Rose's opposition to Eastern Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement and his advocacy of the contentious "toll house teaching", led him into conflict with some notable figures in 20th-century Orthodoxy and he remains controversial in some quarters even after his sudden death from an undiagnosed intestinal disorder in 1982.

Though he has not been formally canonized by any synod, many Eastern Orthodox Christians hold him in high esteem, venerating him in iconography, liturgy and prayer.

[7] He enjoyed opera, concerts, art, literature, and the other cultural opportunities richly available in San Francisco, where he settled after his graduation and explored Buddhism and other Asian philosophies.

[8] While studying at Watts' Asian institute, Rose read the writings of French metaphysicist René Guénon and also met a Chinese Taoist scholar, Gi-ming Shien.

In March 1964, Rose opened an Orthodox bookstore next to the Holy Virgin Cathedral on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, which was under construction at the time.

He also spoke of the need for warmth and kindness of the spirit, especially when dealing with those with whom one disagreed, an increasing problem in Eastern Orthodoxy in America, and its conflict between so-called "traditionalists" and "modernists".

He also composed and published dozens of other titles, including God's Revelation to the Human Heart, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, and The Soul After Death; all remain in print.

He translated and printed Michael Pomazansky's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, which remains a text for clerical students and laymen alike.

Rose translated his books into Russian, and they were circulated widely as samizdat within the Soviet Union, although they were not formally published until after the fall of the Communist regime.

[17] As such, he produced the first English translation of selected letters of Barsanuphius of Gaza and John the Prophet which were to be read out aloud at meals to his young monastic disciples and where later published by the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood.

According to this teaching, every human soul must pass a series of these stations after death as part of their initial judgment by God, where they will be accused of specific sins and possibly condemned to hell.

This idea was criticized by other Eastern Orthodox theologians, who asserted that while mankind's existence is not accidental by any means, there is no official church doctrine as to the precise process God used in creation, nor the length of time that it might have required.

After feeling acute pains for several days while working in his cell in August 1982, a reluctant Rose was taken by fellow monks to Mercy Medical Center in Redding for treatment.

Hundreds of people visited the hospital and celebrated the Divine Liturgy regularly in its chapel, praying for a miracle to save Rose's life.

[23] Before returning to Georgia, Metropolitan Nikoloz brought the question of canonization to Bishop Maxim of the Serbian Orthodox Church's Eparchy of Western America.

A few days later, on September 6, 2022, Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus gave a sermon calling Rose a saint.

[25] In one such instance, a nun named Zvezdana at Prohor Pčinjski Monastery in Serbia informed her abbess that she had repeatedly felt the presence of Rose, and that he appeared to her on one occasion.