There’s an Eastern Orthodox saint called Seraphim of Serov. He once said, “acquire the spirit of peace, and a thousand souls will be saved around you.”1 Seraphim lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. When he was 19, he joined a monastery. The other monks were astounded by his spiritual discipline: his obedience, his fasting, his contemplation. When he was 27, he was almost constantly in church and began seeing angels and Jesus descending from on high in glory. Before too long, he felt called to live in a cabin in the woods. He lived as a hermit for 25 years. One day, he was attacked by thieves while he was chopping wood. Though he had the ax in his hand, he refused to use it as a weapon. The thieves beat him with the ax handle and left him half dead. The monks tended to him for five months and when the thieves came to trial, Seraphim begged the judge for mercy. All this, though he was hunched over for the rest of his life. He sometimes used the ax as a cane.2
All that time alone in the woods, healing and recovering – he spent it in prayer. Indeed, after he was attacked, he was determined to spend 1,000 nights in a row in prayer while kneeling on a rock with his arms raised. He was still in pain, but he longed to commune with God. When he was 61, he had a vision that told him to start meeting with pilgrims and passersby. After a lifetime of prayer and faithful acts, he came to have the power to heal and was able to prophesy. Hundreds of people a day were drawn to him, asking questions and seeking miracles.3
To those he encountered, he was a blessing, a wonderworker, a source of peace. At some point during his time as a hermit, his peace extended to the wild animals around him. They would come to him and he would feed them bread. No animal was too big or small or too ferocious. He fed them and his basket of bread never emptied.4
Once, the story goes, two nuns were visiting with Father Seraphim. He was outside sitting on a log when all at once a bear emerged, standing up on its hand legs. The nuns were terrified! Seraphim said, “Misha, why are you scaring the nuns? You’d better go and get something to comfort them or I won’t be able to help them out.” Two hours later, the bear came back with fresh honeycomb in his mouth. Seraphim shared the honey with the nuns, gave the bear a piece of bread, and the bear left.5
The peace that Seraphim found spread all around him, creating a place of quiet and refuge, a place of safety and hope for others. Seraphim taught that the goal of the Christian life was to acquire the Holy Spirit – to commune with it. Everything we are called to do: to pray and fast, to worship, to serve others – all of these are ways for us to connect with the Holy Spirit…
The fire of Christ warms our hearts and springs us into action. But it starts with this patient peace that takes the time to listen and trust.
Seraphim once said: “There is nothing better than peace in Christ, for it brings victory over all the evil spirits on earth and in the air. When peace dwells in a man’s heart it enables him to contemplate the grace of the Holy Spirit from within. He who dwells in peace collects spiritual gifts as [though] with a scoop, and he sheds the light of knowledge on others. All our thoughts, all our desires, all our efforts, and all our actions should make us say constantly with the Church: “O Lord, give us peace!” When a man lives in peace, God reveals mysteries to him.”6
[1] https://orthochristian.com/75700.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraphim_of_Sarov & https://orthodoxwiki.org/Seraphim_of_Sarov
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraphim_of_Sarov
[4] https://orthodoxwiki.org/Seraphim_of_Sarov
[5] https://orthochristian.com/58793.html
[6] https://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-seraphim-of-sarov/