---
title: "The Life of St Seraphim of Sarov — Church history"
description: "The elder of Sarov and his teaching on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit."
url: "https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saint-seraphim"
language: "en"
---

Lives of saints

# The Life of St Seraphim of Sarov

The elder of Sarov and his teaching on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.

## Contents

1. [Life](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saint-seraphim#s1)
2. [Eldership](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saint-seraphim#s2)
3. [Glorification](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saint-seraphim#s3)

## Life

Prokhor Moshnin was born in Kursk into a merchant family. In 1778 he entered the Sarov Hermitage and in 1786 was tonsured with the name Seraphim. He passed through the ascetic feats of desert-dwelling, a thousand days of standing on a rock, and reclusion; from 1825 he received visitors.

## Eldership

The saint greeted everyone with the words “My joy, Christ is risen!” His conversation with N. A. Motovilov on the aim of Christian life — the acquisition of the Holy Spirit — was recorded by Motovilov and published in 1903. He died on 2 January 1833.

## Glorification

Canonized in 1903. His relics, lost in the Soviet period, were found again in 1991 and translated to Diveyevo.

[St Seraphim of Sarov](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saints/seraphim)

## Related

- [St Seraphim of Sarov](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/history/saints/seraphim)
- [Holy Trinity St Seraphim-Diveyevo Convent](https://spas.life/en/orthodoxy/places/diveyevo)