www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology St. Seraphim of Sarov and John Paul II

What do you think of the significance of John Paul II's having referred to St. Seraphim of Sarov as a saint in his book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope"?

"Man achieves the fullness of prayer not when he expresses himself, but he lets God be most fullt present in prayer. The history of mystical prayer in the East and West attests to this: Saint Francis, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Iganatius of Loyola and , in the East, Saint Serafim of Sarov and many others." (page 18)

Dear JR,

That the late Pope regarded him as a saint.

IF you are asking if St Seraphim of Sarov is recognized as a saint by Rome - the answer is "yes."

The Russian Catholic Church formerly venerates St Seraphim of Sarov liturgically.

AND St Seraphim is listed on Catholic Saints Online as a Catholic saint. He is formally commemorated in the Melkite Proskomede of the Divine Liturgy (thanks, I believe, to Fr. Archimandrite Sergius Keleher of Holy Eire - Fr. Keleher had a chapel here in Toronto that was named for St Seraphim of Sarov too.)

As you know, St Seraphim of Sarov prayed the Rosary daily or the Rule of the Theotokos and expected his spiritual children to do so.

Pope John Paul II seemed to like the rosary too . . .

And St Seraphim's feastday of the translation of his relics was yesterday (on the True . . . I mean JU-lian calendar!

Alex

I'd love to see the look on the Roman Catholic Trads faces about that.

I'm a trad, and I smile with content.

[I guess I'm not a Roman trad, but I would be were I Roman.]

Mr. Ross,

You, sir, are a very keen reader. This was an excellent find. Just amazing.

Now you got me all ready to look for a book on St. Seraphim of Sarov.

Rufinus

Holy Father Seraphim, entreat the Lord for us!

I highly recommend the Little Russian Philokalia volume on St. Seraphim, which is Volume I. It is very inspiring. I certainly have an icon of St. Seraphim in my icon corner...

It was St. Serpahim who greeted everyone with the Paschal Greeting no matter what time of the year.

Thank you, Diak. I was just looking at it on the St. Herman's press website and wondering, "Gosh...this looks pretty good."

I remember exchanging a couple of emails with Fr. John Matusiak of OCA on the matter of Orthodox saints being venerated by Catholics. I kept telling him that it was ok for Catholics like me to venerate Orthodox saints, but he insisted that in venerating Orthodox saints, I was 1) practicing syncretism and 2) violating the teaching of my own Church!

I guess it was another one of those moments were the Orthodox have their own strange and distorted perception of what we Catholics believe, and when a real Catholic actually steps up to correct the perception, said Catholic is berated for not being a good or true Catholic!

By the way, I'm a member of Una Voce America, so I'm definitely a "Trad."

St. Seraphim is in our icon corner as well.

Anyone ever come across a St. Seraphim medal?

St. Seraphim of Sarov pray for us!

I have one - with the Icon of Joy of all Joys on the reverse face

It's been my experience that the Roman Catholic Church usually accepts the saints of other churches without question.

Rome has never expressed objections to the principle of other Churches (be they in communion with Rome or not) celebrating the glorification of Saints. Most of the time, Rome does not become particularly involved in the matter.

A question can arise if a significant-sized Catholic community wants to have formal, public veneration of Saint Whomever. In that event, Rome might - or might not - review the matter and issue a decision.

The last time that I'm aware of this happening involved the restoration of Saint Gregory Palamas to the Greek-Catholic service books about 35 years ago.

Meanwhile, the present Pope Benedict has expressed (while he was still Cardinal-Prefect of the CDF) his preference that local glorifications should become more usual, on the ground that, after all the local Church is liable to know more about the candidate than Rome is. The subject is still under discussion. We can notice that the Pope now prefers to delegate someone else to celebrate beatifications, while he himself still celebrates canonizations. The implications could be interesting.

Also about 35 or 40 years ago, the Holy See was asked why it only canonizes Roman Catholics (the question was posed particularly in connection with Anglican martyrs in Africa). The answer, quite simply, was that the Holy See has no objection in principle to canonizing other Christians, but would not do so unless the Church to which those Christians had belonged requested it.

Pope John Paul II repeatedly stressed that the martyrs of the persecution of the Churches in the USSR and the other countries where the Communists waged war on the Church are to be venerated, and must be venerated, by all Christians.

Fr. Serge

Father Serge,

Simply fascinating. Thank you for the information!

Gordo

Ah, y'all have inspired me to find out more about St. Seraphim of Sarov.Thank you.