From The Ascetic Life of Fr. Seraphim Rose, by Father Seraphim's spiritual son, Father Alexey Young:
I had the privilege of knowing him from 1966, around the time of the repose of St. Archbishop John Maximovitch, who was his spiritual father. Fr. Seraphim was a layman at that time--he didn't even have the famous beard of his later years, yet--, and then he became a Reader in the Cathedal shortly after I first met him.I do not know what his Cell Rule was, nor how many prostrations he did. He never spoke of it. He was a very private man. But I and others who were close to him know that he said The Prayer unceasingly and was probably a full hesychast in his last years. I never saw him without a prayer rope moving through his fingers.
He was extremely calm and peaceful at all times. I never saw him angry or agitated about anything (and I saw him in many different situations over the years), and only once ever saw him laugh. Yet he wasn't sour and downcast, either. Just very "still." He wasn't particularly outgoing, but always participated "normally" in situations, although he didn't dominate conversations. His voice was very quiet; you had to really listen in order to hear him, and his singing voice was tenor.
So far as I know, he kept only the usual monastic fast, which included the Fast of the Angels on Mondays. I was present at many, many meals over the years at the monastery. He always ate whatever was on his plate but never reached for seconds. Of course he never ate between meals, and always observed the monastic practice of never having food in his cell. Sometimes, when he was alone at the monastery (which wasn't often), he skipped meals, but this probably had more to do with being an "absent minded professor" than with any ascetic practice. In my home he ate normally, not skimping, but also never having seconds. I once asked him if he had any favorite food, favorite dishes, and he said that he didn't. When I asked the other monks they said they never had any idea of a favorite food, that he never spoke of food at all.
As an ascetic exercise, however, he wore a very heavy scratchy wool neck scarf around his throat, under his cassock, even in very hot weather. I didn't know about this until his last years when, once in a while, it would peek above the level of the neck of his cassock. When I asked the other monks about it they said it was an ascetic practice--like a hair shirt. He felt that unusual or extraordinary ascetic practices were not for our times, however. He said that just to be a good and decent and pious Orthodox Christian was already a huge "ascetic practice"! So he never gave a blessing to any of his spiritual children to do much beyond the normal fasting rules of the Church and the Morning and Evening Prayers in the prayerbook. He allowed me, at that time, to say The Prayer for no more than one half hour a day, and never assigned prostrations (except as appointed during weekday and lenten services) except as a penance. He felt that converts in particular tend to go overboard very easily and then they end up with what he called "spiritual indigestion." Better to go very slowly, he said, and always just "from strength to strength."
Fr. Seraphim took a "sponge bath" at a basin in his cell from time to time, but always took a thorough shower once a year, just before his annual visit to his mother. He never smelled and never looked unclean or dirty. As far as keeping "healthy" in any other ways, I was aware that he took a daily multi-vitamin, only out of obedience, but otherwise he had no interest whatever in health matters. I once asked him if he or the monastery had health insurance. He pointed up with his index finger and said (indicating heaven), "THAT is my 'health insurance'."
I had one or two experiences of his clairvoyance, where he literally read my mind (or rather, read my heart), but this was not a constant or frequent phenomenon in my experience. However, his prayers for someone were very powerful, and after his death I know personally of a very dramatic healing of someone from terminal cancer as a result of his intercession. He clearly is a man for our times. The late Archbishop Anthony of San Francisco said that he was the "first" genuine American "podvizhnik" ("righteous struggler"), and so therefore an example to us all. On the fortieth day after his repose, the late saintly Bishop Nektary--who knew him very well--spontaneously sang a "Magnification" to him as a monk-saint, so this constituted the very first "local veneration" of him. Fr. Seraphim was probably the first authentic patristic scholar in the English language. He would never have said this about himself, of course, but it's true.Posted by Clifton at September 21, 2004 11:30 AM | TrackBack