The Great Mystery of Diveyevo

IN 1903, JUST BEFORE the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the well-known "Conversation of St. Seraphim with Motovilov" was providentially discovered among the papers preserved by Motovilov's widow, who lived just until the canonization. Most of this "Conversation," dealing with the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as the aim of the Orthodox Christian life, was immediately published, and since then it has been translated into a number of languages;1 but one passage did not pass the ecclesiastical censor owing to its unusual and rather startling character, and it remained a part of the unwritten Sarov-Diveyevo tradition, known only to a small church circle, until our own days, when it was finally published in Russian, as it happened, on the eve of the canonization of a Saint so close to St. Seraphim in spirit and tradition, St. Herman of Alaska. Is this not an indication that St. Herman, even in "exile" together with the suffering Russian people, likewise participates in the destiny of Holy Russia? May the publication of this "mystery" now in English be for the strengthening of the faith of the true Orthodox Christians of these last times!

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1 English translation published by Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, N.Y.


MANY TIMES I heard from the mouth of the great God-pleaser, the Elder, Father Seraphim, that he would not lie in Sarov with his flesh. And behold, once I [Motovilov] dared to ask him: "Batiushka, you deign to say all the time that with your flesh you will not lie in Sarov. Does that mean that the monks of Sarov will give you away?"

To this Batiushka, smiling pleasantly and looking at me, deigned to reply to me thus: "O your godliness, your godliness, what are you saying! For why was Tsar Peter a king of kings and wanted to translate the relics of the holy pious Prince Alexander Nevsky to Petersburg, but the holy relics did not want this?"

"How did they not want it?" I dared to answer the great Elder. "How did they not want it, when they repose now in Petersburg in the Lavra of St. Alexander Nevsky?"

"In the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra, you say? But how can that be? In Vladimir they reposed openly, but in the Lavra they are buried why is that? Because," said Batiushka, "they are not there." And after speaking much in detail on this subject with his divinely-speaking lips, Batiushka Seraphim informed me of the following:

"Your godliness, the Lord God has ordained that I, humble Seraphim, should live considerably longer than a hundred years. But since toward that time the bishops will become so impious that in their impiety they will surpass the Greek bishops of the time of Theodosius the Younger, so that they will no longer even believe in the chief dogma of the Christian faith: therefore it has been pleasing to the Lord God to take me, humble Seraphim, from this temporal life until the time, and then resurrect me, and my resurrection will be as the resurrection of the Seven Youths in the cave of Ochlon in the days of Theodosius the Younger."

Having revealed to me this great and fearful mystery, the great Elder informed me that after his resurrection he would go from Sarov to Diveyevo and there he would begin the preaching of world-wide repentance. For this preaching, and above all because of the miracle of resurrection, a great multitude of people will assemble from all the ends of the earth; Diveyevo will become a lavra, Vertyanova will become a city, and Arzamas a province. And preaching repentance in Diveyevo, Batiushka Seraphim will uncover four relics in it, and after uncovering them he himself will lie down in their midst. And then soon will come the end of everything.1

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1 On the Banks of God's River, vol. 2, 1969, pp. 192-193.


Another time St. Seraphim spoke to Motovilov concerning the spiritual state of the last Christians who will remain faithful to God before the end of the world:

"And in the days of that great sorrow, of which it is said that no flesh would be saved unless, for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut shortin those days the remnant of the faithful are to experience in themselves something like that which was experienced once by the Lord Himself when He hanging on the Cross, being perfect God and perfect Man, felt Himself so forsaken by His Divinity that He cried out to Him: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? The last Christians also will experience in themselves a similar abandonment of humanity by the grace of God, but only for a very short time, after the passing of which the Lord will not delay immediately to appear in all His glory, and all the holy Angels with Him. And then will be performed in all its fullness everything foreordained from the ages in the preeternal counsel [of the Holy Trinity]."1

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1 Conversation of St. Seraphim on the Aim of the Christian Life (in Russian), 1967, p. 82.


Saint Seraphim of Sarov
1759—1833

This portrait was painted in July, 1831, in Sarov Monastery, and was preserved in the home of Krupenikov in the city of Kazan. Two months after this Motovilov was miraculously healed by St. Seraphim, and another two months later occurred the wondrous "Conversation" on the aquisition of the Holy Spirit.


Nicholas Alexandrovich Motovilov
1809—1879

Saint Seraphim's spiritual son from early childhood, he became the closest man to the Saint, leaving to the world his priceless notes on the Saint and the Saint's teaching on the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.