Following the closure of the monasteries in Sarov and Diveyevo, some monks and nuns escaped. Hiding in surrounding villages they continued secretly in the way of St Seraphim. EASTER 2013 EASTER The faithful of the closed city of Sarov now worshipped in God's Sanctuary, the forest, in which St Seraphim had dwelt and had been beaten, had now become ‘the Green Church’. The ‘monastery in the world’ was now beginning. In Russia the title Lavra was given to particularly large and famous monasteries, of which there were four: the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, the Trinity St Sergius Monastery, the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and the Pochaev Monastery. St Seraphim predicted that there would be a Lavra in Diveyevo: “There will be both a Lavra and a coenobitic monastery in the community of poor Seraphim!” Here, we use the term with reverence, to embrace those who, while not geographically within the community, feel drawn to the spirit of the saint. We use Lavra to include those who endeavour to follow the way of St Seraphim, his teaching and practice, as did those monks and nuns in hiding, so that we too may be held in the saint's prayer as a part of that ‘monastery in the world’. Saints Alive Saints Lavra the Publication for the friends of of friends the for Publication the 12 1 Christ is Risen! Glastonbury A day pilgrimage to Glastonbury Abbey in Dear Friends, Somerset is planned for May 25th 2013. Fellowship As you read this you may still be in the Led by Fr Maxim Nikolsky, accompanied by others involved in Saints Alive, this day is Easter season so I greet you all with that aimed at gathering our Friends and other joyous greeting 'Christ is Risen'. This is of supporters. course the cry of millions and is how St Glastonbury probably had its first Seraphim greeted all who came to him, Christian church in the first century AD and an abbey in the seventh, "dissolutioned" 'My Joy, Christ is Risen'. by Henry VIII in c.1539. The site with its ruined monastery is considered a holy place. According to tradition this is where Joseph of Arimathea resided when he was sent to St Seraphim, as indeed many saints, preach in Britain. There are also other legends surrounding this place. while in this life, already experienced to the very depth of his being the joy of that It will be of interest to many to know that Glastonbury has an icon of St Dunstan, Paradise which Christ promised to the good robber. May we all be granted to witness the first abbot of Glastonbury, which was painted by a monk of the Kievan Cave the same joy that God has prepared for us. Monastery. At Glastonbury we shall have a brief service, and talks on Joseph and the stories Cover photograph: View from Chora on the Isle of Patmos, Greece of Patmos, Isle the on Chora from View Coverphotograph: In recent months the Trust’s Director has made a trip to Russia forging closer connected with his life. It will be a good place to reconnect with old friends and make working relationships in both Sarov and Diveyevo with plans for future cooperation new ones. A picnic in the grounds of the abbey, weather permitting, and a guided including education and publication. tour of the site promises to be a good day, starting in the morning and ending around tea-time. May I take this opportunity firstly to apologise for this late publication due to my If you are interested in taking part, please register your interest by May 18th, either having been out of commission for the past few weeks, but may I also welcome all online at: http://tinyurl.com/SaintsAliveGlastonburyMay2013, or by post (contact who intend to join us on the day pilgrimage to Glastonbury on 25th May where we details are on page 11). may meet old friends and make new ones. Archpriest Maxim Nikolsky Joseph of Arimathea According to Christian tradition, Joseph of Arimathea, who gave up his “When I am no longer with you, come to my tomb for the Body of Christ, later came tomb. Come when you have time, and the more to Britain, and when in Avalon often the better! Whatever you have on your (Glastonbury) stuck his staff in the heart, whatever has happened to you, whatever ground—more about this on 25th May you are grieving over, come and bring it all to in Glastonbury. me at my grave. Come, fall on the ground and tell me everything, just as if I were alive, and I Troparion will hear you and your sorrows will fly away and The noble Joseph, taking down thy disappear. Speak to me just as you did when I most pure Body from the Tree, was alive, speak to me there. And I will always wrapped it in pure linen cloth and be alive for you unto the ages of ages!” sweet spices and laid it in a new tomb. St Seraphim of Sarov But on the third day thou didst rise, O Joseph of Lord, granting the world great mercy. Tomb of Jesus, Church of the Prayer Arimathea. Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. 2 3 reactions, which he makes it his business and pleasure to provoke from you. These reactions will be variously tinged in different individuals, but even so it is reasonably easy to foresee, to foretaste and to plan them. For the victim there is only one way open to save himself, and that is to fail to react at all: then having ceased to be interesting, he will eventually be left alone. Now there are two ways to achieve this end. The first, the way of passivity, follows the line of least resistance…...this easier way involves rendering yourself completely unfeeling. ....Inability to suffer sometimes proves to be the greatest evil of all…...if you once lapse into such a condition, it is unlikely you will ever get out of it without the help of a psychiatrist. The other way of coping with sadism is very hard. It is pre-eminently active. ..... It Julia de Beausobre Lubianka Prison, Moscow demands penetration, as far as possible, into the mind of the men who have staged the `cross-examination' and insight into the breadth of God's composition for this Resurrection particular event on earth. It is imperative that the heightening of all the mental and moral faculties that this requires be brought about in a mood of complete Seeing life through death, seeing joy through suffering, seeing beauty through evil, selflessness. ....Once it is achieved you realise that you have been privileged to take are modes of seeing which are pre-eminently active and fundamental to Christian part in nothing less than an act of redemption.’3 ontology. They are states of being into which all Christians are called. Participation in nothing less than an act of redemption ….. such participation in God This opening of our eyes is often awakened within us through a particular brings into focus the 'perfect joy' of the life of the resurrection. This joy does not encounter, enabling us to see more deeply into the reality of life, drawing forth inner suggest a life free from suffering, but one in which suffering can carry us only more resources, which, when strengthened, enable us to more fully participate in this new fully into our participation in the cross of Christ, a cross of victory, a cross on which reality. The experience is not single, for as we increasingly participate in this new Christ is raised and from which Christ is raised. This ‘resurrection life’ is the joy of reality we 'see more’; enabling us to participate more completely in the mystery which which St Seraphim speaks when he greets us with the words, "My Joy, Christ is is life. And we discover that life itself has as its fulcrum, pivot, focal point, full risen," a joy lived, moment-by-moment, in the face of death. This ‘perfect joy’ has at participation in God.1 its root the chiasmus of joy and suffering, ‘creative suffering’, ‘cross-sharing. For this A witness within this tradition who has spoken powerfully of her own experience, joy, borne of our sharing in the cross of Christ, whereby we also share in Christ's gives us insight into how she acquired a certain extraordinary perception. It was in risen life, is divine joy, stronger than the forces of darkness and death. It is a joy in the 1932, in the labour camps in the Sarov forest where Julia De Beausobre first heard Spirit. the legends of St Seraphim, of which she writes, ‘St Seraphim entered my heart’. And it is Resurrection Life to which St Seraphim witnesses in another extraordinary She had been sent to the labour camp following her solitary confinement in Lubianka way too. Prison, Moscow, where she was tortured. She later spoke of this experience to a In 1903, St Seraphim was the last Russian Saint to be canonised before the group of students at Lincoln Theological College, England, 4 revolution. By this time Sarov had become a focal point of pilgrimage for much of ‘I wonder how I can convey to you the extraordinary atmosphere of the prisons and Russia. In 1926, 11 thousand pilgrims from all over Russia came to Sarov to concentration camps, where a vast number of mystically minded men and women celebrate the 23rd anniversary of his canonisation. The Sarov Monastery was the last accept in the temper of the yurodivy,2 the torture that they undergo at the hands of working in the whole country.5 With the coming of the revolution, attempts were made ascetically minded rulers, bent on destroying every vestige of personality in their to destroy this spiritual power….