was, therefore, extremely blessed to be able to take the names of two patrons on my chrismation, St Benedict of Nursia and Fr Seraphim of Platina.

Troparian Tone 4
As a faithful ascetic of Saint Herman / you flowered as a spiritual rose in Platina / As an illuminator of Orthodoxy in America / your writings bring hope throughout the world / Having taught us the True Faith / O Blessed Seraphim / pray to God for us.

Kontakion Tone 4
Being one supremely devoted to the Mother of God / thou didst take up thine abode on a mountainside near Platina / and there thou didst crucify thy flesh, with its lusts and passions, through ascetic struggle / wherefore thou art become the first born American saint, / an inspiration and guiding star to American Orthodoxy. / Wherefore we cry unto thee, / save us by thy prayers, / O Seraphim our Holy Father.

A Prayer to Father Seraphim:
Oh, Our Holy Father Blessed Seraphim, you lived your life in accordance with the commandment of Christ to die to yourself, pick up your cross and follow Him. Having done so, you produced much fruit for God's harvest. Please pray to the Lord for us, your spiritual children, who live in an age of unbelief and hostility to absolute truth. Pray that Christ our God strengthen us and give us the wisdom and faith to survive the ordeals ahead. Pray for our family and friends, both living and dead. Pray that the inner eyes of our souls be opened to see the divine and true Gospel of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, that we might acquire the Holy Spirit within ourselves. Pray that we all might someday dwell in bliss with you and the other Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. Pray to the Mother of God to entreat her Son to have mercy on our souls. For glorious and unending is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

An account of the death of Father Seraphim from his biography, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works:

On the morning that followed the Transfiguration Vigil, Fr. Seraphim served what was to be his last Liturgy on earth. Soon afterwards he fell ill and could not come to the monastery services. It was not unusual for him to be sick, and when he was he never complained, so that it was difficult to know just how bad his condition was. This particular illness caused him acute stomach pains. He remained in his secluded cabin, keeping his pain to himself. The heat, which had abated during the summer pilgrimage, now grew stifling and increased his discomfort. The aforementioned John from the Santa Cruz fellowship, now a catechumen, went to ask him some questions about the Holy Scriptures. "I found him to be in so much pain that he could not think clearly," John recalls. "As usual, he listened patiently to my questions. He tried his best to be cheerful and not show his suffering, but finally he had to say that he just couldn't answer right then." (1014)

When Fr. Seraphim was examined at the hospital, the doctors found his condition to be quite serious. His blood had somehow clotted on the way to his intestines, and part of the intestines had already died and become gangrenous. . . .

Fr. Seraphim was immediately taken to an operating room, where the dead part of his intestines was removed. . . . (1015)

Having finished the first operation, the doctors thought that Fr. Seraphim would survive. Further tests, however, showed that the problem was not over: the blood had begun to clot again. The doctors immediately operated a second time, removing even more intestines, but they were coming across a great dilemma: if they used anticoagulants to prevent the blood from clotting, he would bleed to death internally, but if they did not use such drugs more and more tissue would die. A specialist in this rare disease was called in from San Francisco, but even he was at a lost to stop the damage. At this point doctors could give Fr. Seraphim only a two percent chance of recovery. (1016)

During Fr. Seraphim's week-long agony, it was manifest to Fr. Herman and others that he had indeed been purified, conquering his will and offering it as a burnt sacrifice to God. There was not a trace of anger or rebellion in him now, only devotion, love, contrition and repentance. Once before administering Holy Communion to him, Fr. Herman read the Gospel and then, holding the book over the dying man, began to bless him with it. Suddenly Fr. Seraphim, exerting every last bit of strength in his dying, convulsing frame, raised himself up to kiss that sublime Book that has given him life. . . . (1020)

At about 10:30 on Thursday morning the doctors announced that there was nothing more they could do. Fr. Seraphim, weakned beyond recovery during a week of suffering, had begun to have multiple organ failures. Within minutes the watch over the dying had ended, and a new life had begun for him. . . . (1022)

Fr. Seraphim reposed on August 20/September 2, 1982. He was only forty-eight years old. . . . (1022-1023)

Fr. Seraphim's body was placed in the middle of the monastery church, in a simple wooden coffin that had been built by Fr. Vladimir Anderson's son, Basil. There it was to remain until the burial. The Psalter began to be read around the clock in the church. The vigil had now become a vigil of prayer for the repose of Fr. Seraphim's soul. (1023)

In the three days between his death and his burial, Fr. Seraphim's unembalmed body never stiffened, nor did decay of any kind set in, even in the summer heat. There was no deathly pallor about him whatsoever; in fact, his coloring was literally golden. The skin remained soft and the body seemed to be, in the words of one monastery pilgrim, "one of a sleeping child." . . . Since incorruption has from ancient times been viewed as a sign of sanctity in the Orthodox Church, all those present felt that they were witness to a manifestation of God's grace. (1025)

Another account of his repose can be found here.

Accounts of miracles attributed to Blesssed Seraphim's intercessions can be found here.

An akathist to Father Seraphim can be found here.

The Illumined Heart Interviews of Hieromonk Damascene and Abbot Gerasim on the 25th Anniversary of Fr Seraphim's repose (all links mp3 audio):
Father Seraphim Rose: Spiritual Father
Father Seraphim Rose: The Man, The Struggler
Father Seraphim Rose: Prayer and Orthodox Spirituality

Icons of Father Seraphim

Father Seraphim's biography.

The Seraphim Rose entry at OrthodoxWiki
The Seraphim Rose page at Death to the World

Information to obtain the video of the 20^th anniversary of Blessed Seraphim's repose, from The Father Seraphim Rose Foundation, is available here.

An audio recording of Fr Seraphim, available for purchase from St Herman Press:
Living the Orthodox Worldview

Transcribed talks of Father Seraphim online
Signs of the End Times (This talk is part of Father Seraphim's lectures on CD)
The Search for Orthodoxy
In Step With Sts. Patrick and Gregory of Tours
Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart
The Orthodox World-View
The Royal Path: True Orthodoxy in an Age of Apostasy
The Holy Fathers of Orthodox Spirituality: The Inspiration and Sure Guide to True Christianity Today Part I, Part II, Part III
How to Read the Holy Scriptures Part I, Part II, Part III

Hieromonk Ambrose (Alexey) Young's review of Not of This World.

Without doubt, the late Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) was a most remarkable American convert. He was a contributing editor for Orthodox America and editor of The Orthodox Word; he was also the author of many books, and the translator and/or editor of many other works, in both English and Russian. In addition, he wrote scores of articles on a wide variety of church subjects, and composed services to four saints. His death in 1982, at the early age of forty-eight, brought this prolific career to an abrupt close. Those who were privileged to know Fr. Seraphim personally, as this writer did for more than twelve years, also saw something of Fr. Seraphim "the man": the spiritual director, the monk, and-in his last few years-the priest and confessor. His brilliant and even splendid intellect was combined with a rare soul and a peaceful outward personality that was self-effacing, quiet, still-a personality that, frankly, loathed controversy and conflict. Especially would he have disliked the controversy generated by his biography.

Many of us-his spiritual children and his readers-had long wished for a biography of Fr. Seraphim. Some, assuming that such a work would be only a straightforward account of his remarkable life and thought, were asked to share our personal memories for such a study. Last summer [1993--cdh], Not of This World: The Life and Teachings of Fr. Seraphim Rose, was published. And, indeed, the biographer, Fr. Damascene (Christensen) has managed to integrate a massive amount of material. He narrates Fr. Seraphim's life skillfully, and we learn many things about Fr. Seraphim-especially his pre-Orthodox life-that we did not know before. This, in spite of the fact that Fr. Damascene himself hardly knew Fr. Seraphim, and was only baptized at the time of Fr. Seraphim's death. The book is also filled with photographs that help to make the man and his times come to life. Not of This World is, however, both a treasure and a disappointment, a joy and a sadness, an inspiration and a scandal. The purpose of this review is to examine these contradictions.

Some may ask: how can this reviewer-Fr. Alexey Young-possibly give an objective evaluation of Not of This World? After all, as a spiritual son of Fr. Seraphim (and co-worker with him on a number of projects), Fr. Alexey is perhaps too close to his subject. Also, Fr. Alexey was for many years closely associated with the St. Herman of Alaska Skete (where Fr. Seraphim lived) in Platina, California. The third, and, perhaps the most serious criticism of all: five years ago Fr. Alexey left the Russian Church Abroad, and he is no longer in a position to speak with any credibility.

May I say forthrightly that it is precisely because of these objections that I am in a position to write an honest review of this biography. First, while I knew the man, trusted him, and believed he achieved righteousness, I was not blind to his weaknesses-nor would he have wanted me to be. Fr. Seraphim had a horror of "guru-ism." He never demanded blind or unquestioning obedience, and he would have been appalled by statements such as one printed on the back of the book jacket: "Without Fr. Seraphim we'd all be dead." In a letter to me he once described himself, in an obviously understated way, as only an "elder brother," one who had taken a few more steps along the path than I had.1 He often made suggestions but always added, "do what you think is best." He himself always preserved a kind of polite but definite "distance" between himself and others, so that it was possible for us to view him objectively. He was not a cold or arrogant men, yet he did not permit any kind of what we would now call "co-dependance" between himself and others.

Secondly, I was an outside witness to a number of the events described in this book; most of those I did not personally see, were described to me by Fr. Seraphim himself, either in person or by letter. Although the St. Herman Skete was a very important influence in my life, I found it impossible to support the transient whims and peculiar ecclesiology of the Skete's then-Abbot, Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky), when, after Fr. Seraphim's death, he entered into an almost paranoid combat with his ruling hierarch, Archbishop Anthony of San Francisco and Western America. Fr. Herman was ultimately suspended and then defrocked by the Russian Church Abroad-after a series of provocations by Fr. Herman that would have horrified Fr. Seraphim, and which would never have been tolerated, had he lived. Thirdly, my own departure from the Russian Church Abroad to another jurisdiction had nothing to do with Fr. Herman and the Skete's troubles, nor did I follow him into his present ecclesiastical affiliation. Nor was I rejecting the priceless spiritual formation I so generously received in the bosom of the Church Abroad. In fact, in my present-day contacts with clergy and laity of other jurisdictions, I gladly and proudly defend the Church Abroad when she is criticized.

Lastly, since the book's appearance last summer, I have been contacted by a score of people around the country who, not having known Fr. Seraphim, but seeing that I am quoted in the biography many times, have asked my opinion of the book and its accuracy. I have felt an urgent responsibility to speak truthfully and set the record straight.

In a certain sense, this biography is actually three books in one. The first concerns Fr. Seraphim's early life and his intellectual and spiritual development up to the time of his conversion to Orthodoxy (approximately 250 pages). The second deals at length with his life as an Orthodox Christian -as a layman, monk, priest, writer, and teacher (more than six hundred pages). The last and, blessedly, shortest section (about 150 pages) concerns events that occurred after his repose-primarily Fr. Herman's activities and troublesome new directions. The word is not hagiography, but biography, and so it naturally contains much material of a personal and even seemingly trivial nature-in order to "fill out" the man as completely as possible, especially in his youthful, formative years.

Before discussing these three sections, it is important to note that this biography is at its best when Fr. Seraphim is allowed to speak for himself. Since he left behind a considerable body of published work, was a prolific letter-writer, and also kept a private journal, we can know something of what he was experiencing, thinking, and feeling about many things, both in his own life and in the larger life of the Church.2 In these parts of the book-and they are many-we recognize the Fr. Seraphim we knew and so warmly remember.

But, unfortunately, there are also a number of critical places where we do not hear Fr. Seraphim's "voice"; nor do we really hear the voice of Fr. Damascene, the author, either. Instead, we are subject to the views and interpretations of Fr. Herman, the co-founder of the St. Herman Skete and Fr. Seraphim's monastic brother-and not all these ideas were shared by Fr. Seraphim. Anyone who knows Fr. Herman can quickly identify these passages-and, unfortunately, there are many. Fr. Herman's speaking and writing style is quite distinctive, a style not at all shared by the author or Fr. Seraphim, who wrote and spoke in a very unsentimental and lean manner. Perhaps these sections were simply dictated to Fr. Damascene, who then edited and corrected them, incorporating them into the text. In any case, what we get in some passages is not the unadorned Fr. Seraphim, but Fr. Herman's own version of him.

Fr. Damascene's use of pseudonyms for certain people-usually bishops and other leading figures in the Church Abroad whom Fr. Herman does not happen to like-is unscholarly, childish, and offensive. One can understand that it would be appropriate to change the names of less important individuals, to protect their privacy, but to do this with well-known, public figures makes no sense, since most readers know, or can easily discover, who these people really are. Frankly, it is cowardly to change the names of only those who are being criticized, slandered, and held up to ridicule. In some ways, the first part of this book is the most important and the most positive. It is refreshing-especially for those who knew the mature Fr. Seraphim only in his last years-to see that as a boy and young man he had a girlfriend, favorite pets and music; he participated in sports, he both smoked and sometimes drank too much-like so many young people. On a broader level, his is the story of a young man, typically American, middle-class, generically Protestant, who very much reflected the anxious post-World War II soul-searching of many of his generation, and even many today in the post-Vietnam generation. In fact, most who read this section will find in it a disturbing mirror of their own overly-intellectual, skeptical, and self-destructive lives. It is precisely this that is so inspiring and encouraging for the modern reader: he can see how a man (the future Fr. Seraphim) can go from the darkness of intellectual pride and agnosticism (at times even atheism) to simple hope and belief.

In his early twenties, he was influenced by the philosopher and writer, Guenon, from whom he learned the meaning and disastrous effect of "modernism" on Western civilization and became convinced "that the upholding of ancient tradition was valid and not just a sign of being unenlightened, as the modernists would claim. Whereas the modern mentality viewed all things in terms of historical progress, Guenon viewed them in terms of historical disintegration."3 This discovery actually prepared him for his later encounter with Orthodox Christianity, a traditional religion with a very old but very functional world-view.

When, finally, he discovered True Christianity in his late twenties, he saw quite quickly and lucidly that because Orthodoxy is the Living Truth, it is also "all-or-nothing"-"a scandal and insult to the 'wisdom' and instincts of 'this world'."4 He particularly saw this in the person of Blessed Archbishop John Maximovitch, with whom he came into frequent contact, but who was regarded by a few as a "scandal" precisely because he took Orthodox Christianity so literally and lived it so uncompromisingly.5

Whereas this first section of the biography is instructive and encouraging, the second is sometimes inspiring but is, at times, deeply troubling and bewildering. Inspiring because it deals with Fr. Seraphim's actual entrance into the Church and his ever-deepening discovery of Orthodox piety and practice, patristics and spirituality and-above all-his encounter with and deep love for the rich monastic tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, in particular the Optina and Valaam traditions, which became a constant source of spiritual consolation and encouragement. The events surrounding the founding of The Orthodox Word and the establishment of the St. Herman of Alaska Skete in the mountain wilds of northern California are informative and fascinating.

It was during this period, also, that Fr. Seraphim "hit his stride" in terms of using his intellectual and pastoral talents for the greater good of the Church. He was able to identify and understand the "convert phenomenon" but, more than this, began to realize that the most important thing about controversies and problems in the Church (a constant temptation for converts, especially) is how to understand and view them from the calm perspective of eternity, without being drawn into passionate arguments for this or that figure, "party," or ideology. These are extremely valuable insights and principles by which we can and should live today-and they are all contained in this book. The tragedy, however, is that in the last several months or so of Fr. Seraphim's life, his monastic partner and "inspirer," Fr. Herman, began to go in a quite different direction, a direction that ultimately took him, after Fr. Seraphim's death right out of the Church.

Much is made in this biography of the "oneness of mind" that existed between Frs. Herman and Seraphim. Undoubtedly this did exist, especially in their early years together. They certainly shared a common vision of what their life and work should be, and out of this came a constant and fruitful stream of edifying books, articles, translations, etc. many of which have become widely known, and some of which have been translated into other languages (particularly Russian). Because of their shared commitment, many-possibly hundreds-converted to the Faith.

This biography does not tell us, however, that in the last years this fabled "oneness of mind" began to break down significantly. Substantive disputes about the future of the Skete and its work occurred with more and more frequency as Fr. Herman developed a more idiosyncratic and flamboyant attitude that grieved and worried Fr. Seraphim. He told me and others about this himself.

On one occasion, about six months before he died, he said that he was never happier than when Fr. Herman was off on one of his many "trips"-for then, he said, "we have peace, quiet, and order at the Skete." Clearly, something had gone wrong. One of their disagreements concerned the question of establishing a monastery in Alaska, on St. Herman's own island. Although the book says that Fr. Seraphim gave his permission for this on his deathbed, the facts are actually quite different. Regrettably, we must now speak of this episode in detail.

About three months before Fr. Seraphim died, Fr. Herman came to see me at my home. He was in an extremely agitated state. He took me aside and said that he and Fr. Seraphim had just had a "terrible fight." "Fr. Seraphim," he said, "doesn't understand me! I don't know what will happen, now, in the future." He explained that the argument concerned a possible future monastic establishment in Alaska, a venture that Fr. Herman was eager to pursue, but one for which Fr. Seraphim refused to give his blessing, although he did bless Fr. Herman to spend Pascha on Spruce Island, which he did.

Is it possible that Fr. Seraphim on his deathbed finally did give his blessing to proceed with this plan, as the biography maintains? It is very unlikely-for two reasons: first, shortly after Fr. Seraphim was admitted to the hospital he was put on life-support systems, including a respirator-which meant that he was unable to talk. He was also in and out of consciousness-as all of us who were there can testify. Secondly, and more serious: several months later Fr. Herman himself told me that the very last words spoken to him by Fr. Seraphim were: "I'm finished with you. Damn you!" Fr. Seraphim's uncharacteristically angry words bespeak a mind deeply troubled over Fr. Herman's general behavior and suggest that there was more going on than any of us suspected at the time. Needless to say, none of this is in the biography.

This work contains an enormous, almost obsessive, amount of "anti-bishop" talk. Much of this is petty and gossipy and seems to bespeak some kind of unresolved psychological conflict with authority figures on Fr. Herman's part. None of these nasty remarks come from Fr. Seraphim himself, however. It appears to be an interpolation by the author and/or Fr. Herman. Nor did I ever hear during Fr. Seraphim's lifetime any such talk at the Skete-except, once, around 1973, from Fr. Herman. I had written a series of articles called "What is a Bishop?" Fr. Herman urged that I not write any more such articles. When I asked why, he only replied: "We shouldn't make so much of bishops. They can get 'big heads'."

I thought very little about this at the time because, in all of my own publication and missionary work, both Fathers had always spoken well of Archbishop Anthony (who also spoke very appreciatively of them to me!). Furthermore, they always insisted that I do nothing without his blessing. But in 1987, on the only occasion I saw Fr. Herman after 1984, when I asked him if he had gone under a bishop of another jurisdiction, he replied tartly: "Who needs bishops? All they do is cause trouble. They are the enemy of the Holy Spirit!" When I said that he sounded like an Old Believer he responded, "I don't need a bishop!" (As it happened, however, he had already secretly left the Russian Church Abroad and placed himself under the uncanonical and completely unrecognized "Bishop" Pangratios. Interestingly, a few years later when he visited Russia, he did not disdain to accept an award from the Patriarch of Moscow.)

Many of the alleged "encounters" between Vladika Anthony and the Fathers-often described as angry attempts on the Archbishop's part to control and "squash" them-are simply exaggerations or outright misrepresentations. Fr. Seraphim himself told me about many specific occasions when Vladika visited the Skete, was "pleased" with them and their work, and was happy to be with them, even if only briefly, in their seclusion and peace.

At other times he mentioned minor and normal disagreements or misunderstandings with their ruling hierarch-but these were always worked out and there was never any sense of enmity in those days, such as this book portrays. Naturally,the Archbishop had an appropriate responsibility for pastoral oversight, and he wished to be consulted and kept informed about various projects and plans. There may even have been times when he did not completely understand certain goals and aspirations of the Fathers. But this is all quite normal, as anyone who has worked for an employer in the world knows.

In any case, the portrayal of Vladika Anthony as some kind of "ecclesiastical monster" or tyrant does not ring true to anyone who knows him. His own repeated, sincere, and long-suffering attempts to make peace with Fr. Herman for more than four years after Fr. Seraphim's death-all of which were angrily rejected by Fr. Herman-bear witness to Vladika's true character and need no further defense or explanation.

Similarly, although Fr. Damascene's book is filled with sly remarks and attacks against the Church Abroad, I never heard any criticism of the Synod from Fr. Seraphim. Quite the contrary. Although he did caution against putting too much trust in the outward, external "institution" of the Church, Fr. Seraphim wrote the following to me on October 18/31, 1972: "Our [Synod of] bishops on the whole are better than any others we know about, and probably no different from the bishops of the last 2000 years, through whom the Holy Spirit has led His Church." He went on to write that we must "become the bishops' best helpers-for we are working together with them in the true service of the Church's 'organism,' the Body of Christ. If we thereby sometimes suffer misunderstandings and offenses from each other (and we are guilty of this, not just bishops!), the Church gives us the spiritual means to forgive and overcome these." This is a radically different view from that given in this biography.

The final chapters, which deal with the sad and, frankly, terrible events that occurred after Fr. Seraphim's repose, and which have no business being in this biography, are a disservice to his memory, and are nothing more than a one-sided apologia for Fr. Herman's decision to leave the Church. By "one-sided" is meant that he (through the author) simply does not tell the whole truth. For example, no mention is made of the fact that charges of a moral nature were brought against him about eighteen months after Fr. Seraphim's death. The Archbishop treated these accusations against Fr. Herman with utmost discretion, with all his heart he did not want not believe them and did not press these particular charges against Fr. Herman. (It is a fact, however, that Fr. Herman's alleged problems in this area actually surfaced shortly before Fr. Seraphim's death, and were known to him, undoubtedly contributing to the overwhelming sense of sadness that precipitated his final illness and repose, and which may explain his last words to Fr. Herman.)

The narrative leads the reader to conclude that Fr. Herman left the Church Abroad because his hierarch "persecuted" him and wanted to "seize" the Skete and its property-something he had supposedly long coveted. Not only is this not true, but the actual charges against Fr. Herman concerned legitimate matters of "insubordination and disobedience," and it was for these that he was ultimately defrocked.6

In general, this self-serving one-sidedness demonstrates the way in which many incidents have been exaggerated, distorted, and made to serve the private ideology of Fr. Herman. It is a poison that came into full "flower" only after Fr. Seraphim's death, when he was no longer present to provide the needed "balance" to Fr. Herman's exuberant personality-a personality that gave so much to the Church in his healthier, obedient days, and which was greatly valued by so many, but which later came to possess the ugly qualities that he is now so quickly to ascribe to others in the Church Abroad or, indeed, to anyone who does not completely agree with him.7

Finally, what can be said about this biography of Fr. Seraphim? As was pointed out earlier, where Fr. Seraphim is allowed to speak for himself, in lengthy quotations from his writings, the book is magnificent because Fr. Seraphim-his mind, his soul-was so rare, so wonderful and "good" a human being. In this sense, it is an important work. But the biography is extremely flawed because it has been made to serve the interests of Fr. Herman's own bitterness, and to justify or excuse his grave and unresolved personal problems. The average reader, who does not know all of the principal people involved, will have difficulty sorting this out, if he even can do so at all.

Archpriest Alexey Young

NOTES:
1. Fr. Alexey saved twelve years of Fr. Seraphim's letters of spiritual direction, written to him both as a layman and, later, as a priest. Orthodox America is now preparing these letters for publication.

2. N.B: While we can trust the accuracy of all those things published before Fr. Seraphim's death, we cannot be sure, for obvious reasons, that the excerpts in this book from his private journal are his original and unedited thoughts and jottings. Nor, because of Fr. Herman's present anti-Synod bias (which manifests itself only after Fr. Seraphim's death), can we now ever be sure of this.

3. Christensen, Monk Damascene, Not of This World: the Life and Teachings of Fr. Seraphim Rose.

4. Ibid.

5. The relics of Blessed Archbishop John (who will be canonized by the Church Abroad in the summer of 1994-the same jurisdiction and hierarchy that, according to this biography, "persecuted" him!) were recently found to be whole and incorrupt. Unfortunately, Vladika John's struggles are wrenched out of their proper context and given a meaning they actually did not have at the time-a literary "technique" that occurs frequently in this book. For further information about the alleged "treatment" of Vladika John, see a review of this biography by Novice Sergey in Orthodox Life, Vol. 43, No. 5.

6. For the full text of the Ecclesiastical Court's decision, see Orthodox Life, op. cit.

7. In a letter Fr. Herman wrote to a layman in Britain during this time, he said that even Fr. Alexey Young had "betrayed" him. In fact, on the last occasion I visited him at the Skete, in 1984, I begged him on my knees and in tears to make his peace with the Archbishop and not jeopardize all of the work he and Fr. Seraphim had done.

My other patron saint's life is quintessentially found in Hieromonk Damascene's biography of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works. It is the definitive life of Fr. Seraphim. On his becoming my patron: here and here.

The Orthodox Christian Information Center has a handful of excerpts from the biography.

Super-Correctness - Chapter 63
Pastoral Guidance - Chapter 84
Orthodoxy of the Heart - Chapter 86
Simplicity - Chapter 87
Converts - Chapter 88
Hope - Chapter 99

Transcribed talks of Father Seraphim online

Signs of the End Times (This talk is part of Father Seraphim's lectures on CD)
The Search for Orthodoxy
In Step With Sts. Patrick and Gregory of Tours
Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart
The Orthodox World-View
The Royal Path: True Orthodoxy in an Age of Apostasy
The Holy Fathers of Orthodox Spirituality: The Inspiration and Sure Guide to True Christianity Today Part I, Part II, Part III
How to Read the Holy Scriptures Part I, Part II, Part III

Ms. Scott begins her work with

Much has been written about my uncle, Eugene Rose, who in 1970 became Monk Seraphim Rose. This book is a biography based on true and first-hand accounts from his family, friends, priests, and professors. Most importantly, it includes his personal correspondence from the time he left home for college to his passing in Redding, California, nearly three decades later. This compilation is the true account of his life's journey, which led him into Orthodoxy. It is not a purified version of his life. The sanitized version was authored in 1993 by Monk Damascene Christenson in Not of This World. Large portions of Eugene's life were omitted in that version. [Emphasis added]

However, in reading Ms. Scott's biographical insertions and the letters of (then) Eugene Rose, it becomes clear that only one primary factor of Father Seraphim's life had been omitted in Not of This World: his homosexuality. Ms. Scott refers to this a few paragraphs later in the same introduction by a tortuous circumlocution (apparently not wanting to give the game away until later in the book).

Long before he became a monk, he gave up certain things, including what the Church considers to be immoral actions. From my research, I learned that Eugene quit that behavior around 1960, when he embraced Orthodoxy and the rules of the Church, even before he joined that faith, in 1962, and a decade before he became a monk.

Without knowing in advance that Ms. Scott is referring to homosexual behavior, one is hard pressed to grasp what connections she intends between �immoral actions� and �that behavior.� Drugs? Gambling? Masturbation? All condemned by the Church. Aside from the fact of ostensibly delaying (until pp. 71ff) the shock value of �outing� the �pre-Father Seraphim� Eugene Rose, this is just bad writing.

Regrettably, the pot shots at Not of This World, do not end with this initial reference, but are inserted in a few other places throughout the rest of the book (pp. xii, 55-56, 235). But in reading the two books, Ms. Scott's and Not of This World, it becomes clear that the things Ms. Scott objects to are the omission of any overt reference to Father Seraphim's pre-Chrismation homosexual behavior and the characterization of him in his college days as �an angry young man� (Scott p xii).

But instead of an angry young man, Ms. Scott, through interviews with Father Seraphim's college friends, presents a young man �in pain� who didn't convert to Orthodoxy �and embrace that rigidity without needing to� (p. 160). Ms. Scott attributes to John Zeigel that �Eugene turned to the priesthood as an escape.� She goes on to quote Zeigel (�a postulant for the Catholic priesthood before he came out as a homosexual�) directly: �I was headed in that direction,� he said. �Once I found love, I reversed my directions. That put me at a crossroads. I woke up from this narrow Orthodoxy.� (p. 160) So, instead of an angry young man, Ms. Scott presents Father Seraphim as essentially a neurotic who became Orthodox to ease his pain. One wonders which is the worse.

But this failure of explanation with regard to Father Seraphim's conversion to Orthodoxy is only compounded by the extended reflection Ms. Scott records of Eugene's friends of his rejection of academia and an academic career as �a waste� (p. 163-164).

Embarrassingly, whatever her research entailed for her book, she clearly did not research the philosphy that formed so much a part of Father Seraphim's college formation. She refers to �David Hume, a philosopher who was into skepticism� (p. 26), as though Hume's lifework could be reduced to a fad he engaged in: he was �into� skepticism. And the reduction of Arthur Schopenhauer to a �nineteenth-century philosopher of pessimism� (p. 26) is equally egregious.

In addition to these failures is Ms. Scott's clear lack of comprehension of Orthodoxy itself. She is clearly not Orthodox, and very little of her work presents Orthodoxy in a sympathetic light. Although the only outright criticisms of Orthodoxy come from the mouths of Eugene's college friends, she lets these criticisms stand without fuller explanation, either from herself or other potential interviewees (such as Hieromonk Ambrose [Alexey] Young, Val Harvey, and other of Father Seraphim's spiritual children).

But perhaps the chief flaw of Ms. Scott's book is that it is so poorly written. Much of the book is the stringing together of Father Seraphim's letters with occasional comments about the date of the letter and to whom it was written. And if Ms. Scott's work is intended to be a �true story� of Father Seraphim's life, the great bulk, two-thirds, of the work (pp. 1-161) mark out Father Seraphim's life up to the completion of his master's thesis in 1961 (less than a year prior to his Chrismation into the Orthodox Church). Only the last eighty pages (163-243) have anything to do with the last half of Father Seraphim's life. If this is a �true story� of Father Seraphim's life, it pays comparatively scant attention to what Father Seraphim himself considered to be the most fundamental aspect of his being.

These criticisms notwithstanding, Ms. Scott does not otherwise oversensationalize Father Seraphim's homosexual behavior, nor presents Orthodoxy as a cult. One supposes that she intends an �objective� viewpoint, letting Father Seraphim's friends and family, and Father Seraphim himself in his early letters, speak to the various matters. Indeed, through this revelation of Father Seraphim's homosexual behavior, and his later rejection of it, Ms. Scott, perhaps unwittingly, provides hope for those who struggle with same-sex attraction and wish to be conformed to the life of Christ in the Church.

But most important are the letters themselves. Perhaps not obviously so at first, upon repeated readings they set out the gradual conversion of Father Seraphim from his former life to his life as Orthodox. This background makes much more rich one's own reading of the truly worthwhile biography Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works.

To my knowledge, Ms. Scott's book is out of print, though one may contact the publisher.

Just over a month ago to the day, I received the Father Seraphim Rose Video from the Father Seraphim Rose Foundation.

Yesterday I received the The Teachings of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim CDs I'd ordered from Hieromonk Lawrence of the Blessed Seraphim Hermitage.

The CDs contain three recordings: "A Word on Fasting During Great Lent," a Molieben for Travelers, and, the longest, "Signs of the Times: An Orthodox Christian Approach" (continued on the second CD). The audio quality is poor to good on the first two tracks. This is in part because the original recordings were analog and the recordings themselves are old; and then analog loses something in being digitized. However the longer and more often one listens to the "poor" spots, the easier it is to discern what's being said. Of course the clearer sections on the first two tracks on CD 1, with the final track on CD 1 and the remainder of the lecture on CD 2, are of quite good quality and make for good listening.

It is, for me, absolutely amazing to hear Blessed Seraphim's voice. I've seen many pictures in his biography (both editions), and online. I've asked his intercessions, but to hear his voice is something else altogether. What a joy.

This was a most blessed and welcome package. But imagine how thrilled I was to discover on opening the parcel that inside were a container of oil from the vigil lamp as well as some soil from Blessed Seraphim's grave! These blessed relics now sit on my icon shelf to aid me in my unworthy prayers.

Glory to God!

The video runs just under two hours. On the video you see:

# Trip up the road to the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery

# Sermon by Fr. Thomas Hopko

# Segments from the Divine Liturgy with 12 priests at Fr. Seraphim's grave

# Segments from an English-language Pannikhidas

# Presentation of Fr. Seraphim's vestments to Hieromonk Ambrose (Young)

# Talk by Hieromonk Damascene

# Talk by Hieromonk Ambrose

# Talk by Protopriest Petr Perekrestov of Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral, San Francisco

# Reminiscences by Abbot Gerasim and Barbara Murray

# Tour of Fr. Seraphim's Optina cell

# Segments from Slavonic-language Pannikhida at Fr. Seraphim's grave

# Trip down the road

The sermon by Fr. Hopko and the talks by Hieromonk Damascene and Hieromonk Ambrose were printed in the edition of The Orthodox Word which similarly commemorated Father Seraphim's repose.

I very much liked the video tour of Father Seraphim's cell. Amazing to think of him sleeping, praying and working there in the stifling heat of summer and freezing temperatures of winter with nothing but a woodstove for warmth.

But I think the best part of all was the audio excerpts from sermons and talks that Father Seraphim gave which both open and close the video. It moved me to tears. Here was the voice of my patron, whom I ask each day to pray for me, whose books I've read. It was amazing.

For those of you interested in Father Seraphim, I recommend writing the Foundation and obtaining your own copy of the video.

The Soul After Death
The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church
God's Revelation to the Human Heart
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

I've read all these before (see list below), having checked them out from the libraries at the seminary or Loyola, but got some birthday money last month, and had just enough to order these four books and pay for shipping, so I decided to add them to my home collection. (They're also all in newer editions than the ones I've read, so they have extra material I'd like to read, too.)

Although Blessed Seraphim's list of authored books is relatively finite, as can be seen from the list below, his list of translated books is relatively larger. What makes these translated books valuable is not just the translation of previously unavailable texts, but Father Seraphim's godly-wise introductions.

A case in point. I'm currently re-reading the out-of-print Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers, a translation of a portion of a work by St. Gregory of Tours (historian of the Franks). (By the way, it is currently in revision and soon to be republished under the title Western Orthodox Roots.) The first one-hundred-fifty pages are a detailed introduction by Father Seraphim on monasticism in fifth and sixth century Gaul, and its relevance to modern Orthodox Christianity. Clearly, Father Seraphim's introductions are important works in their own right.

In any case, I remember reading the books listed above, particularly Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future and The Soul After Death, and being a bit mystified by them. Keep in mind that this was early on in my intensive investigations into Orthodoxy. On the one hand, much of what they said I could definitely agree with. The dangers of occultism and the lifting up of religious experience over dogma. The necessity of sobriety about one's own death. But there were other teachings of ancient Christianity that struck me as, well, frankly, weird. Prelest, or spiritual delusion, and the necessity to focus on religious struggle. The reality behind the metaphor of the toll-houses.

But recently I reread Father Seraphim's Nihilism, as I commuted on the bus. I also remember my first experience with this book, and coming at it from a philosophical perspective. I thought, "Father Seraphim doesn't understand the philosophers he's criticizing." But now I've got more than a year of Divine Liturgies under my belt, and something like a discipline of daily prayer. I also am more grounded in my academic discipline. So when I came to Nihilism again, I thought, "Man, Blessed Seraphim is dead on."

It was partly as a result of that experience that motivated me to go ahead and purchase these books so I can more receptively take in the godly insights of this saint.

So, although I should have dutifully plowed through "Observing Reason" in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit on the commute this morning, instead I pulled out God's Revelation to the Human Heart and read the first section. I was almost in tears. (I'm very emotional of late. What's up with that?) Father Seraphim indeed spoke the truth, a truth he both knew personally and struggled through suffering to know.

Blessed Seraphim, our father in the faith, pray for us.

Works written or translated by, or biographies of, Blessed Seraphim and when I read them:

1. The Soul After Death (November 02 and October 04)
2. God's Revelation to the Human Heart (November 02 and October 04)
3. Heavenly Realm (December 02)
4. [Tr] A Treasury of St. Herman's Spirituality (Little Russian Philokalia v. 3) (December 02)
5. The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church (January 03 and October 04)
6. [Tr] St. Seraphim of Sarov (Little Russian Philokalia v. 1) (January 03)
7. Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future (February 03 and October 04)
8. [Tr] Vita Patrum: The Life of the Fathers (February 03 and December 04)
9. [Tr] On the Orthodox Veneration of Mary the Birthgiver of God (February 03 and October 04 and October 04)
10. [Bio] Not of This World (October 02-March 03)--Purchased 30 May 03* [Cf. this post here as to why this purchase is significant.]
11. [Tr] The Apocalypse in the Ancient Teachings of Christianity (May 03)
12. Nihilism (July 03 and October 04)
13. [Tr] Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (July 03)
14. [Tr] First-Created Man (July 03)
15. Genesis, Creation and Early Man (August 03)
16. [Tr] Guidance Toward the Spiritual Life (September 03)
17. [Bio] Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works (September-December 03 and September-November 04)
18. Letters from Father Seraphim (December 03 and January 05)
19. [Bio] Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters (March 04 and July 05)**
20. Blessed John the Wonderworker (March 04)
21. [Tr] The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It (May 04)
22. [Tr] The Path to Salvation (June 04)
23. [Tr] The Northern Thebaid (July 05)
24. [Tr] Abbot Nazarius (Little Russian Philokalia v. 2) (September 05)

*Note: Not of This World is the first edition of Father Seraphim's biography. It was written at a time in the life of the St. Herman Brotherhood in which some problems in leadership in the brotherhood resulted in some regrettable decisions. The end of the book has almost nothing to do with the life of Father Seraphim, and is written to justify some of these questionable decisions. If one is interested in Father Seraphim's life, the second edition of his biography, Father Serpahim Rose: His Life and Works, is a very significant revision and should be considered the authoritative and trustworthy source.

**Note: Cathy Scott is a niece of the late Father Seraphim. Her biography, Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters was written to counter some of the things written and implied in Not of This World. Unfortunately, Ms. Scott's own biography is marred by her agenda, which includes the revelation early on in the book of Father Seraphim's homosexuality and his homosexual relationship of several years prior to becoming Orthodox, and the contradiction of a handful of points, such as whether and how often Father Seraphim bathed, which seem fairly petty. That Father Seraphim was gay is hardly a matter about which to be concerned; he repented of his behavior upon becoming Orthodox and led a celibate life till his death. But Ms. Scott gives almost no context for Father Seraphim's homosexuality, and seems to imply that Father Seraphim's conversion was an unhealthy one. The book focuses almost exclusively on Father Seraphim's life pre-conversion and on his early years as Orthodox. His life as a monk is given much less coverage. On the one hand, the details learned of Father Seraphim's early life are invaluable in the context of his whole life, especially, given today's obsession with sexuality issues, the revelation of Father Seraphim's life pre-conversion. But if Ms. Scott's book is read by itself, the picture of Father Seraphim one receives is severely distorted. One should read the second edition of Father Seraphim's biography prior to reading Ms. Scott's book.

�In a pedestrian way, you can look at something like a printing press which does not operate. You are standing around and enjoying yourself, watching nice, clean, good pages come out printed, which gives a very nice sense of satisfaction, and you are dreaming of missionary activity, of spreading more copies around to a lot of different countries. But in a while it begins to torture you, to shoot pages right and left. The pages begin to stick and to tear each other on top. You see that all those extra copies you made are vanishing, destroying each other, and in the end you are so tense that all you can do is sort of stand there and say the Jesus Prayer as you try to make everything come out all right. Although that does not fill one with a sense of satisfaction (as would watching the nice, clean copies come out automatically), spiritually it probably does a great deal more, because it makes you tense and gives you the chance to struggle. But if instead of that you just get so discouraged that you smash the machine, then you have lost the battle. The battle is not how many copies per hour come out: the battle is what your soul is doing. If your soul can be saved while producing words that can save others, all the better; but if you are producing words that can save others and are all the time destroying your own soul, it's not so good.�

--Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, p. 380

Orthodoxy is life. If we don't live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox, no matter what formal beliefs we hold.
--Father Seraphim Rose (Cathy Scott, Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters, p. 231)

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . . (2 Cor. 10:3-5 ESV)

My first encounter was entirely by "accident." It was 30 May last year, and I had gone to see the movie "X2: X-men United" in the early afternoon. After the movie I had had about an hour to kill till Anna left work to pick me up. I had originally decided to just cross the street and head into Borders for some coffee and to do some reading. For some reason, however, I thought I'd head to the library. But while on the way, I decided it would be too far to walk to the library and back, so Barnes and Noble happened to be on the way and I ended up stopping there and browsing. I had no desire to buy any books, nor did I even have any books in mind that I was really wanting to get. But as it happened, while browsing in the Christian section I happened upon the out of print original edition of Father Seraphim Rose's biography, Not of This World. I was stopped in my tracks.

I should at this point tell how St. Benedict came to be my patron. While I was still in Bible college, and only just beginning my journey to historic Christianity, I happened to be on a short trip to one of our sister colleges and seminaries in Lincoln, Illinois. I'd already done some reading about St. Benedict through my then-new interest in monasticism, and had read some snippets from St. Benedict's Rule. While in the college bookstore--a conservative evangelical bookstore, mind you--I happened to notice a copy of the Rule. I bought it without a second thought. It was, at the very least, a serendipitous moment. And although I then had no concept of what a patron saint was, I began to have an affinity of sorts with St. Benedict, his rule, and monasticism.

So, there I was last year in Barnes and Noble having an almost identical encounter, some thirteen years later. Although I had not yet considered Father Seraphim Rose my patron saint--that spot had long been held by St. Benedict--this "chance" encounter was so similar to how St. Benedict "found" me, that I took it as an indication another saint had "picked" me.

Needless to say, I purchased the book and soon thereafter began asking for the intercessions of Father Seraphim along with St. Benedict. The more I learned about Father Seraphim, the more convinced I became of his sanctity.

So, the new biography came out in the fall, and I purchased it. Shortly thereafter, I acquired Nihilism and Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, and of course I had several months before read other of Father Seraphim's writings. Then I picked up a copy of Letters from Father Seraphim. The only remaining book that I had thought I wanted to get was Cathy Scott's biography, Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters.

Which brings me to yesterday, and my second encounter with Father Seraphim. I had ordered the Cathy Scott book through Barnes and Noble, so this was to be a planned meeting. While I was waiting for the shuttle to take me to Loyola to teach, Barnes and Noble called. My book was in. I hot-footed it to the store, and picked up the book.

I'm not a big fan of Barnes and Noble (they crowded out the local college bookstore at Loyola, earning my continuing disrespect), but since I've encountered Father Seraphim there twice in less than a year, I need to remember and be grateful.

[H/T: Fr Stephen]

This next features a couple of photos of one of my patrons, Father Seraphim Rose:

And here is the Kyrie:

Once one has risen to the level of doubting, two paths open up to him: the path of questioning, of doubting of trying to understand until one ends in doubting everything, destroyed by doubt, or else giving oneself over to some false science that "explains"--i. e., explains away the irreconcilable paradoxes of our existence; or the path of acceptance and prayer, accepting even the doubt (without contriving more than one's immediate experience gives one legitimately to doubt), praying to be given yet more to try and test us, crying for more life, more to accept and weep over, accepting and praying in the midst of doubt, knowing that the way of doubt has as many pitfalls as the way of easy acceptance.

--Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, p. 99

'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' Without truth there is no Christianity, and without knowledge of Christian truth one cannot be a Christian. And the end of this knowledge is not power, what science wishes; nor is it consolation or comfort or security or ego-bolstering, whatever the cults of the subjective desire. Its end is freedom, Christian, Divine-human freedom, the freedom of men, the sons of God.

The knowledge that brings freedom is beyond any subject-object categorization; it is knowledge in which the whole man participates, which informs the human being in his entirety. It is gained not by research or special experiences, but by living a Christian life, with the aid of the sacraments, prayer, fasting--and our encounters with other human beings. It is not a knowledge of which one can say, 'I know (or have experienced) this or that,' but one which is revealed in all that one does, alone or in company, and is present in all that one thinks. The Christian desires to be one with the Truth, Who is Christ Jesus; and so the Christian is what he knows. He who rejects Christ does not know Him; he who accepts Him but does not live the fully Christian life, does not know Him fully. Only the deified man knows fully--as fully as man may know; the rest of us are merely striving to be Christians, that is, knowers.

--Eugene Rose, Philosophical Journal of Eugene Rose (1960-1962), 1 Jan 1961.

Just as it was with Father Seraphim, it is the life of the Church, the wholeness of Orthodox worship, the Sacraments, that have opened the pathway to the heart, and to the experience of the union with God. By Father Seraphim's intercessions (and here), I have come to a greater (though still extremely limited) understanding of the relationship of prayer, especially the Jesus prayer, and the heart. And it is changing me.

The last great writing project I had here on this blog was my series on true philosophia. Earlier this year I began a series of reflections on St. Gregory Palamas' Dialogue, but that series lies languishing. I am finding it ever more difficult to write of my faith from the standpoint I am most used to do: that of the intellect.

Do not mistake: I am not denying the intellect, or the service of the intellect to Christ and his Church. Heavens, where would I be without some of the reading I've done on Orthodoxy which is expressed in distinctly and challenging intellectual terms. My favorite Orthodox reading is still history and theology. Metropolitan Hierotheos' The Person in the Orthodox Tradition graces my shelves (though as yet unread).

But I clearly have made a shift in the working out of my salvation with fear and trembling. It is to unite my mind and my strength, my soul, in the heart in prayer and obedience to Christ. Thankfully, I have Father Seraphim as a guide and exemplar.

The knowledge that brings freedom is beyond any subject-object categorization; it is knowledge in which the whole man participates, which informs the human being in his entirety. It is gained not by research or special experiences, but by living a Christian life, with the aid of the sacraments, prayer, fasting--and our encounters with other human beings. It is not a knowledge of which one can say, 'I know (or have experienced) this or that,' but one which is revealed in all that one does, alone or in company, and is present in all that one thinks. The Christian desires to be one with the Truth, Who is Christ Jesus; and so the Christian is what he knows. He who rejects Christ does not know Him; he who accepts Him but does not live the fully Christian life, does not know Him fully. Only the deified man knows fully--as fully as man may know; the rest of us are merely striving to be Christians, that is, knowers.

--Eugene Rose, Philosophical Journal of Eugene Rose (1960-1962), 1 Jan 1961.

Father Seraphim Rose: Prayer and Orthodox Spirituality

I have been struck again (as the times I'd read Scott's biography before) by the depth of intellect Father Seraphim exhibited. As I read his letters, I am struck by the fact that he was only twenty-one years old, and yet he is engaging philosophical ideas that are taken for granted in today's academic world. He had passed beyond the modernist hegemony long before "postmodernism" became a serious philosophical exercise, and well before it reached its present bowdlerized and popularized and bastardized state.

This something like a stereophonic reading of Father Seraphim's early life makes for much richer detail, and provides much greater contrast and awareness with just how much he was transfigured by his life in Christ, and some notion of the sort of suffering he endured in that transfiguration.

Blessed Father Seraphim, pray for us.

Father Seraphim Rose: The Man, the Struggler (mp3 link)

Father Seraphim Rose: Spiritual Father (mp3 link)

I would even suggest that Fr. Seraphim Rose only appeals to a subculture within Orthodoxy and is not representative of Orthodoxy as a whole.

This comment has stuck with me for a long time. I have often sought to understand the animosity and/or dismissiveness many Orthodox have for Fr. Seraphim. A lot of it has to do with the simple politics of Fr. Seraphim having been a clergyman and monk in ROCOR, which had difficult dealings with just about all the other jurisdictions in the US - but in particular with the 3 largest of them in the US (GOA, Antiochians, and ROCOR's 'sister' jurisdiction, the OCA). He spoke out about a good deal of the more 'liberal' tendencies in these jurisdictions. He spoke rather sharply in his early days, though this moderated in his later years. He also sent spiritual children of his to non-ROCOR parishes when this was a better pastoral fit for them, so he never questioned their 'grace'. Sts Theophan the Recluse and Ignaty Brianchaninov disagreed with each other, and yet both are saints- the same was true for Sts Joseph of Volokolamsk and Nilus of Sora, and Sts Peter, Paul and James the Apostles in the book of Acts. Fr Seraphim's reputation was also damaged by the actions the monastery he founded took after his repose: leaving ROCOR, setting itself up as an independent Church with no episcopacy, then under a self-styled pedophile bishop in Queens, allegations of sexual misconduct by its former abbot, etc. St Gregory the Great of Rome is not guilty of the sack of Constantinople even though later 'Romans' were guilty of such.

Christopher deals briefly with a couple of the specific criticisms given, and then continues:

. . . I would make the case that Fr. Seraphim's appeal to only a subculture within Orthodoxy is true, but beside the point. Monasticism only appeals to a subculture within Orthodoxy, any service apart from Sunday morning Liturgy only appeals to a subculture within American Orthodoxy, Orthodoxy itself only appeals to a subculture within our society, and Jesus appealed to very few in his society. Breadth of appeal is not athe measure of either sanctity or veracity. . . .

Not all Fathers and not all saints 'speak' to each of us. The Athonite Fathers of the 18-19th Centuries I find to be particularly 'grumpy'. I also tend not to respond as well to Greek writers on Orthodoxy. They have value for others. Let us not denigrate and speak poorly of those who speak to subcultures other than our own. Let us find fault with the fact we live in a subculture within the Orthodox Church. Let us censor our personal opinions and preferences for the sake of the unity of the Church- 'let us not move the ancient landmarks.'

--Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, p. 471

[Note: Time stamp changed to move it up the blog.]