Seraphim Rose

Seraphim of Platina
File:Seraphim rose.jpg
Hieromonk
Born	August 13, 1934 San Diego, California
Died	September 2, 1982 Platina, California
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy
Major shrine	St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, California
Feast	Commemorated on September 2

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. Although not formally canonized, 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, Rose was raised in California, where he would remain for the rest of his life. His siblings were Eileen Rose Busby, an author and antiques expert, and Frank Rose, a businessman. He was uncle of scientist and author Dr. J. Michael Scott, antiques expert Cordelia Mendoza, and true crime author Cathy Scott. Rose was baptized in the Methodist church when he was 14 years old, but later became an atheist, losing all belief in God. After graduating from San Diego High, he 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, where his thesis, "'Emptiness' and 'Fullness' in the Lao Tzu", is still available. In addition to a remarkable gift for languages, he also had an acute sense of humor and wit. As a young man, he was a natural athlete, though he never engaged seriously in sport. He enjoyed the opera, concerts, art, literature, and other cultural opportunities that were richly available in San Francisco, and he explored Buddhism and other Asian philosophies.

Orthodoxy

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

In the summer of 1955, while attending Watts' academy, Rose met Jon Gregerson, a Californian of Finnish extraction, who at the time was a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian. It was through Gregerson that Rose came into his initial contact with the Orthodox faith. This culminated in Eugene's decision to enter the Church through chrismation in 1962.

In 1956 Rose came out as a homosexual to a close friend from college, after his mother discovered letters between him and Walter Pomeroy, Rose's friend from high school. Rose ceased homosexual activity as he accepted Orthodoxy, eventually ending his relationship with Gregerson. In 1963, with the blessing of St. John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, Rose, 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, Rose opened an Orthodox bookstore next door to the cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in San Francisco, then under construction. In 1965 the brotherhood founded St. Herman Press publishing house. The community eventually decided to leave urban life for the wilderness of northern California to become monks in 1968. Rose'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. At his tonsure, in October 1970, Rose took the name "Seraphim" after St. Seraphim of Sarov, and studied for the priesthood in his cell, a simple one-roomed cabin.

Works and legacy

Rose helped found the "Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood", and from his printing press in the monastery, founded the bimonthly magazine The Orthodox Word, still published today, and dozens of other titles, including God's Revelation to the Human Heart, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, and The Soul After Death. These continue to be published. He also translated his books into Russian and they were circulated widely as samizdat within the Soviet Union, although not formally published until the fall of the Communist regime. He was one of the first American Orthodox Christians to translate major works of the church fathers into English.

The St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina remains an active monastic missionary community; it is part of the Western America diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Currently all brothers are American and 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 September 2, the anniversary of Rose's death.

Bibliography

• God's Revelation to the Human Heart. Platina: Saint Herman Press, 1988. (ISBN 0938635034)
• Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age. Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1994. (ISBN 1887904069) (as Eugene Rose)

• Second Edition: Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen) (ed.), 2001.

• Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. Platina: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1975. (ISBN 188790400X)
• The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church. Platina: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1983. (ISBN 0938635123)
• The Soul After Death: Contemporary "After-Death" Experiences in the Light of the Orthodox Teaching on the Afterlife. Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1988. (ISBN 093863514X)
• The Apocalypse: In the Teachings of Ancient Christianity. Platina: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1985. (ISBN 0938635670)
• Genesis, Creation and Early Man. Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2000. (ISBN 1887904026)
• Blessed John the Wonderworker: A Preliminary Account of the Life and Miracles of Archbishop John Maximovitch. Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1987. (ISBN 0938635018)
• Letters from Father Seraphim. Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society. (ISBN 1879066084)

Death

After feeling acute pains for several days while working in his cell in 1982, Rose 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 his intestines, which had become a mass of non-functioning dead tissue. He 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 his 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 Rose's body did not succumb to decay and rigor mortis. His body remained supple while several claimed he smelled of roses. Several miraculous events, healings and apparitions of Rose have been reported around the world, commencing soon after his death. 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.

Controversy

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Dr. Stanley Harakas and Dr. Alexander Kalomiros, among others, have claimed that certain ideas in Rose's book, The Soul After Death, concerning the existence of "aerial toll-houses", are heretical, and that many Church Fathers have been misinterpreted or misquoted to support it. 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. Other contemporary Orthodox authors, however, such as St. John Maximovitch, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Fr. Michael Pomazansky, and Bishop Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan reject Archbishop Lazar's interpretation and affirm the reality of the "toll houses".. Many saints, such as Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Macarius of Egypt, Theophan the Recluse, Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius Brianchaninov, and various other Orthodox church fathers, have also acknowledged and accepted the Orthodoxy of the toll-houses.

Rose endeavored to answer his detractors in his "Answer to a Critic", published as an appendix to The Soul After Death.

External links

• Biographical article from Pomona College Magazine
• DEATH TO THE WORLD - Compendium and continuation of Rose's writings online (official site)
• Desertwisdom.org/dttw - Online collection of writings by and inspired by Rose
• Articles and pictures of Rose
• Biography and online bookshop
• Various online writings and conferences of Rose
• OrthodoxWiki article about Rose
• Icon of Blessed Seraphim Rose
• What Makes Me Uneasy About Fr. Seraphim (Rose) and His Followers
• 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]