As my readers know, I have two patron saints--due primarily to God's grace, but secondarily to my own spiritual incompetence and utter need for extra help!--St. Benedict of Nursia, father of western monasticism and Bl. Hieromonk Seraphim (who has not been formally glorified yet). The life of St. Benedict is found in St. Gregory's Dialogues, Bk. II. Other information on St. Benedict can be found here. On his becoming my patron: here.
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
Dude, now I want to pick another patron, so I can have two. :-P
Posted by: David Richards at November 9, 2005 11:11 AMI figure, one for each arm, to pull me out of the mire of my own sinful deeds.
But hey, if it's a matter of quantity, I'd take on the name "All Saints"!
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at November 9, 2005 11:22 AMAll Saints! Tee hee.
Thank you for the links, I know of Blessed Seraphim by name but I've not read him.
Posted by: Mimi at November 9, 2005 01:05 PMWonderful resources...I just love the internet. Also...I've been meaning to ask you if I could borrow the tape you have of the memorial service of a few years ago...also I have slides from my trip to St. Herman's if you ever want to see them.
Posted by: Jacob B at November 9, 2005 01:46 PMYou may most certainly borrow the video. And I'd love to see the slides of your trip!
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at November 9, 2005 01:59 PMIt's a date then...I'll be out of town this weekend but maybe sometime next week...let me know when you have some free time.
Posted by: Jacob B at November 10, 2005 09:22 AMI wrote a review of NIHILISM:The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, in Vivificat! two summers ago. Interesting book! I liked this:
What is the Nihilism in which we have seen the root of the Revolution of the modern age? The answer, at first thought, does not seem difficult; several obvious examples of it spring immediately to mind. There is Hitler's fantastic program of destruction, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Dadaist attack on art; there is the background from which these movements sprang, most notably represented by several "possessed" individuals of the late nineteenth century--poets like Rimbaud and Baudelaire, revolutionaries like Bakunin and Nechayev, "prophets" like Nietzsche; there is, on a humbler level among our contemporaries, the vague unrest that leads some to flock to magicians like Hitler, and others to find escape in drugs or false religions, or to perpetrate those "senseless" crimes that become ever more characteristic of these times. But these represent no more than the spectacular surface of the problem of Nihilism. To account even for these, once one probes beneath the surface, is by no means an easy task; but the task we have set for ourselves in this chapter is broader: to understand the nature of the whole movement of which these phenomena are but extreme examples.
-Theo
Posted by: Teófilo at November 10, 2005 06:16 PM