St. Seraphim of Vyritsa
Commemorated on April 3
Counsels and
Prophecies οf Saint Seraphim οf Viritsa
St. Seraphim of Vyritsa always recommended his spiritual children to sprinkle raw and cooked food with holy Theophany water, which, according to him, “consecrates everything all on its own.” Whenever anyone fell seriously ill, St. Seraphim would bless them to take a tablespoonful of holy water hourly. He used to say that there are no better remedies than holy water and holy oil.
Many times we become sick because we do not pray before beginning our food and we do not seek from God to bless it. In olden times everything people did they did with prayer. They prayed when they plowed the earth, in the sowing they prayed; they also prayed when they harvested the fruits. We today do not know who produces these things we are eating, and many times we do not know who is cooking our food. These people may be cursing and blaspheming, when they are cooking it. For this reason it would be good before eating our food to throw some holy water on it.
All these things which we use for food are God’s gifts to people. Through them all of nature and the noetic world of angels serve man. For this reason each time we sit down to eat, we should pray with much diligence.
Many spiritual children Vyritsa elder advised as often as possible to read the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, “O Lord and Master of my life …” “In this prayer, the whole essence of Orthodoxy, the whole Gospel. She we ask the Lord for help to acquire the properties of the new man,” — said the priest.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother …” Sin condemnation Seraphim called one of the greatest spiritual ills of our time! “We have the right to judge but yourself. Even arguing about any man, we have unwittingly condemn it,” — said Vyritsa elder. He particularly recalled the inadmissibility of condemnation of the priesthood: “Personal human weakness can not take away the grace of ordination. During the sacraments the priest is only an instrument in God’s hands. Invisibly all sacraments makes Christ himself. Whatever sinful father, even if he is prepared to fire gehenna only light through it, we can get permission from our own sins. “
Father Seraphim himself many times used to say that he always felt the presence of his protector, the venerable Seraphim of Sarov. He faithfully followed this saint’s example in his life, as we will realize from the following narration.
Neither the individual fates of men nor the fate of Russia itself were hidden from the great Elder. He knew of the coming great war, and openly warned of the dangers approaching the Fatherland. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War [i.e. World War II], Fr. Seraphim took on a new great ascetic struggle, many days of prayer upon a rock, like unto that of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Here is what his relatives tell of this: “In 1941, Grandfather was already almost 76, and could barely get around unassisted. In the garden behind the house, there was a granite boulder behind a small apple tree. On that rock, Fr. Seraphim would offer up his prayers to the Lord. Supporting his arms, or often simply carrying him, people would bring him out there. An icon was affixed to the little apple tree, and Grandfather would stand on his hurt knees on the rock and raise his arms toward Heaven. How difficult that was for him! It was impossible to look upon it all without crying… Fr. Seraphim prayed for as long as he had the strength – sometimes an hour, sometimes two, and sometimes several hours at a time. And he did so day in and day out, throughout the long and exhausting years of war.”
In Vyritsa itself, and as the Elder had prophesied, not one house was destroyed, and not one single person was killed.
There will come a time when not the persecutions but money and the goods of this world will take people far from God. Then many more souls will be lost than in the time of the persecutions. On the one hand, they will be putting gold on the domes and will put the crosses on them and on the other hand everywhere evil and falsehood will reign. The true Church always will be persecuted. They who want to be saved will be saved with illnesses and afflictions. The way in which the persecutions will occur will be very sly and it will be very difficult for one to foresee the persecutions. Dreadful will be that time; I pity those who will be living then.
Even in the most difficult times, he who will occupy himself diligently with the Jesus prayer, ascending with the frequent invocation of the Son of God’s name in ceaseless prayer, will be able to be saved easily.
The Lord can wait even a thousand years for just one person to be saved for the number of angels who fell [i.e. the demons] to be made up.
At least once in our life we must light a candle for those whom we insulted, whom we deceived, whom we stole something from, whom we owed, and we did not pay our debt.
The Lord has the power to show forth workers if we beseech Him. Let’s pray and let’s beg Him and then from the rocks the Lord will show forth His chosen ones.
The Elder used to say, that a time would come when near every believer would be forty unbelievers and they will beg him to save them.
The Orient will be baptized in Russia. The whole heavenly world is praying for the enlightenment of the Orient.
A time will come when there will be a spiritual flowering in Russia. Many churches and monasteries will open, even those of other faiths will come to us in ships to be baptized. But this will not last long – for about fifteen years, then Antichrist will come …
A time will come when Russia will be torn apart. First they will split her up, then they will start to plunder her wealth. The West will in every way try to further Russia’s destruction and hand over her eastern part to China. The Far East will fall into the hands of the Japanese. Siberia will fall to the Chinese, who will start to settle in Russia, marry Russians and eventually, through cunning and craft, occupy all Siberia as far as the Urals. When China tries to go further, the West will oppose it.
Many countries will fall on Russia, but she will survive, though losing a great part of her territory. That war, foretold by the Holy Scriptures, will bring about the unity of mankind. People will understand that it will be impossible to go on, otherwise every living thing will die. They will elect a single government – this will be the antichamber for the reign of Antichrist. Then the persecution of Christians will begin…
The Elder’s spiritual gifts and his gift of consoling people made him known even beyond the city of Saint Peter. People from all parts of Russia would come to Lavra to receive his blessing, to be consoled, and to seek his advice. Father Seraphim would say the following about his own self:
“I am the storage room where people’s afflictions gather.”
They say that at the end of the 20’s decade, a possessed woman visited the elder. Father Seraphim took a little oil from the vigil lamp that burned before the Panaghia’s icon and anointed her with it. Immediately the demon left the woman.
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Miracles οf Saint Seraphim οf Viritsa
One day a woman and her blind daughter went to see Fr Seraphim. When they entered his cell, the woman knelt before the Elder, received his blessing and with tears begged him to help her daughter. Fr Seraphim prayed. He took oil from the vigil lamp which burned before the icon and anointed the child’s eyes with it. Then he told the mother to cover the child’s eyes with a handkerchief and to not take it off until the following night. The next night the child received her sight.
One day a Russian lieutenant and his platoon took over an alcohol factory in Germany. There were many wells full of alcohol. Everyone rejoiced and wanted to try it. Suddenly, a general appeared and ordered the men to immediately fire on all the wells and disappeared. When the war ended the lieutenant returned home, he saw a monk’s photo among his mother’s icons. In it he recognized the general who had given the order to fire at the wells. He asked who this was and his mother told him it was her spiritual father, Hieromonk Fr Seraphim. “During all the time of the war, he was praying for you,” his mother told him. “I had asked him to pray for you so that they didn’t kill you.” The lieutenant was shocked to hear this because later on he learned that the wells contained methyl alcohol and everyone who would have drunk from the wells would have surely died.”
A girl’s mother had cancer and was in hospital. She was in a room together with other patients and was waiting for an operation. Very rarely would a person come out alive from the room. The daughter went to see Fr Seraphim but he was ill and was not receiving visitors that day. The Elder’s helper told her to write down her problem on a little piece of paper. Afterwards the nun gave the girl a prosfora from the Elder and told her that Fr Seraphim wanted her to share it with everyone who was in the same hospital room together with her mother. When the girl did that which the Elder had commanded, the following occurred. Examinations were done again and the doctors did not find cancer cells in any of the people in the room. It was truly a miracle. Everyone who ate of the “bread of life”, which the Elder sent them, returned to their homes healthy. The girl’s mother lived to the age of 83 years.
from Life–Miracles–Prophecies of Saint Seraphim of Viritsa: The New Saint of the Orthodox Russian Church, 1866–1949. Orthodox Kypseli Publications, 2005
Troparion tone 4
As a bright star of the Russian land thou didst shine forth from Vyritsa, O venerable father Seraphim; and guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, thou hast illumined our country with the light of thy miracles. Thus we flee to thy relics for refuge crying out with compunction: Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved!
Magnification
We magnify thee, O venerable father Seraphim; and we venerate thy holy memory, instructor of monastic and conversor with the angels!
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