2 January] 1833), born Prókhor Isídorovich Moshnín (Mashnín) [Про́хор Иси́дорович Мошни́н (Машни́н)], is one of the most renowned Russian saints and is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church[1] and the Anglican Communion.

[1] According to Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, a wonderworking icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), Our Lady of Kursk, protected the young boy.

Soon after this, Seraphim retreated to a log cabin in the woods outside Sarov monastery and led a solitary lifestyle as a hermit for 25 years.

[3] After this incident Seraphim spent 1,000 successive nights on a rock in continuous prayer with his arms raised to the sky, a feat of asceticism deemed miraculous by the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially considering the pain from his injuries.

In 1815, in obedience to a reputed spiritual experience that he attributed to the Virgin Mary, Seraphim began admitting pilgrims to his hermitage as a confessor.

As extraordinarily harsh as Seraphim often was to himself, he was kind and gentle toward others – always greeting his guests with a prostration, a kiss, and exclaiming "Christ is risen!

There was a widespread popular belief in Russia that a saint's remains were supposed to be incorrupt, which was not the case with Seraphim as was officially ascertained by a commission that researched his grave in January 1903.

[6][7] On 18 July 1903, Metropolitan Anthony Vadkovsky of St. Petersburg officiated at the Last Pannikhida (Memorial Service) in the Dormition Cathedral at Sarov, with the royal family in attendance.

[clarification needed] At the Little Entrance, twelve archimandrites lifted the coffin from the middle of the church and carried it around the holy table (altar), then placed it into a special shrine which had been constructed for it.

Furthermore, his biographer Seraphim Chichagov, who came to become a metropolitan, was arrested, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in 1937 (and is also celebrated as a Russian Orthodox saint).

[9][failed verification][10] In his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II referred to Seraphim of Sarov as a saint.

On the one hand, in all the memoirs and biographies, and in the collections of his sayings, he is undoubtedly portrayed as a convinced supporter of the reforms in the church and the official hierarchy.

[17][better source needed] According to some sources, the known problems with the beatification of Seraphim of Sarov did happen exactly due to his general support and sympathy towards the Old Believers tradition,[18][19] in which case the negative assessment of the old rite, ascribed to him, would have been interpreted as inventions of his followers, who tried to put their teacher in the most favorable light in the eyes of the official church functionaries.

Самое нетление мощей всецерковным сознанием не считается общим непременным признаком для прославления святых угодников.

Мощи святых, когда они нетленны, составляют чудо, но лишь дополнительное к тем чудесам, которые творятся чрез их посредство.

Доказательство святости святых составляют те чудеса, которые творятся при их гробах, или от их мощей, а мощи, целые тела или только кости, суть дарованные нам, для поддержания в нас живейшего памятования о небесных молитвенниках за нас, священные и святые останки некоторых святых, которых мы должны чтить, как таковые, и суть те земные посредства, чрез которые Господь наиболее прославляет Свою чудодейственную силу.″tr.

But the understanding of the word "power" is certainly in the sense of the whole body, and not of its parts and mainly of the bones, is wrong, and introduces it into disagreement with the Greek Church, since the Greeks do not preach the doctrine at all that relics mean the whole body, and the power of the largest part the saints in Greece and in the East (as well as in the West) are bones.

Proof of the holiness of the saints are the miracles that are performed at their tombs, or from their relics, and relics, whole bodies or only bones, are those given to us, to maintain in us the most vivid remembrance of heavenly prayer books for us, the sacred and holy remains of some saints, which we must honor, as such, and are those earthly means through which the Lord most glorifies His miraculous power."