AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

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Barbara
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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

Post by Barbara »

Today is the day of Ab. Seraphim [Sobolev] 's repose. I thought to check this thread for any updates.

I'm sorry ! I didn't see this EXCELLENT discussion. Thank you Mother Evfrosinia. We always need you to set up clearly in the truth about any particular personage !!

And also Archimandrite for your pithy remarks.

Oh now i understand ! It makes such a big difference to have this added information and insight.
Archbishop Seraphim was recruited while still a Rocor Bishop ?? Unbelievable !!! It can hardly be imagined.
That scares me that someone who was otherwise steadfast and an excellent writer on Church history could have been
lured in like that.

It's a little akin to Frenchman during the German occupation in World War II agreeing to collude with the Germans against their own people.

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Barbara
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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

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Heh heh. Something about that anecdote about Archbishop Seraphim's mother's calling him "What a mukhtar !" as a baby has never rung true.

It would be great if the word really meant "Bishop".

But no, I have to burst the bubble of fans of the Archbishop of Ambiguity [ my new name for him ].

I remembered the famous Sufi freedom fighter against the Italian colonialists and occupiers of Libya, Omar Mukhtar.
Clearly, he was no Arab Bishop ! He was a member of a major Sufi order> what he was, however, was a leader.

Sure enough that is the principal meaning of the word in Arabic. This is the term for the head of a town or village, or perhap a large neighborhood [ called mahallah ]. The word was used in the Ottoman Empire as far as I can tell, perhaps primarily in their Arab subject states.

When used as a person's name, Mukhtar means "Chosen" or "Chosen by Allah". It's actually a name given laudatorily to Mohammad, founder of Islam.

There is nothing to do with the Orthodox religion. Sorry - yet another myth about this almost shady character has been revealed to have had no foundation. There was no divine revelation to his mother as far as can be discerned. Perhaps this link with the Ottomans, hereditary enemy of Tsarist Russia, was the reason the young Seraphim Sobolev gnashed his teeth at what his mother pronounced about him !

The name Mukhtar seems most popular in North Africa. The current Libyan Ambassador to Turkey's last name is Mukhtar, I researched and found. Thus would have little relation to the life of a servant of the Moscow Patriarchate.

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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

Post by Priest Siluan »

Well, the Bulgarian Kyprianite (with whom, very sadly, ROCOR was in communion in that time) "canonized" him many years ago...

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Barbara
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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

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Yes, that's right. Now I remember that. Thanks, Father.

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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

Post by Maria »

MP parishes of the USA - an encyclical was issued on the recent MP Synod meeting and the canonization of Seraphim Sobolev. An excerpt follows:

http://mospatusa.com/news_160204_1.html

... The inextricable link between the Heavenly and the earthly Churches was manifested by the canonization of Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev, 1881-1950), which took place at this Council of Bishops. Archbishop Seraphim performed his ministry in Bulgaria where he reposed. This saint set an example of a righteous life and fervent and unfeigned love for his flock, and was glorified by God during his lifetime by blessed gifts and after his demise by preforming miracles. In the following words, well-founded, strong and striking, he emphasized the necessity to zealously preserve the Orthodox faith: An important characteristic of the Church is immutability in her dogmatic and moral and canonical teaching which comes from God Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ… It is this immutability of the teaching of the Orthodox Church which has preserved the apostolic faith in all its purity that distinguishes her from all other Christian confessions. It is by this awareness that the Russian Orthodox Church has been and always will be guided. ...

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Barbara
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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

Post by Barbara »

It's once again the repose anniversary of Archbishop Seraphim [ Sobolev ]. Here is a picture of his tomb which lies in a crypt under the tent-roofed Russian Embassy Church in Sofia, Bulgaria. I had better ones from a pilgrim who went there which I am trying to transfer to post in this thread.
For the time being, this from the 60th anniversary of his repose in 2010 will suffice.

Image

One wonders what the Soviet Embassy in its staunchest Eastern European satellite was doing all those years under Communism ? Clearly it was built under the Tsars.

Were there any services at all here during the decades of Communism ? It seems Abp Seraphim was based out of this Embassy for awhile. Did he actually serve in the Church which must have been run by the Moscow Patriarchate ? It would be interesting to learn more detail in order to better figure out this mysterious prelate who apparently thought nothing of abandoning the young Synod of the Russian Church Abroad. The kindest viewpoint is that he was well read in theology but had poor to no discernment about politics.

For what Bishop could defect to the atheist Soviets after having participated in Synodal meetings of Rocor ? This remains a murky question.

Was Abp Seraphim a double agent to begin with ? A plant to spy on Rocor for the NKVD, predecessor to the KGB ?
I am only posing a possible explanation, not accusing him without any evidence. His behavior was SO strange that it bothers me. Surely an offering of money by Soviet spies would not have swayed Abp Seraphim. The latter's behavior was reportedly that of a dedicated monastic who wore his health down by stringent fasting and prayer, thus making him invulnerable to extortion or blackmail.

Perhaps Abp Seraphim was recruited around the 3 year mark of his service as a Rocor hierarch. One would have to check dates and facts, but he may have informed on Rocor's inner doings to the dread Soviet intelligence service during the tumultuous years when the Synod was getting established in Sremsky-Karlovtsy near Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Last edited by Barbara on Sun 26 February 2017 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AB Seraphim Sobolev to be canonized by the MP?

Post by Barbara »

On a more pleasant note, an interesting story related in the Jordanville journal Orthodox Life describes how Nicholas Sobolev was given his monastic name.

On the eve of his tonsure, the head of the St Petersburg Theological Academy where Nicholas was in his 4th year, a Bishop Sergius, had an unusual experience. Bp Sergius went to dinner at the Academy Church warden's home. The 2 daughters of this man, a merchant named Rubakhin, clamored to know what name Bp Sergius would bestow on the new monk the next day. When they heard Dositheus, they insisted that a nicer name be selected.

This intervention of the 2 girls jolted the memory of Bishop Sergius. In his carriage on the way home after dinner, he suddenly recalled that when present at the opening of the latter's relics in 1903, he had promised the soon-to-be canonized Saint that if Bp Sergius became rector of the St Petersburg Theological Academy, the first monk he tonsured would be named after St Seraphim.

Another vignette from the same article which shines light onto the procedures of the Optina Elders took place while Nicholas was debating whether to accept monasticism. The native of Riazan wrote asking the advice of Elder Anatole [ Potapov ].

Image

St Anatole wrote back that he could not tell Nicholas without seeing him in person. Why Nicholas did not make the journey to Optina was not explained.

There may well have been reasons of timing of Academy classes. But it seems to me that the wisest course would have been for Nicholas to go there at the first opportunity. The Optina Elders would not be around to dispense help in a mere 10 or 15 years, though few realized it at the time. The question was too important to trust to random events to point the way.

However, God so arranged it that he was given a second chance to speak with the great Optina Elders. Transferred to Kaluga as assistant supervisor of the diocesan school, Hieromonk Seraphim was able to meet Elders Joseph, Barsanuphius and Anatole II.
The latter was his confessor during this period [ about 1909 to 1910 ], so indeed Elder Anatole's earlier request to see the young Nicholas -- now Fr Seraphim [ Sobolev ] face to face did come to pass.

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