Archimandrite Seraphim (Alexiev) and Our Church Community

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth [2012] of Archimandrite Seraphim (Alexiev)

Nun Seraphima (Dimitrova)

This text was compiled on the basis of an account by Nun Euphrosynia and documents from the archives of the Convent of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in Knyazhevo, Sofia.

 

 

1. Archimandrite Seraphim’s Spiritual Connection with Our Holy Monastery

During the 1950s and 1960s of the now-past century, Archimandrite Seraphim was perhaps the most popular and beloved cleric of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Both clergy and laity held him in high esteem. The church-going people did not miss his talks and divine services. In the years after September 9, 1944, when there was both open and covert persecution against the Church, against her ministers, and in general against Christians who led an active church life, the young Father Seraphim made a strong impression through his inspired preaching of the Orthodox faith. His wonderful, spiritually beneficial books and poems were copied by hand, by typewriter, and even by mimeograph of course, secretly, and were circulated among the faithful in our country. Some also sent them abroad to their relatives. Humble and meek in his dealings with others, Father Seraphim was firm and uncompromising in matters of faith. This became most evident when the reform of the church calendar was imposed in our country. Archimandrite Seraphim was one of the four clergymen who refused to accept it.

When, in 1967, it became known that the reform would be implemented the very next year, Archimandrite Seraphim spoke about this matter with Bishop Parthenii of Leuke and with Archimandrite Methodius (Zherev), because he was close to them—they too were spiritually connected, each to his own degree, with Saint Seraphim (Sobolev). From them Archimandrite Seraphim learned that they were preparing to accept the reform.

On the part of our monastery, Mother Abbess Seraphima and Nun Seraphima had firmly resolved to preserve what Saint Seraphim had bequeathed to them—to have nothing whatsoever to do with Ecumenism. They also remembered the serious arguments he had set forth at the Pan-Orthodox Conference in Moscow in 1948 against the new style, including in its mixed form, the so-called Revised Julian Calendar, with movable feasts according to the old style and fixed feasts according to the new. They knew that such a mixture leads to violations of the liturgical Typikon, to the shortening, and in individual cases even to the elimination, of the Apostles’ Fast, and in general that it was in no way justified from the standpoint of the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox Church. The claim of the supposedly greater astronomical accuracy of the new calendar was likewise unfounded. In reality, the reform was being carried out for the sake of ecumenical rapprochement with the heterodox, while in practice it led to distancing, confusion, and the alienation of the people from church traditions.

Archimandrite Seraphim, as a faithful spiritual son of Saint Seraphim, was firmly resolved to preserve his precepts. Knowing what paternal care the Saint had shown for the ordering of the Pokrov Monastery even on his deathbed, Archimandrite Seraphim was deeply concerned for our monastery, and he had particular respect for Mother Abbess. Mother Abbess, for her part, likewise respected and valued him greatly. She remembered Father Seraphim from his student years, when, until his departure abroad as a scholarship student, they had been in the same class at the Faculty of Theology. Even then he had distinguished himself by profound modesty, although he was one of the most capable students. When a professor asked him a question, he would answer very thoroughly, but without that self-confidence which is almost always noticeable in more gifted young people. Mother Abbess told us more than once about his modesty. She also told us how ardently he, as a young theologian after his return to Bulgaria, placed himself under the spiritual guidance of Saint Seraphim and with what complete trust he regarded him.

Obviously, Saint Seraphim likewise had such trust in the young clergyman. The following incident is indicative in this regard. On March 6 (New Style) / February 22 (Old Style), 1948, Saint Seraphim performed the tonsure of Mother Abbess Seraphima and her assistant, Nun Seraphima, in the Russian Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. During the rite, he called Hieromonk Seraphim (Alexiev) and Hierodeacon Sergius (Yazadzhiev) to hand him the monastic garments of the sisters being tonsured. Other spiritual children of the Saint, senior to them, were present there. But Saint Seraphim chose precisely these two, and this can hardly have been accidental.

At the end of the 1940s, Bulgaria had a rationing system, and it was by no means easy to obtain even the most necessary things for our newly established monastery. At that time Saint Seraphim entrusted certain tasks to Hieromonk Seraphim. For example, he would ask him to obtain from the appropriate institution the allocation of ration coupons for several blankets or for several meters of black cloth… Everything at that time was distributed by allocation, and supplies were very difficult to obtain.

Thus, from the very beginning of our monastery, Father Seraphim found himself in some way spiritually connected with it through Saint Seraphim. But this spiritual bond manifested itself most strongly during the difficult years following the church-calendar reform. Mother Abbess Seraphima, Archimandrite Panteleimon, Archimandrite Seraphim, Archimandrite Sergius—these were the people who at that time showed complete unanimity in matters of faith and who, despite enormous pressure, did not agree to compromise their consciences.

2. The Exclusion of Our Monastery from the Diocese of the Bulgarian Patriarchate and the Suspension of the Clergy Who Disagreed with the Calendar Reform

On July 18, 1968, the Synod published its epistle to the clergy and the faithful, in which it announced the forthcoming church-calendar reform. The change of calendar was to take place on December 20 (December 7, Old Style).

At our previous meeting here, in December of last year, mention was made of how, on December 2 (New Style), 1968, on the day when the icon of the Mother of God “Consolation in Sorrows and Griefs” is commemorated, we delivered to the Committee the prepared letter to Patriarch Kirill, in which we stated that in conscience we could not accept the new style. However, the humble written request of Mother Abbess Seraphima and of our sisterhood that we be permitted to continue our liturgical life according to the church calendar, the so-called “old style,” was refused. Moreover, ten days later, on December 12 (New Style), in the reply sent to us by the Sofia Metropolis, the categorical resolution of Patriarch Kirill was quoted: “This would mean falling away from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.”

Not long afterward, we received another similar notification. Our annual budget for 1969, which had been sent to the Sofia Metropolis for the customary annual approval, was returned to us with an accompanying letter, No. 364 of February 1. The contents of this letter were as follows: “To the former abbess of the former monastery in Knyazhevo. The enclosed budget is being returned to you, since no such monastery exists within the jurisdiction of the Holy Sofia Metropolis.”

A short time passed, and we received a new letter, No. 1400 of February 17, 1969. It was sent to us by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in connection with the customary supply of candles to church institutions. Its contents were as follows: “To the former women’s monastery ‘Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God,’ Knyazhevo district, Sofia. In accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of February 4, 1969, Protocol No. 3, we inform you that, since you have fallen away from the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, you may not receive candles for church use at the established prices for stavropegial and diocesan monasteries…”

Thus, in practice, not because of any self-willed decision on our part, but because of the reaction of Patriarch Kirill, as early as December 1968 our monastery found itself outside the administrative system of the Bulgarian Patriarchate.

Unfortunately, the church authorities began to undertake a series of repressive measures against us, probably in order to force us to retreat from our principled position. The main monastery church, “St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke,” was taken away from us. We were deprived of the principal activity by which we supported ourselves—the painting of icons for the needs of the Synod. Then we were also deprived of the right to receive church candles. We were left without public divine services, and with that our modest church income also ceased. The sisters who produced various church articles, Easter decals, small household iconostases, burial shrouds, decorative candles, and others, were dismissed from the “Church Monopolies” department of the Sofia Metropolis. The head of that department himself, Mr. Zlati Zlatev, was also dismissed because of his expressed disagreement with the church-calendar reform. And all of this happened within a very short period of time, during which we were unable to reorganize ourselves and secure a livelihood. It was truly very difficult, but we understood that, since we had decided not to compromise our conscience and our faith, we had to endure and persevere. Above all, we hoped in God’s help, in the protection of the Mother of God, and in the heavenly intercession of Saint Seraphim.

Strong psychological pressure was also exerted on Archimandrite Seraphim. The faithful and the clergy loved him, and therefore his unexpected withdrawal from church life and from the Theological Academy caused agitation among many who could not understand the principled basis of his position and reduced it almost to a kind of obstinacy. At the same time, Archimandrite Sergius (Yazadzhiev) likewise ceased his teaching activity at the Academy, but not voluntarily, as Archimandrite Seraphim had done; rather, he was removed on grounds of “unsuitability,” despite the fact that everyone knew how extensive his knowledge was in the fields of the New Testament and classical philology.

On June 17, 1969, at a session of the Holy Synod, Patriarch Kirill resorted to an even more severe sanction, imposing a prohibition on serving upon the four clergymen who disagreed with the church-calendar reform—Archimandrite Panteleimon, Archimandrite Seraphim, Archimandrite Sergius, and Hieromonk Seraphim (Dmitrievsky). At that very time, during the hour when the Synod was in session, a terrible storm broke over Sofia, and whole rivers of water flowed through the streets. That evening Archimandrite Seraphim came to the monastery deeply distressed, in order to tell Mother Abbess what had happened.

The clergymen who had been placed under suspension, in a spirit of Christian humility, submitted to the punishment imposed upon them, although in conscience they did not feel bound by it, because it was contrary to the canons of the Orthodox Church. Meanwhile, both Mother Abbess and Archimandrite Seraphim were seeking some way to regularize our situation. Father Seraphim and Father Sergius twice gave their consent before the Holy Synod to be sent to the Zographou Monastery on the Holy Mountain, but on both occasions the Greek authorities did not permit them to go. They accepted this as the will of God that they should remain in Bulgaria with their like-minded brothers and sisters in the faith and support one another.

Patriarch Kirill, seeing that the pressure being exerted was producing no result, conceived the idea of destroying the Knyazhevo Monastery. He began preparing for its closure and for our resettlement to the then-deserted Gigen Monastery, where even the most elementary living conditions were lacking, as well as suitable means of livelihood for infirm people, as almost all of us were.

3. Permission for Divine Services According to the Patristic Church Calendar Behind Closed Doors

In those difficult days, the only “weapon” of Mother Abbess Seraphima and of us, the sisters of the monastery, was fervent prayer to the Lord and to the Mother of God, the Protectress of our holy monastery—a prayer with repentance and an awareness of our complete unworthiness, placing our hope in God’s mercy. And just as at the beginning of our sorrowful path, immediately after our refusal to accept the reform of the church calendar, the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Consolation in Sorrows and Griefs” had been painted in the monastery in order to implore the intercession of the Mother of God, so now Mother Abbess blessed Sister Magdalina, together with Nun Seraphima, to paint the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, so that She might help us amid the difficult circumstances that had surrounded us on every side. Work on the icon began in July 1970 and continued until the middle of September.

Meanwhile, the repressive treatment of us and of our clergymen who had not accepted the church-calendar reform became known beyond the borders of Bulgaria. News reached the heads of the Committee for the Affairs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Other Religious Cults, Mr. Mikhail Kyuchukov and Mr. Dimitar Todorov, that the Russian émigré charitable organization, the Tolstoy Foundation, based in the United States, had expressed its readiness to give refuge to the nuns of Knyazhevo and to provide for their support. This offer was received at the monastery on August 24, 1970. It then became clear to the authorities that the problem of the Knyazhevo Monastery and of the clergymen who had not accepted the reformed calendar might attract the attention of public circles in the Western world and, as a violation of religious rights and freedom of conscience, provoke an undesirable reaction. A few days later, we addressed a letter to Patriarch Kirill in which we asked permission to resume divine services in the monastery. Otherwise, we expressed our readiness to seek another church jurisdiction where we could freely confess and practice the Orthodox faith in its fullness and purity. Because of the danger that our situation might become a matter of public concern at the international level, Patriarch Kirill was compelled to yield. Through the mediation of the Committee for the Affairs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which was interested in preventing such publicity, Patriarch Kirill unofficially permitted our chaplains to serve in our monastery “behind closed doors.”

We received this long-awaited permission on the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, September 21 (New Style), 1970, a few days after Mother Abbess herself had lit a perpetual lamp before the now-completed Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. That very day, on the eve of the feast of the holy and righteous Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna and of Saint Joseph of Volotsk, after an interruption of more than a year, our divine services were resumed, but now under catacomb conditions. Our joy was indescribable.

We should note that despite the repressive attitude of the church authorities toward our clergymen and toward us ourselves, and despite the fact that our monastery had been excluded from the Bulgarian Patriarchate, we, the sisters of the Knyazhevo Monastery, did not break church communion with the hierarchy of the Patriarchate, and during our divine services the name of the Bulgarian Patriarch Kirill was commemorated, and after his death in March 1971, that of Patriarch Maksim.

At the beginning of 1972, Archimandrite Panteleimon fell ill and for a long time was unable to serve. Great Lent began, and Holy Week was approaching. The already elderly Hieromonk Seraphim continued serving alone without relief, but given his many illnesses, this was extremely exhausting for him. We then appealed to the Holy Synod with a request that Archimandrite Seraphim be permitted to take part in the divine services of our monastery. Just before the Raising of Lazarus, we received a positive response to our petition. We were filled with gratitude to God, and Father Seraphim recorded the following in his diary:

“What God is so great as our God! Thou art the God Who doest wonders! (Ps. 76:14-15) About three years ago, the late Patriarch Kirill threatened us that if we served after the suspension imposed upon us, the Holy Synod would put us on trial and depose us. But now, by God’s great mercy, the Holy Synod itself permits me, though suspended, to serve! And I served my first Liturgy on Palm Sunday. For me, that radiant feast was a true Pascha. Both compunction and joy, and boundless gratitude to the Saviour, filled my wretched heart.”

Soon afterward, Archimandrite Seraphim settled near the monastery, in the home of Mrs. Ekaterina Dyulgerova, and after some time he was also given a cell in the newly built wooden monastery building beside the Church of St. Apostle and Evangelist Luke. He lived there for more than ten years, after which he moved into the cell of the by-then reposed Archimandrite Panteleimon. The years he spent at the monastery he devoted to intensive writing. It was precisely here that he produced some of his finest works: Life After Life, Our Prayer, On the Lord’s Prayer, The Optina Elders, The Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian in the Light of Patristic Teaching, as well as his major theological work, a critique of the ecumenical heresy, Why We Are Not and Why We Cannot Be Ecumenists.

In August 1972, Archimandrite Sergius likewise received unofficial permission to participate in the divine services of our monastery behind closed doors. His first service was on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

4. Cessation of the Commemoration of Patriarch Maksim

During the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the ecumenical movement was developing at an accelerated pace, and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was becoming ever more deeply involved in it. Concern over all this became the reason for the establishment at the monastery of a special theological commission, which was to monitor and analyze not only current events, but above all the anti-ecclesiastical essence of ecumenical ideology and practice. The work of the commission proceeded under the particular care of Mother Abbess Seraphima. The commission met every Sunday, and its participants were Archimandrite Seraphim, Archimandrite Sergius, Mother Abbess Seraphima, the monastery’s faithful associate Zlati Zlatev, and Rosen Siromakhov, a student of the classics who had graduated in theology. Archimandrite Panteleimon was no longer among the living; he reposed on January 18 (New Style), 1980. Naturally, the central figure of the theological commission was Archimandrite Seraphim. In the course of its work, he developed his grounds for rejecting the ecumenical pan-heresy, which he later set forth in the aforementioned theological work Why We Are Not and Why We Cannot Be Ecumenists, published at the end of 1992 under the title Orthodoxy and Ecumenism.

Meanwhile, on May 9, 1981, an important event occurred in the life of the small church community that had formed around the monastery. On their way back from Romania to Greece, a group of clergymen from the True Orthodox Church of Greece visited our monastery. Among them were four bishops, one of whom was Bishop Cyprian, who later became Metropolitan of Oropos and Fili. In a conversation with Archimandrite Seraphim and Mother Abbess Seraphima, he told them that, should the need arise, he was prepared to perform ordinations of new clergymen. During the following years, Metropolitan Cyprian repeatedly visited our monastery during his periodic journeys to Romania and back.

In January 1982, the latest working meeting of the Commission on “Faith and Order” was held in Lima, Peru, at which an important ecumenical document entitled “BEM” [Baptism, Eucharist, Ministry] was adopted. In essence, it constituted a minimal dogmatic-liturgical basis for the unity of Christians, which was to be accepted by the member churches of the WCC during the forthcoming Sixth Assembly in Vancouver in 1983. The theological commission at the monastery studied in detail the contents of this document, in whose preparation Orthodox (?!) theologians had also participated. A specially prepared ecumenical “rite” was also announced, the so-called “Lima Liturgy,” which provided for intercommunion—the joint reception of Communion by representatives of the various confessions participating in the WCC, among them the local Orthodox Churches.

With church events developing in this way, the clergymen of our monastery—Archimandrite Seraphim and Archimandrite Sergius—together with Mother Abbess Seraphima (Hieromonk Seraphim was already seriously ill), decided that it was no longer possible to continue their church communion with the episcopate of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, since this burdened their consciences in an unacceptable manner. By a concurrence of circumstances, this momentous decision was made by them precisely before the fresco of the Mother of God “The Unburnt Bush,” painted during those years in the exterior niche of the altar apse of the Pokrov Chapel, so that She might be our Guide amid the storms of the difficult times that had come upon us. This took place on May 16 (New Style), 1983, when the memory of Saint Theodosius of the Kiev Caves is celebrated—the day on which, in 1950, our monastery had been officially opened. Beginning the following day, May 17 (New Style), because of the exceptional situation of our monastery behind the communist “Iron Curtain” and the impossibility of direct episcopal guidance, during the divine services, instead of the name of the Bulgarian Patriarch Maksim, “every Orthodox bishop” began to be commemorated.

It is well known that the prayerful commemoration of a hierarch during the divine services is an expression of complete agreement with him in matters of faith. And this means that when you commemorate the name of a bishop who, in word and/or deed, departs from the dogmas or canons of the Orthodox faith, you express your agreement with him and consequently become a participant in his apostasy.

In that same year, 1983, following the scandalous ecumenical manifestations that took place at the Assembly in Vancouver, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, then headed by Saint Philaret (Voznesensky), pronounced an anathema against Ecumenism as an ecclesiological heresy. This once again confirmed the timeliness of our serious step.

5. The Need for Clergy in Our Holy Monastery. The First Ordination

As we have already mentioned, at the beginning of 1980 the ever-memorable Archimandrite Panteleimon reposed in the Lord. In December 1984, Hieromonk Seraphim (Dmitrievsky) followed him into eternity. In our monastery, from the very time of its establishment in 1950, the entire daily cycle of divine services was performed, crowned by the Holy Divine Liturgy. But the age and state of health of Archimandrite Seraphim and Archimandrite Sergius did not allow them to undertake the ascetic labor of such a difficult and indispensable daily ministry. This made it necessary to prepare for and carry out secret ordinations, through which new clergymen could enter into the liturgical life of our small Orthodox community. For this purpose, Archimandrite Seraphim and Mother Abbess Seraphima began, most conscientiously and carefully, to study the history and development of the Old Calendar movement in Greece and its sorrowful division into several separate groups. As a result of this investigation, they established that the ecclesiological position of the Synod in Resistance, with whose president, Metropolitan Cyprian, Divine Providence had brought us into contact several years earlier, was the most acceptable and closest to our own. After the necessary preparation and instruction, in which Archimandrite Sergius took the most active part, the first to be ordained was the monastery’s longtime helper, Petar Radenkov, who had previously been secretly tonsured a monk with the name Ephraim. His ordination to the diaconate and presbyterate took place in our monastery on May 28 and May 30 (New Style), 1985, respectively, under catacomb conditions.

In 1988, during a journey to Greece, the spiritual son of Archimandrite Seraphim, the young theologian and classics graduate Rosen Siromakhov, was also secretly ordained to the diaconate and priesthood at the Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina. He subsequently received monastic tonsure with the name Photios. Until the collapse of the communist regime, and thereafter until he received episcopal consecration, he served secretly in our monastery while at the same time working as a lecturer at Sofia University. Later, the monks Cassian, Theophan, and Seraphim were secretly ordained to the diaconate and priesthood. As hieromonks, they performed the daily divine services in our monastery under catacomb conditions. Archimandrite Seraphim and Archimandrite Sergius, for their part, performed the Sunday and feast-day services. At that time these events were known only to an extremely small circle of people, because of the inevitable crushing blow that the authorities would have dealt to our small community had they learned of the secret ordinations that had been performed.

Since Archimandrite Seraphim felt that his strength was gradually leaving him, and Mother Abbess Seraphima was likewise advancing in age, they were concerned about how the future existence of our church community, which was gradually growing, would continue. It was becoming increasingly obvious that at some point it would become necessary for it to be headed by a bishop. And here we should note that both Archimandrite Seraphim and Mother Abbess Seraphima, without any hesitation whatsoever, had determined that the most suitable person to bear the heavy and responsible cross of episcopal ministry was the secret priest Rosen Siromakhov, subsequently Hieromonk Photios. Metropolitan Cyprian was of the same opinion. They waited for God’s will in this matter to be revealed in the course of time and through the development of church circumstances.

6. The Grave Illness of Archimandrite Seraphim. The Consecration of Bishop Photios

During the last years of his life, Archimandrite Seraphim was visited by a grave illness. The Lord willed to grant yet another crown to His faithful servant, who bore the bodily and spiritual sufferings that befell him with great patience and humility.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 1990s, political changes took place. Along with them, among the people in our catacomb community there arose the hope that under the new conditions, in which there was no longer any danger of persecution or coercion of conscience, the higher clergy of the Bulgarian Patriarchate would distance themselves from the destructive factors that until then had determined its ecclesiastical-political course and would begin actively to work for the revival of the faith, for a return to traditional Orthodox values, for the condemnation of Ecumenism, and for the restoration of the church calendar in liturgical life. More than three years passed, however, without any constructive changes occurring in the life of the official Bulgarian Church. For the members of our community—clergy, monastics, and laity—it became increasingly clear that our expectations for positive changes were groundless, since the actions of the episcopate of the official Church continued to bear the oppressive imprint placed upon it by the godless totalitarian system.

The growing spiritual needs of the community no longer permitted the episcopal consecration of Hieromonk Photios (Siromakhov) to be postponed. As is well known, it was performed at the Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina in Fili, Greece, on January 17 (New Style), 1993, by four bishops of the Synod in Resistance, with the participation of a hierarch from the Romanian Old Calendar Orthodox Church as well. When Bishop Photios returned to Bulgaria, he found Archimandrite Seraphim already on his deathbed and, having received his spiritual blessing, accompanied him on his final journey into eternity on January 26 (New Style). At that moment we all experienced great sorrow, but also great joy: a wonderful clergyman had departed from us, an uncompromising confessor of Orthodoxy, a preacher of piety, an inspired poet, and a caring spiritual father, but he had passed the torch of spiritual continuity to a faithful son of his, who had already taken upon his shoulders the heavy episcopal cross of responsibility for the faith and for those seeking salvation through it.

7. The Emergence of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria—A Natural Process under Conditions of Advancing Apostasy from the Orthodox Faith

From the events described here, we see that the formation of our church community was the result of the striving of a small group of clergy, nuns, and laypeople to remain faithful to the Tradition of the Church, to preserve it in its truth and fullness, and not to participate in any way whatsoever in the works of Ecumenism. Ecumenism, which boasts of love and tolerance toward the heterodox and those of other religions, yet is ready to deal harshly with those Orthodox Christians who care deeply for the purity of their faith and wish to preserve it for the sake of the salvation of human souls.

Why, in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of our unforgettable Father Archimandrite Seraphim, have we attempted to recount, in broad outline, the history of our church community as well?—Because today, very often in the circles of the official Church and, unfortunately, especially in the circles of the so-called supporters of the struggle for Orthodoxy “from within,” it is said that our community arose after the death of Archimandrite Seraphim and that he had no direct connection with its history or with its subsequent development. As has become clear from our account, this does not correspond to the truth. Now headed by a bishop for nineteen years, our Orthodox community developed and grew gradually over the course of more than four decades. At its foundation lie the labors of Archimandrite Seraphim and Mother Abbess Seraphima—the people who did not compromise their consciences for the sake of earthly well-being and earthly tranquility, but who, at the cost of many sorrows and hardships, remained faithful to the precepts of their spiritual father, Saint Seraphim, and through this, faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and to His Holy Church. May we also, through their holy prayers, strive to manifest such saving faithfulness.

 

Bulgarian source: https://bulgarian-orthodox-church.org/rr/lode/MSeraphima/aSOCC.html