Seraphim Rose
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Seraphim Rose, born Eugene Dennis Rose (August 13, 1934 - September 2, 1982), was a hieromonk (also called priest-monk) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in the United States, whose writings have helped spread Orthodox Christianity throughout modern America and the West. They have also been widely read in Russia and other formerly communist-bloc nations. Although not formally canonized as of 2008, he is venerated by some Orthodox Christians as a saint in iconography, liturgy, and prayer.

Early life

Born the youngest of three children to Frank and Esther Rose in San Diego, Eugene was raised in California, where he would remain for the rest of his life. He was baptized in the Methodist faith when he was fourteen years old, but later became an atheist, losing all belief in God. Rated at genius level^{citation needed} in formal IQ testing at San Diego High, Eugene attended Pomona College where he studied Chinese philosophy and graduated magna cum laude in 1956. He then earned a master's degree in Oriental languages in 1961 from the University of California, Berkeley. His thesis, "'Emptiness' and 'Fullness' in the Lao Tzu," is available at ¹. Although his life in San Francisco from 1956 through the early 1960s has been characterized as a "beatnik" period, he would have laughed at such a label. He certainly met some of the Beat poets and read their books, but his own life was gently Bohemian. Much of the little he earned at menial jobs paid for the opera and concerts and other cultural opportunities so richly available in San Francisco, along with books, records, and the rare meal in a fine restaurant. Concurrently, he explored Buddhism and other Asian philosophies. Unmentioned by his two biographers are his subtle and penetrating wit and his love of wordplay and mystifications of all sorts.

Family

Father Seraphim was the youngest brother of Eileen Rose Busby², an author and antiques expert, and Frank Rose, a businessman and uncle of scientist and author Dr. J. Michael Scott and true crime author Cathy Scott[2].

Orthodoxy

While studying under Alan Watts at the American Academy of Asian Studies after graduating from Pomona College in 1956, Eugene discovered the writings of René Guénon. Through Guénon's writings, Eugene was inspired to seek out an authentic, grounded spiritual faith tradition.

In the summer of 1955, while attending Watts' academy, Eugene met Jon Gregerson, a California of Finnish extraction, who at the time was a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian. It was through Gregerson that Eugene came into his initial contact with the Orthodox faith. In 1956 Eugene came out as a homosexual to a close friend from college after his mother discovered letters penned between her son and Walter Pomeroy, Rose's friend from high school. Eugene later ceased homosexual behavior as he accepted Orthodoxy, eventually ending his relationship with Gregerson.[3] This culminated in Eugene's decision to enter the Church through chrismation in 1962.

In 1963, with the blessing of St. John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, Eugene together with Gleb Podmoshensky, a Russian Orthodox seminarian, formed a community of Orthodox booksellers and publishers called the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. In March 1964, Eugene opened an Orthodox book store next door to the cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in San Francisco, then under construction; in 1965 the Brotherhood founded the St. Herman Press publishing. The community eventually decided to flee urban modernity into the wilderness of northern California to become monks in 1968. Eugene's parents provided the down payment for a mountaintop near the isolated town of Platina. There, Rose, with some help from friends, built a monastery named for St. Herman of Alaska beside his printing press shed, where he published The Orthodox Word and later dozens of other Orthodox titles. At his tonsure in October 1970, Eugene took the name "Seraphim" after St. Seraphim of Sarov, and studied for the priesthood in his rustic cell, a simple one-room cabin.

Following his ordination as a hieromonk, Father Seraphim authored several books, including God's Revelation to the Human Heart, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, and The Soul After Death. He also founded the bimonthly magazine The Orthodox Word, still published today by Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood at the Platina monastery. Father Seraphim's published writings continue to be published after his death. Father Seraphim translated his books into Russian. They were circulated widely as samizdat within the Soviet Union, though they were not formally published there until the fall of the communist regime. He is believed to be the first to translate the ancient church fathers' works into English.

The St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina remains an active male monastic missionary community; it is part of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. All brothers are currently (as of 2008) American; many speak Russian. They continue the work of printing books which has been the major activity of the Brotherhood since its inception. Guardianship and education of local youths having behavioral or learning problems has earned the Brotherhood significant respect among the locals. Visitors come to the monastery year-round but especially on the 2nd of September, the anniversary of Fr. Seraphim's death.

Death

After feeling acute pains for several days while working in his cell in 1982, Father Seraphim was taken by his fellow monks to a hospital for treatment. When he reluctantly arrived at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, 45 minutes from Platina, he was declared in critical condition and fell into semi-consciousness. After exploratory surgery was completed, it was discovered that a blood clot had blocked a vein supplying blood to Father Seraphim's intestines, which had become a mass of non-functioning dead tissue. Father Seraphim never regained consciousness after a second surgery, slipping into a coma. Hundreds of people visited the hospital and celebrated the Divine Liturgy regularly in its chapel, praying for a miracle to save their beloved Father's life. Reaction from around the world was great, with thousands of prayers being said for the ailing hieromonk from places as far away as Mt. Athos, Greece, the spiritual heart of Orthodox monasticism. Rose died on September 2, 1982.

After being dead for several days and while lying in repose in a simple wooden coffin at his wilderness monastery, visitors claimed that Father Seraphim did not succumb to decay and rigor mortis. His body remained supple while several claimed he smelled of roses. A cause for canonization was begun after Father Seraphim's burial. The title "Blessed" is now popularly attributed to him, and he awaits canonization into sainthood by an Orthodox synod.

Several miraculous events, healings and apparitions of Fr. Seraphim have been reported around the world by various people, commencing soon after his death.³

Controversy

Orthodox Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Dr. Stanley Harakis and Dr. Alexandre Kalomiros, among others, have claimed that certain ideas in Fr. Seraphim's book, The Soul After Death, concerning the alleged existence of "aerial toll-houses", are heretical.⁴ Archbishop Puhalo claims that the so-called "toll-house theory", which asserts that souls must pass through certain spiritual "toll houses" as a part of their initial judgment after death, is specifically Gnostic in its origin.⁵ Other Orthodox authors, however, such as St. John Maximovitch, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos and Fr. Michael Pomazansky, reject Archbishop Lazar's interpretation and affirm the reality of the "toll houses",⁶ as do Saints Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Macarius of Egypt, Theophan the Recluse, Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius Brianchaninov, and various other Orthodox church fathers and saints.⁷

Fr. Rose endeavored to answer his detractors in his "Answer to a Critic", published as an appendix to The Soul After Death,⁸ which was in turn further rebutted by Archbishop Puhalo.⁹

References

External links

• Biographical article from Pomona College Magazine
• DEATH TO THE WORLD - A Compendium and continuation of Fr. Seraphim Rose's writings on-line. (Official Site)
• Desertwisdom.org/dttw - On-line collection of writings by and inspired by Fr. Seraphim Rose.
• Articles and pictures of Fr. Seraphim Rose
• Fr Seraphim (Rose) Biography and Online Bookshop
• Various online writings and conferences of Fr. Seraphim Rose
• OrthodoxWiki article about Fr. Seraphim Rose
• Icon of Blessed Seraphim Rose
• Rose, Eugene (Fr. Seraphim). Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age. St Herman Press, 1994.
• [4] Master's thesis "'Emptiness' and 'Fullness' in the Lao Tzu. University of California, Berkeley, 1961

Resources

• Not of This World: the Life and Teaching of Fr Seraphim Rose ISBN 0-938635-52-2 An extensive and very comprehensive biography written by monk Damascene Christensen - now out of print.
• Father Seraphim: His Life and Work ISBN 1-887904-07-7 Revised and expanded version of the above.
• Letters from Father Seraphim ISBN 1-879066-08-4 Correspondence with Fr. Alexey (now Hieromonk Ambrose) Young
• Seraphim Rose: The True Story and Private Letters ISBN 1-928653-01-4 A biography of his life, his letters and his works, by author Cathy Scott (Father Seraphim's niece).
• Genesis, Creation and Early Man (posthumously published by Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA, 2000); see review.
• "Genesis and Early Man: The Orthodox Patristic Understanding" (speech by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros) [5]