A son was born into the family of Isidor Moshnin, a merchant, on July, 19,1759. He was named Prokhor in honor of saint Apostle. When the boy was 3. His father died and his mother took care of him. Prokhor learned to read and write early. He read the Holy Scriptures diligently. He was eager to devote all his life to God.

When he was 19, his mother blessed him and gave him a copper crucifixion, which he wore to the end of his life, and Prokhor went to the Sarov Monastery in Nizhny Novgorod Gubernia. He chose this monastery, because it was in a very quiet place, surrounded by dense forests, and it had a good reputation assiduously. He made bread for brethren in the bakery and worked as carpenter. He was skillful, strong and healthy. He was the first to come to the service in the church and the last to leave. He was very temperate in food and slept no more than four hours a day. He was never gloomy. So he was industrious, friendly, kind and he was respected and loved by people.

On August, 13, 1786 Prokhor was allowed to take monastic vows. According to the old tradition he was given a new name. He had love for God deep in his heart, he was eager to lead God-pleasing life, that’s why he was named Seraphim (it means “ardent”).Seraphim wanted to achieve a new stage of spiritual asceticism, to get rid of his sins and to achieve inner peace, that’s why he went into the wilderness and spent 15 years there. Seraphim lived in a cell, 5 kilometres away from the monastery in a dense forest on the bank of a small river. He ate vegetables, which grew in his garden (potatoes, onions, beetroot). Wild animals, birds and even snakes came to his cell and Father Seraphim fed them. A huge bear often came to the hermit. It ate from his hands and also helped him. If rolled large stones and logs. Holy Seraphim, feeding the bear, is often depicted on icons and in lay pictures.

When Father Seraphim lived in the forest he knelt on a boulder and prayed for one thousand days and nights. It was a great feat. But he didn’t consider it to be a feat and said, that saint Simeon the stylite prayed on a column for forty-seven years and it couldn’t be compared.

His life in the forest was full of difficulties and danger. One day when he was chopping firewood with an axe, three men approached him and demanded money. He could have protected himself, but didn’t do it. He told the men: “I have no money. Do whatever you want”. The robbers were so furious that beat him cruel – injured his spine and he lost consciousness. After that they looked for money everywhere in his poor house but found nothing. It was just a wonder, that Father Seraphim survived after that. He was ill for a long time and then always used a staff.The criminals were caught soon afterwards. The authorities wanted to punish them, but Father Seraphim insisted on letting them go. “I’ll leave the Sarov monastery, if you don’t let them go”,- he said. He forgave those people. But soon after that their houses were destroyed by fire. Also it is known that the robbers understood what they had done and came to Seraphim to apologize.

After that the old man spent five years in absolute seclusion and silence. He lived in a small cell in Sarov monastery. The only things he had were some icons, holy Scriptures and a bag filled with rocks and sand for bed. In the forest and in the cell he was praying passionately for Russia and its people. For his feats he gained two gifts: perspicacity and ability to heal. His seclusion was over in 1815 and then the starets received a lot of people, who needed spiritual guidance. People with different spiritual state, poor and rich, came to him. He treated all of them without exceptions with great respect. The old man met everybody with a low bow and called them “My joy”. Father Seraphim loved all his visitors and tried to help every person to find the way to God, to salvation. Also he cured a lot of people of their diseases. Blind people could see, dumb could speak, he even saved some districts from a choler epidemic and it was documented. Letters from the remotest regions of Russia were written to the old man. Often he answered the letters without opening them, because he knew their contents. After his death a great number of unopened envelopes were found in his cell, but Father Seraphim had answered the letters in the most detailed way earlier.

Seraphim of Sarov died on January, 2, 1833, when he was 73. He died in his cell in front of the icon of Our Lady. During his life Holy Seraphim predicted the future of Russia: revolution, wars, the destruction of the churches and monasteries. He also said that his mortal remains would lie in Diveyevo, not in Sarov. And nowadays we can see that his prophecy came true. Father Seraphim devoted all his life to God and to people. He died long time ago, but spiritually he is always with us. A lot of people received help and were cured of their diseases when they asked Holy Seraphim for it after his death.