SERAFIM OF SAROV (1759–1833) was a Russian Orthodox priest, monk, mystic, and renowned spiritual elder (starets); born July 19, 1759 in Kursk, central European Russia, and died January 2, 1833 at the Monastery of Sarov in the forests to the north. Serafim is regarded as the preeminent example of Eastern Orthodox spirituality in modern times. In a troubling time of westernization in Russia, he lived during and was himself part of a remarkable flowering of spirituality in Russian Orthodoxy centered around monastic communities such as Sarov and Optina, a spirituality that had deep roots in the Bible, the writings of the Greek fathers, the celebrated Philokalia (a collection of ascetic and mystical writings of the fourth to the fifteenth century), and the sacramental life of the Orthodox church. Serafim's impact on his contemporaries and his immense popularity with later generations won him canonization as a saint in 1903.

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