Wednesday marks 91 years since the birth of the man who, at the age of 28, would receive Orthodox Baptism, and at 36, monastic tonsure.
The young Eugene, as he was named by his parents, was born in San Diego, California. Gifted with exceptional intellectual ability, he spent his youth seeking the ultimate truth about life — in fact, seeking God.
His search took him through Eastern philosophies, moments of despair, and struggles with God. But all his inner turmoil ceased when he entered an Orthodox church, where he discovered that Truth goes beyond the intellectual realm, revealing itself to whom it wills as a comfort to the soul.
“Something in my heart told me I was home, that all my searching had come to an end,” he would later write.
Eugene received Orthodox Baptism in 1962 at the Russian Cathedral in San Francisco, where he became a disciple of Saint John Maximovitch, Archbishop of San Francisco. In 1969, he founded Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California, and in 1970, he received monastic tonsure.
Father Seraphim Rose wrote numerous books and journals that presented the treasury of Orthodox wisdom in a way understandable to the contemporary world. He spoke out against the heresies that ravage the West, from Darwinism to the New Age movement.
He fell asleep in the Lord on September 2, 1982, at just 48 years old. Those who knew him testify that he shone so brightly in his coffin that children could not take their eyes off him.
The writings of Father Seraphim Rose have been translated into many languages and have also been published in Romania.
Photo source: Doxologia.ro
