ST. INNOCENT/
FIREBIRD
Videos, Audios & Books
Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures
14 Years of Service: 1992-2006
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FIREBIRD Videos, Audios & Books Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures 14 Years of Service: 1992-2006
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LIFE OF ST. SERAPHIM OF SAROV
 lengthy illnesses and
being beaten almost to death; for his emphasis on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as
the goal of the Christian life, using prayer, almsgiving, fasting and charitable works
done for Christ’s sake as a means of achieving that goal; and for his intimacy with
the Holy Birthgiver-of-God and her appearing to St. Seraphim in visions, and healing him.
Holy Father Seraphim is known for feeding bears and other wild animals when he lived in a
cabin in the woods; for the 1,000 days and nights he spent praying on a rock near his
forest cabin (see the icon to the right); for the experience of the warmth,
radiance, peace and joy of the Uncreated Light, which he allowed to envelop his disciple,
Motovilov; and for countless miracles.
 Mother of God --- he was tonsured a
monk, and then a deacon. While serving at the altar, he frequently saw angels, and once,
on Holy Thursday, he was transported in ecstasy for several hours by a vison of Christ
Himself. At age 34, Fr. Seraphim was ordained priest, and then his elder entrusted to him
the spiritual care of the sisters at the nearby Diveyevo Women’s Monastery (west of
Nizhni-Novgorod), which became "his" Diveyevo. He then also received permission
to live by himself in the forest, praying, reading the Church Fathers, and every week,
reading the entire New Testament. At age 45 he was beaten by robbers and left for dead.  During his long recovery, the Mother of God again appeared to him with the
Apostles Peter and John the Theologian, and said of him: "He is one of ours."
After this he recovered, but was always bent over and walked with a cane. More years of
seclusion in the forest and in his monastery passed, and then the Mother of God directed
him to receive people who came to him for spiritual comfort and guidance. For 7 years,
thousands of pilgrims came seeking assistance from the Elder, as people have continued to
do throughout the 20th century, especially after his glorification in 1903. His
wonder-working relics were miraculously discovered and returned to Diveyevo with
triumphant joy in July 1991.
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The future saint, Prochor Moshnin, was born in 1759 in the city
of Kursk of a pious merchant family. When he was 10, the Mother of God healed him from a
severe illness through her Kursk-Korennaya Icon. As a youth, Prochor spent as much time as
possible in church, and used the gift of reading to devour the Bible, the lives of the
saints, the writings of the Church Fathers, and liturgical books, which he continued to do
for his entire life. His heart’s desire was to dedicate his life to serving God as a
monk and thus, at age 19, he obeyed an Elder’s counsel to go to the Sarov Monastery,
where he spent the rest of his life.