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| Elder Seraphim Shevtsov (prison picture) |
The future Hieromonk Seraphim was born in 1875. In his youth he entered the Sviatogorsk Dormition desert in Kharkov province. He was tonsured with the name Seraphim in honour of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Later he was transferred to the Pokrov men’s monastery in Kharkov where he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Anthony Khrapovitsky (the future first hierarch of ROCOR).
In 1922, in view of the closure of the monastery by the Bolsheviks, Fr. Seraphim went to live with a poor widow. He was very ill at that time, and the widow looked after him until he recovered. From this time he lived in flats in Kharkov and the surrounding district. In 1937 he was sentenced to three years in prison for “unlawful activity”. After his release he continued to live illegally in Kharkov.
From 1941, after the Germans occupied Kharkov, Fr. Seraphim came out to serve openly and began to look after people over a wide territory.
In 1922, in view of the closure of the monastery by the Bolsheviks, Fr. Seraphim went to live with a poor widow. He was very ill at that time, and the widow looked after him until he recovered. From this time he lived in flats in Kharkov and the surrounding district. In 1937 he was sentenced to three years in prison for “unlawful activity”. After his release he continued to live illegally in Kharkov.
From 1941, after the Germans occupied Kharkov, Fr. Seraphim came out to serve openly and began to look after people over a wide territory.
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| Elder Seraphim Shevtsov |
In 1946 batyushka was condemned for a second time, to seven years’ imprisonment. At the trial in
Kiev, in the presence of more than ten clergy, Fr. Seraphim was offered a parish on the condition
that he was registered and conducted services together with the other priests, who had signed the
declaration of Metropolitan Sergius. He refused, and was sent to prison.
On his release in 1953, he continued to lead a catacomb community. “When it became extremely
dangerous to pray in private homes because of the persecutions by the authorities, batyushka decided to dig out a cave. Not far from Kharkov there was the village of Tishki. In this village there was a street going up a tall hill. In the courtyard of the house where Fr. Seraphim was living temporarily, almost halfway up the hill, thick bushes were growing. And it was in this unnoticed place that they decided to dig a hole underground. They dug carefully, for a long time, under the direction of batyushka. When they had dug it out, there was a big basement the size of a spacious room. Air had to be pumped into the room artificially… [because] there was no normal ventilation. But there were icons in the catacomb, lampadas and candles were burning, and the Liturgy was celebrated.
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| Where the catacomb monastery was established |
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| The entrance to the catacomb (cave) monastery |
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| The altar of a underground church (Kharkov region, 1950) |
This continued for a certain time. Then once a new woman came with a group of Christians. When
batyushka saw her, he said to his (spiritual) children: “Whom have you brought? Quickly get ready, let us leave this place.” Early in the morning, before dawn, all the believers who were there, with icons in their hands, left the cave with Fr. Seraphim leading them. They went through the kitchen gardens (at that time the sunflowers were flowering, and the maize was as tall as a man) and through the woods to escape the organs of the KGB, who at that time had surrounded the house. Fortunately, they did not find any of those escaping. The woman who had brought them to batyushka was the wife of a priest who served the sergianists. She shared information with him, and he informed the (Soviet) organs.
Eyewitnesses who knew Fr. Seraphim affirm that he had the gift of clairvoyance. Once while batyushka was sitting and chatting with his spiritual children, he said: ‘You, Nazarius, will be imprisoned for the faith. You, Maria, will also be taken. But you, Melania, will remain in freedom, they will not take you.’ He who writes these lines is a witness of the truth of these words of Fr. Seraphim, although the people have already departed into Eternity.
Batyushka did not reply to difficult questions immediately. He would go into reclusion, pray to
God, and only on the second day would he give a precise reply. Before his death he gave instructions
to his spiritual children on how to live after him. And he said: ‘If in future you meet a true priest,
I bless you all to go under his spiritual direction.’”
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| Elder Seraphim Shevtsov |
He died in 1955, and was buried secretly. Not knowing that he had died, the “organs of internal
affairs” searched for him. When his grave was finally discovered, an army detachment was summoned to lift his coffin. When they had dug down to the coffin, its corner had rotted away, and through the opening there wafted a wonderful aroma. The bosses who were standing by said: “The believers poured somuch perfume into the coffin that the aroma is spreading to this day.”
When they opened the coffin, the body lay in the same condition as if it had been buried the day
before. When they told the boss that the body had been lying in the grave for a year and a half, he was disturbed and said: “It’s impossible.” But when he was finally convinced of the truth of what was said, he was very perplexed.
Soon the coffin with the body was taken away. Many citizens of the city of Chugev, which is 45
kilometres from Kharkov, watched as it passed by. Nobody knows where the grave of Fr. Seraphim is
now. The boss only said: “We shall arrange it so that crowds of people do not go to his grave.”
While he was still alive, batyushka used to say to his spiritual children: “When I die, they will not give my body peace in the grave…”