(Generously
written in response to an inquiry as to the ascetic life of Fr. Seraphim)
I had the privilege
of knowing him from 1966, around the time of the repose of St. Archbishop John
Maximovitch, who was his spiritual father. Fr. Seraphim was a layman at that
time--he didn't even have the famous beard of his later years, yet--, and then
he became a Reader in the Cathedal shortly after I first met him.I do not know
what his Cell Rule was, nor how many prostrations he did. He never spoke of
it. He was a very private man. But I and others who were close to him know that
he said The Prayer unceasingly and was probably a full hesychast in his last
years. I never saw him without a prayer rope moving through his fingers.
He was extremely calm and peaceful at all times. I never saw him angry or agitated
about anything (and I saw him in many different situations over the years),
and only once ever saw him laugh. Yet he wasn't sour and downcast, either. Just
very "still." He wasn't particularly outgoing, but always participated "normally"
in situations, although he didn't dominate conversations. His voice was very
quiet; you had to really listen in order to hear him, and his singing voice
was tenor.
So far as I know, he kept only the usual monastic fast, which included the Fast
of the Angels on Mondays. I was present at many, many meals over the years at
the monastery. He always ate whatever was on his plate but never reached for
seconds. Of course he never ate between meals, and always observed the monastic
practice of never having food in his cell. Sometimes, when he was alone at the
monastery (which wasn't often), he skipped meals, but this probably had more
to do with being an "absent minded professor" than with any ascetic practice.
In my home he ate normally, not skimping, but also never having seconds. I once
asked him if he had any favorite food, favorite dishes, and he said that he
didn't. When I asked the other monks they said they never had any idea of a
favorite food, that he never spoke of food at all.
As an ascetic exercise, however, he wore a very heavy scratchy wool neck scarf
around his throat, under his cassock, even in very hot weather. I didn't know
about this until his last years when, once in a while, it would peek above the
level of the neck of his cassock. When I asked the other monks about it they
said it was an ascetic practice--like a hair shirt. He felt that unusual or
extraordinary ascetic practices were not for our times, however. He said that
just to be a good and decent and pious Orthodox Christian was already a huge
"ascetic practice"! So he never gave a blessing to any of his spiritual children
to do much beyond the normal fasting rules of the Church and the Morning and
Evening Prayers in the prayerbook. He allowed me, at that time, to say The Prayer
for no more than one half hour a day, and never assigned prostrations (except
as appointed during weekday and lenten services) except as a penance. He felt
that converts in particular tend to go overboard very easily and then they end
up with what he called "spiritual indigestion." Better to go very slowly, he
said, and always just "from strength to strength."
Fr. Seraphim took a "sponge bath" at a basin in his cell from time to time,
but always took a thorough shower once a year, just before his annual visit
to his mother. He never smelled and never looked unclean or dirty. As far as
keeping "healthy" in any other ways, I was aware that he took a daily multi-vitamin,
only out of obedience, but otherwise he had no interest whatever in health matters.
I once asked him if he or the monastery had health insurance. He pointed up
with his index finger and said (indicating heaven), "THAT is my 'health insurance'."
I had one or two experiences of his clairvoyance, where he literally read my
mind (or rather, read my heart), but this was not a constant or frequent phenomenon
in my experience. However, his prayers for someone were very powerful, and after
his death I know personally of a very dramatic healing of someone from terminal
cancer as a result of his intercession. He clearly is a man for our times. The
late Archbishop Anthony of San Francisco said that he was the "first" genuine
American "podvizhnik" ("righteous struggler"), and so therefore an example to
us all. On the fortieth day after his repose, the late saintly Bishop Nektary--who
knew him very well--spontaneously sang a "Magnification" to him as a monk-saint,
so this constituted the very first "local veneration" of him. Fr. Seraphim was
probably the first authentic patristic scholar in the English language. He would
never have said this about himself, of course, but it's true.
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