Helen Kontzevitch

This is an amazing book. The larger part contains an account of the life of Saint Seraphim (1759-1833) by Helen Kontzevitch, herself a member of the Russian diaspora after the Revolution: it details not only the Saint's deeply ascetic life and the famous spiritual charism which made him one of the most important startsy in modern Russia; this book gives particular importance to his foundation of the convent at Diveyevo, deep in mid-Russia, where his shrine remains - tended by nuns who are the successors of those to whom he, himself, was spiritual father in the early c19th. The text is generously illustrated - with rare photographs of the convent as it remained a hundred years ago, one of the most important shrines in Russia, and of the Saint's relics themselves - one image, for example, shows his habit and mittens and boots; another (page 50 in my edition) reproduces a portrait of the Saint made during his own lifetime. These are all extremely interesting as reflections of a world and a religious heritage which the communists were to make it their business to try and destroy.
Saint Seraphim is renowned as a bearer of Spiritual light, and this book pays due attention to his conversation with Nicholas Motovilov, who subsequently left a written account entitled 'The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit': this will perhaps be well-known already. But what makes this book inestimably valuable is its tracing of the spiritual heritage which continued from Seraphim in the convent at Diveyevo: the second half of the book includes a memoir by Dr A P Timofievich, 'A Pilgrimage to Diveyevo', which gives a full description of the spiritual observances of the nuns as they were witnessed just before the convent was closed; it is an exceptional testimony to the vitality of the spiritual life of the sisters even after the Revolution. But they were soon dispersed, and it is possibly the most intriguing part of this book, where two of these ancient nuns, the Nun Seraphima and the Schemanun Margarita (who died in 1991 and 1997 respectively), describe their memories of the monastic life as they had been schooled in it as young sisters while the convent was still flourishing. During the desert years after 1926 they, and several others, maintained as best they could an underground monastic discipline - and these pages, again complemented by almost incredible photographs from the mid-c20th, are a truly remarkable testimony of faith and hope.
In the last two decades the convent has been re-established and the Saint's shrine restored; once again it takes its place at the centre of Russian Orthodox spiritual life - and there are a few pictures from this most recent episode in the life of the community of the Spirit there, showing that the influence of Seraphim is far from extinguished. Nor will it be! It is a truly remarkable book.

[Saint Seraphim's conversations with Nicholas Motovilov have recently been edited by Archpriest Maxim Nikolsky as: 'The Aim of Christian Life - The Conversation of St Seraphim of Sarov with N A Motovilov', Saints Alive Press, Cambridge, 2010 - ISBN 9780956731302; you may also be interested in the short pamphlet by Irina Gorainov, 'The Message of Saint Seraphim', SLG Press, Oxford, 1974, 2007 - ISBN 9780728300200]… (mais)