| Seraphim of Platina | |
|---|---|
| Hieromonk | |
| Born | August 13, 1934 San Diego, California |
| Died | 2 September 1982 (aged 48) Platina, California |
| Major shrine | St. Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina, California |
Seraphim Rose, born Eugene Dennis Rose (August 13, 1934 - September 2, 1982), was an American hieromonk of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia who co-founded the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California. He also translated Orthodox Christian texts and authored several polemical works. His writings are credited with helping to spread Orthodox Christianity throughout the West; his popularity equally extended to Russia itself, where his works were secretly reproduced and distributed during the Communist era, remaining popular today.
Rose's opposition to Orthodox participation in the ecumenical movement, and his advocacy of the contentious "toll house teaching" led him into conflict with some notable figures in 20th century Orthodoxy, and he remains controversial in some quarters even after his sudden death from an undiagnosed intestinal disorder in 1982. However, many other Orthodox Christians hold him in high esteem, venerating him as a saint in iconography, liturgy and prayer though he has not been formally canonized by any Orthodox synod.
Rose's monastery (as of 2010) is currently affiliated with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and continues to carry on his work of publishing and Orthodox missionary activity.
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Eugene Rose was born on August 13, 1934, in San Diego, California. His father was Frank Rose, a World War I veteran who operated the city's first "Karmel Korn Shop" together with his wife Esther Rose, Eugene's mother. In addition to being a businesswoman, Esther was a California artist who specialized in impressionist renderings of Pacific coast scenes. Raised in San Diego, Eugene would remain a Californian for the rest of his life. His older sister was Eileen Rose Busby,[1] an author, MENSA member, and antiques expert; his older brother was Frank Rose, a local businessman. Rose was also an uncle of scientist and author J. Michael Scott, true crime author and journalist Cathy Scott, and Cordelia Mendoza, antiques expert and author.[2]
Though Rose was described by one biographer as a "natural athlete" in his youth, he never engaged seriously in sport. Baptized in the Methodist church when he was 14 years old, Rose later rejected Christianity for atheism. After graduating from San Diego High School, Rose attended Pomona College, where he studied Chinese philosophy and graduated magna cum laude in 1956. Afterwards Rose studied under Alan Watts at the American Academy of Asian Studies before entering the master's degree program in Oriental languages at the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated in 1961 with a thesis entitled 'Emptiness' and 'Fullness' in the Lao Tzu.[3]
In addition to a remarkable gift for languages, Rose was also known for possessing an acute sense of humor and wit.[4] He enjoyed opera, concerts, art, literature, and the other cultural opportunities richly available in San Francisco, where he settled after his graduation and explored Buddhism and other Asian philosophies.
While studying at Watts' Asian institute Rose discovered the writings of French metaphysicist René Guénon, and met a Chinese Taoist scholar, Gi-ming Shien. Shien emphasized the ancient Chinese approach to learning, valuing traditional viewpoints and texts over more modern interpretations. Inspired by Shien, Rose took up the study of ancient Chinese so that he could read early Tao texts in their original tongue. Through his experiences with Shien and the writings of Guénon, Eugene was inspired to seek out an authentic, grounded spiritual tradition of his own. Though he had previously focused on Eastern religions, Rose's spiritual journey ultimately led him back to Christianity and into the Russian Orthodox Church, partly as a result of his friendship with Jon Gregerson, a Californian of Finnish ancestry whom Rose met in the summer of 1955 while attending Watts' academy.[5]
In 1956 Rose came out as a homosexual to a close friend from college, after his mother discovered letters between him and Walter Pomeroy, Rose's friend from high school.[6] Rose ceased his homosexual activities after he accepted Orthodoxy, eventually ending his relationship with Gregerson, who had become his partner prior to his conversion to Orthodoxy.[7]
In 1962, partly as a result of Jon Gregerson's influcence, Rose was received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in San Francisco. He quickly distinguished himself to the prelate of San Francisco, St. John Maximovitch, as a serious and studious convert. In 1963, Archbishop John blessed Rose and his new friend Gleb Podmoshensky, a Russian Orthodox seminarian, to form a community of Orthodox booksellers and publishers, the "St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood". In March 1964, Rose opened an Orthodox bookstore next to the ROCOR cathedral on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, which was under construction at the time. In 1965 the brotherhood founded the St. Herman Press publishing house, which still exists.[8]
Increasingly drawn to a more reclusive lifestyle, Rose's community ultimately decided to leave the city for the northern California wilderness, where Rose and Podmoshensky became monks in 1968 and transformed the Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood info a full-fledged monastic community. Rose's parents provided the down payment for a mountaintop near the isolated hamlet of Platina, where Rose and some friends built a monastery named for St. Herman of Alaska. At his tonsure, in October 1970, Rose took the name "Seraphim" after St. Seraphim of Sarov. He wrote, translated and studied for the priesthood in his cell, a simple one-roomed cabin with neither running water nor electricity, where he would spend the rest of his days. He was ordained in the spring of 1977 by Bishop Nektary of Seattle, spiritual son of St. Nectarius of Optina, the last of the great Optina staretzy.[9]
In his ministry, Rose spoke frequently of an "Orthodoxy of the Heart", which he saw as increasingly absent in American ecclesiastical life. He also spoke of the need for warmth and kindness of the spirit, especially when dealing with those with whom one disagreed, an increasing problem in American Orthodoxy and its conflict between so-called "traditionalists" and "modernists". One can be firm, Rose insisted, without having to compromise basic Christian teachings on lovingkindness, longsuffering, and mercy toward others.[10][11]
Using a hand-cranked printing press at his Geary Boulevard bookstore, Rose founded the bimonthly magazine The Orthodox Word in January 1965; this periodical is still published (on modern presses) today. He also composed and published dozens of other titles, including God's Revelation to the Human Heart, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, and The Soul After Death; all remain in print. He translated and printed Fr. Michael Pomazansky's Orthodox Dogamtic Theology, which remains a text for clerical students and laymen alike. Rose translated his books into Russian, and they were circulated widely as samizdat within the Soviet Union, although they were not formally published until after the fall of the Communist regime. He was also one of the first American Orthodox Christians to translate major works of several church fathers into English.[12]
Although most of Rose's works were widely received within the Orthodox community, a few raised controversy. The most notable of these was The Soul After Death, which purports to describe certain alleged "aerial toll houses" described by various Church Fathers and saints. According to this teaching (which is widely accepted in certain portions of the church, but has never been officially accepted by any ecumenical Council of the Orthodox Church as a whole), every human soul must pass through a series of these stations after death as part of their initial judgment by God, where they will be accused of specific sins and possibly condemned to hell.
Orthodox theologians, including Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Dr. Stanley Harakas and Dr. Alexander Kalomiros among others, have claimed that certain ideas in Rose's book are heretical, and that many of the Church Fathers have been misinterpreted or misquoted to support it.[13] Archbishop Puhalo claimed that the "toll-house theory" is specifically Gnostic in origin.[14] These accusations were later declared to be wrong by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church Abroad, which emphasized that little has been revealed to the Church on this subject, and hence all controversy on this subject should cease.[15] To his credit, Biship Puhalo also indicated that he considered Rose a "true ascetic", and that he respected Fr. Seraphim's monastic life and good intentions even if he vemently disagreed with his teaching on this particular subject.[16]
Other contemporary Orthodox thinkers, such as St. John Maximovitch, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Fr. Michael Pomazansky, and Bishop Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan reject Puhalo's interpretation, and affirm the reality of the toll houses.[17] Rose tried to prove by citations that numerous saints, such as Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Macarius of Egypt, Theophan the Recluse, Seraphim of Sarov, Ignatius Brianchaninov and various other Orthodox church fathers, had acknowledged and accepted the Orthodoxy of the toll-houses.[18] He endeavored to answer his detractors in his "Answer to a Critic", published as an appendix to The Soul After Death.[19]
Another question concerned whether the Moscow Patriarchate, that portion of the Russian Orthodox Church within Soviet Russia, still possessed "grace". Although some Orthodox Christians asserted that the so-called "red" church had forfeited legitimacy by cooperating with the communist government, Rose disagreed. While wholeheartedly disapproving of the close relations between the Moscow church and the country's communist masters, Fr. Seraphim insisted that it was still legitimate, and possessed of valid sacraments.[20]
Rose also waded into the ongoing debate between Biblical creationism and evolution, asserting in Genesis, Creation and Early Man that Orthodox patristics exclusively supported the Creationist viewpoint. This idea was vehemently attacked by other Orthodox theologians, who asserted that while man's existence is not accidental by any means, there is no official church doctrine as to the precise process God used in creation, nor the length of time that it might have required.[21]
After feeling acute pains for several days while working in his cell in August 1982, a reluctant Rose was taken by fellow monks to Mercy Medical Center in Redding for treatment. When he arrived at the hospital, he was declared to be in critical condition and fell into semi-consciousness. After exploratory surgery was completed, it was discovered that a blood clot had blocked a vein supplying blood to his intestines, which had become a mass of dead tissue. He slipped into a coma after a second surgery, never regaining consciousness. Hundreds of people visited the hospital and celebrated the Divine Liturgy regularly in its chapel, praying for a miracle to save Rose's life. Prayers were offered for the ailing hieromonk from places as far away as Mt. Athos, Greece, the spiritual heart of Orthodox monasticism. Rose died on September 2, 1982.
Rose's body lay in repose for several days in a simple wooden coffin at his wilderness monastery. Visitors claimed that Rose's body did not succumb to decay and rigor mortis, remaining supple and even allegedly smelling of roses. Several miraculous events, healings and apparitions of Rose have been reported around the world, commencing soon after his death.[22] A cause for Fr. Seraphim's canonization was begun soon after his burial, and the title "Blessed" is now popularly attributed to him. He currently awaits canonization into sainthood by an Orthodox synod, and his grave at St. Herman's monastery has become a popular site for pilgrimages.
The St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina is now a part of the Western America diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. While all of the brothers are currently American, many speak Russian. Their primary emphasis continues to be the printing of books, which has been the major activity of the brotherhood since its inception. In addition, the monastery has assisted with the guardianship and education of local youths with behavioral or learning problems, which has earned Rose's brotherhood significant respect among the locals. Visitors come to the monastery year-round but especially on September 2, the anniversary of Rose's death.
