Alexandra.
They spent three days in prayer on the Sarov grounds.
At night the empress bathed in the holy pond, imploring Serafim for the birth of a son, while Nicholas sat on the bank. Her body was white in the silver water.
A sense of quiet well-being at the saint’s grave and these peaceful days in Sarov.
At Sarov Alix grasped the astounding concept of the “holy man.” A holy man is your intercessor before God. You entrust your will to him, your cunning reason, and he, sensing the continuous link with Him, guides you. The holy man is your guide; he delivers the bread of the angels to your soul. Serafim the holy man was at their side; they could sense his presence and hear his quiet voice speaking to them in his teachings: “Man corporeal is akin to a lighted candle: it must burn and he must die. But his soul is immortal, and our concern must be the soul, not the body.”
Venerable Serafim was proclaimed the protector of the tsar’s family.
They say when Serafim was dying he asked that his body be tossed out like carrion—for the wild animals to eat, so meek and humble was he.
In 1920 his relics were unearthed and confiscated. Thus after death, he, along with the entire Russian church, “accepted insult and humiliation.” The trail of his relics was hopelessly lost—they were believed to have been destroyed. Yet seventy years later, they were discovered in the cellar of the Museum of Atheism, which is housed in Kazan Cathedral, a once renowned Russian Orthodox church.
One museum worker noticed a large rectangular object encased in canvas standing in a corner heaped with tapestries. When they opened the canvas, under it they saw a wooden box, where under the gauze and cotton wool the astonished workers of the Museum of Atheism laid their eyes on unrotted relics. It was the complete frame of a man: the beard and hair were preserved, as were bits of muscle. On the skull was a monk’s cowl, on his chest a bronze cross, on his crossed arms satin gauntlets embroidered in gold: “Holy Father Serafim, pray God for us.”
Seventy years after his death Serafim was canonized.
Seventy years after his outrage, his relics were returned. And all this he had prophesied.
Prophecies.… In Sarov Nicholas learned several of the saint’s amazing prophecies. Witte recounted them in his
Memoirs
. WhenWitte was leaving to conclude the peace treaty with Japan in Portsmouth, an infuriating message was sent after him: he should not worry but know that Saint Serafim had
prophesied
that the peace treaty would be concluded.
The Department of Police, too, presented the tsar with Serafim’s prophecies.
Among them was one that stunned Nicholas. Here is what the amazing elder prophesied about Nicholas’s rule: “At the beginning of this monarch’s reign there will be national disasters, there will be an unsuccessful war, and great confusion will ensue within the government. Father will rise up against son and brother against brother. But the second half of his reign will be bright, and the sovereign’s life long.”
What did Nicholas feel when just a year later the prophecy began to come true: first an unsuccessful war, then great confusion. Was it because he knew the holy elder’s prophecy that the mystical tsar was so calm during the very worst calamities?
When did he cease to believe in the prophecy? And when did he understand that those last words had simply been added by the Department of Police for his benefit?
We do not know what Serafim of Sarov in truth prophesied for him—and we never will.
H IS FIRST WAR
His first war—the Russo-Japanese War—began in 1904. The Peacemaker’s son, who so hated war, found himself at war. Subsequently Witte recalled that Nicholas was pushed into seizing lands in Manchuria, having been assured that little Japan would not dare attack Russia.
Witte and his mother explained to him the risk involved. Nicholas agreed and instructed Witte to write a proposal for normalizing relations
They spent three days in prayer on the Sarov grounds.
At night the empress bathed in the holy pond, imploring Serafim for the birth of a son, while Nicholas sat on the bank. Her body was white in the silver water.
A sense of quiet well-being at the saint’s grave and these peaceful days in Sarov.
At Sarov Alix grasped the astounding concept of the “holy man.” A holy man is your intercessor before God. You entrust your will to him, your cunning reason, and he, sensing the continuous link with Him, guides you. The holy man is your guide; he delivers the bread of the angels to your soul. Serafim the holy man was at their side; they could sense his presence and hear his quiet voice speaking to them in his teachings: “Man corporeal is akin to a lighted candle: it must burn and he must die. But his soul is immortal, and our concern must be the soul, not the body.”
Venerable Serafim was proclaimed the protector of the tsar’s family.
They say when Serafim was dying he asked that his body be tossed out like carrion—for the wild animals to eat, so meek and humble was he.
In 1920 his relics were unearthed and confiscated. Thus after death, he, along with the entire Russian church, “accepted insult and humiliation.” The trail of his relics was hopelessly lost—they were believed to have been destroyed. Yet seventy years later, they were discovered in the cellar of the Museum of Atheism, which is housed in Kazan Cathedral, a once renowned Russian Orthodox church.
One museum worker noticed a large rectangular object encased in canvas standing in a corner heaped with tapestries. When they opened the canvas, under it they saw a wooden box, where under the gauze and cotton wool the astonished workers of the Museum of Atheism laid their eyes on unrotted relics. It was the complete frame of a man: the beard and hair were preserved, as were bits of muscle. On the skull was a monk’s cowl, on his chest a bronze cross, on his crossed arms satin gauntlets embroidered in gold: “Holy Father Serafim, pray God for us.”
Seventy years after his death Serafim was canonized.
Seventy years after his outrage, his relics were returned. And all this he had prophesied.
Prophecies.… In Sarov Nicholas learned several of the saint’s amazing prophecies. Witte recounted them in his
Memoirs
. WhenWitte was leaving to conclude the peace treaty with Japan in Portsmouth, an infuriating message was sent after him: he should not worry but know that Saint Serafim had
prophesied
that the peace treaty would be concluded.
The Department of Police, too, presented the tsar with Serafim’s prophecies.
Among them was one that stunned Nicholas. Here is what the amazing elder prophesied about Nicholas’s rule: “At the beginning of this monarch’s reign there will be national disasters, there will be an unsuccessful war, and great confusion will ensue within the government. Father will rise up against son and brother against brother. But the second half of his reign will be bright, and the sovereign’s life long.”
What did Nicholas feel when just a year later the prophecy began to come true: first an unsuccessful war, then great confusion. Was it because he knew the holy elder’s prophecy that the mystical tsar was so calm during the very worst calamities?
When did he cease to believe in the prophecy? And when did he understand that those last words had simply been added by the Department of Police for his benefit?
We do not know what Serafim of Sarov in truth prophesied for him—and we never will.
H IS FIRST WAR
His first war—the Russo-Japanese War—began in 1904. The Peacemaker’s son, who so hated war, found himself at war. Subsequently Witte recalled that Nicholas was pushed into seizing lands in Manchuria, having been assured that little Japan would not dare attack Russia.
Witte and his mother explained to him the risk involved. Nicholas agreed and instructed Witte to write a proposal for normalizing relations
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