Finding the relics of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov wonderworker

The Sarov miracle worker will gather believers in Diveyevo

The first day of August 2026 is marked in the church calendar as a holiday of finding the relics of St. Seraphim. Mass celebrations will unfold in the Nizhny Novgorod village of Diveevo, where the monastery founded by the saint is located. Several thousand pilgrims are expected to arrive, for whom a camp for four thousand places will be equipped on the banks of the Wichkins River.

Key services are planned at two sites of the monastery. In the evening of July 31, the service will be held inside the Trinity Cathedral. The next day, the cancer will be transferred to the Transfiguration Church, and the liturgy will be held right on the street. For remote participants organize a video stream on the Internet.

Parish churches across the country will join in the celebration. All-night will be accompanied by a polyele part with burning lamps and the exit of the clergy to the center of the room, as well as lithium with the distribution of consecrated bread. In the morning of August 1, the Liturgy and the water-holy prayer service will be served. The two main hymns of the day – Tropar and Kondak – summarize the milestones of the ascetic’s biography: early aspiration to God, hermitage, incessant prayerful work, the benevolence of the Mother of God and mentoring in Sarov.

The fate of the reverend’s remains is dramatic. Their first extraction from the land took place in the summer of 1903, the ceremony was honored by the presence of Tsar Nicholas II. After the revolutionary events, the shrine disappeared for decades. Only in 1990 it was accidentally discovered among the exhibits of the Leningrad Museum. A few months later, in January 1991, the relics were returned to the faithful, and in August of the same year they were delivered to the Diveyevo monastery. The return coincided with Seraphim’s long-held prediction.

The future monk was born in Kursk in 1754 in a merchant environment and at baptism received the name Prokhor. Already in his childhood, signs of his election appeared. Seven years he miraculously survived after falling from a belfry under construction, and three years later he defeated a severe ailment by touching the icon “The Sign” after seeing the Blessed Virgin. In the Sarov monastery, where the young man arrived for obedience, a dropsy overtook him. The disease lasted three years and receded after the new appearance of the Mother of God.

Eight years after tonsuring, the monks retired to the forest desert. Life describes an episode with three peasants who brutally beat the hermit, suspecting his wealth, but found nothing but potatoes and an icon. The surviving elder is portrayed by the same sources as forgiving the attackers. Later he took care of the Diveyevo sisters and nursed them until the last days. The ascetic died in 1833. He invariably communicated with visitors in the Easter spirit, greeting them with the cry “Christ is Risen!” and the word “My Joy.” The veneration of the saint spread far beyond the Orthodox world.