The Saint I chose to reflect upon for All Saints was St. Serephim of Sarov. He is one of the orthodox saints who in a lot of ways resembles St. Francis (not to be mistaken for St.Phransus).
St. Serephim was born in 1759 to a merchant family. He loved to read about the lives of the saints who came before him and frequently, as a child, retreated to the forest for seclusion and prayer. At 18 he became a monk and began to live a life of solitude, eating only once a day and fasting completely on Wednesdays and Fridays (also the days Wesley chose to Fast).
Serephim retreated into the life of the hermit where he had little contact with others but kept communion with the animals of the forest. Tradition has it that many animals came to Seraphim for council. He is also a saint of peace and is known for achieving great perfection in his time.
read more about St. Serephim here
8 comments:
Personally, I'm waiting for the authoritative biography, The Little Phlowers of St. Phransus, to show up.
hmmmmmm (rubbing his beard getting lost in thought)
not a bad idea.....
thanks for your constructive criticism.
so what saints are you going to be reflecting on?
let me know what fruits come out of that.
but in our um tradition- the saints (in the traditional sense) get little or no attention. when is the last time you heard a sermon or story in a methodist church about st. benedict or st.hildegard of bingen?
i'm not sure that it's that we leave women saints out as much as we have a limited view about the saints (ie most see it as a catholic thing)
for a lot of methodist it seems to have been negated into just those people in our congregations who have passed on in the last year.
but we have living saints around us who continue to shape and form who we are, those who have come before us, the "saints" who's stories inspire us, and our biblical saints, as well.
This is off-topic but I noticed you've got Race Matters by Cornel West on deck to read. I recently read Democracy Matters by him--wheh! He comes out swinging. Have you read anything of his or are you starting with that one?
this will be my first book although i've heard him speak and WOW, is right!!
I like animals and forests, can I be St. Seraphim for the day?
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