Homily. Sunday 3.11.2019 Newly canonized Saint Sophrony In the Name… Every year new saints appear upon the earth. Some are men. Some are women. Heroic women like Mother Maria Skobtsova, the nun who worked secretly to save the lives of Jews in Paris under Nazi occupation. She was arrested for this and died in a concentration camp.
The latest newly recognised Saint is Sophrony of Essex in England. He was declared a Saint in a ceremony on Mount Athos on 20th October, just past. It is a wonderful thing for those of us who live in England to have recognised as a true Orthodox Saint one who lived and died in this very country in our life- time. Not hundreds of years ago like so many of the Saints that we know - but in our own time. Sophrony is a modern Saint. A Saint whose life is accurately recorded in detail and not shrouded in myths and legends of long ago. We even have many photographs of him, taken in his lifetime. Sophrony adopted England as his home. But it was not in England that he was born. 1 He was born in Russia. His original name was SERGEI SYMEONOVICH SAKHAROV. As a small child Sergei was very devout. He loved the Divine Liturgy and spent hours quietly praying on his own. But that didn’t last.
As a teenager he rebelled against religion. He rejected Christianity and took himself off to Moscow to the the Acadamy of Arts. At that time of his life his only desire was to become a succesful artist. It was the time of turmoil in Russia when Communism was taking over and many Russians turned against the Church and declared themselves atheists. The godless artist Sergei emigrated to Paris. It seemed to him to be the place where an artist might flourish. And indeed as an artist he did flourish. He had succesful Exhbitions of his work. He sold many paintings. He had acheived his ambition - but it did not bring satisfaction.