Seraphim of Sarov
1754 CE–1833 CE · Modern · Kursk
Seraphim of Sarov (1754–1833) was a Russian Orthodox monk and hesychast widely regarded as the most beloved saint in the Russian Orthodox tradition. Born Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin in Kursk, he made a formative pilgrimage to the Kiev Caves Monastery around 1776, where the elder Dosifei directed him toward Sarov. He entered the Sarov Monastery in 1778 and spent decades in extreme ascetic practice, including a legendary thousand-day vigil of prayer on a rock in the forest. His spiritual counsel attracted thousands of pilgrims in his later years, and his recorded conversation with the landowner Nikolai Motovilov on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit became a foundational text of Orthodox pneumatology. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1903 and remains a defining figure of the hesychast and philokalic revival in modern Orthodoxy.
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KurskRussia
What they did here
Born Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin in Kursk in 1754; raised in a merchant family and received early religious formation here before departing for his pilgrimage to Kiev.
About Kursk
Kursk, a city in western Russia. Seraphim of Sarov, the much-venerated Russian monk-mystic, was born there in 1754.
The world in their lifetime
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