Archimandrite Seraphim (Alexiev)
TRANSLATION FROM BULGARIAN
Archimandrite Seraphim (Stoyan Georgiev Alexiev in the world) was born on February 25 (9 March old style) 1912 [+ 13/26 January 1993] in Gorno Brodi in Serres (Macedonia) as the youngest son in a large family of devout poor parents. His father Georgi Alexiev was in bell-casting – a craft that he bequeathed to his two senior sons Dimitar and Atanas. The junior son – Stoyan, stood out for his keen church spirit and deep Orthodox faith.
After the family resettled in Sofia (due to the two Balkan wars of 1912-1913) he joined the Sofia Seminary and graduated with honors. In 1934 he was sent to study at the old-Catholic Theology faculty in Bern (Switzerland), where he gained the scientific degree of doctor of theology, defending a thesis on: "The Meaning of the Requirements of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount" (173 pages), printed in the German language in Sofia in 1938.
After his return to Bulgaria he was appointed a lecturer at the Plovdiv, and later at the Sofia Theological Seminaries. In the latter, on February 3, 1940 he accepted monasticism with the name Seraphim, in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov, whom he deeply revered during all his life and to whom he later dedicated one of the best favorite books for Bulgarian Orthodox readers – namely, 'St. Seraphim of Sarov' (1957), reprinted many times in Bulgaria.
A turning point in the life of the young monk was his convergence with the residing in Bulgaria Russian Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) (1950). From him he took up the live sense of Orthodox faith and a fine sense of spiritual life, which he subsequently taught himself to his numerous spiritual children.
On Annunciation in 1943 he was ordained a priest and began his soul-benefitting pastoral activity of a dedicated confessor, which lasted nearly half a century.
After two years of service as protosingel with the Sliven Metropolia, Fr. Seraphim was promoted to the rank of Archimandrite in January 1947 and was moved to the office head of cultural and educational department with the Holy Synod in Sofia. In that difficult time for the Church Archimandrite Seraphim repeatedly valiantly defended the Orthodox faith. At the new office, he developed tireless activity as organizer of pastoral guidance courses for priests, as an inspired preacher – in his lectures that he regularly read and as the author of numerous articles and more extensive works. The most important of these are:
"Our Faith"
(Catechism) After the family resettled in Sofia (due to the two Balkan wars of 1912-1913) he joined the Sofia Seminary and graduated with honors. In 1934 he was sent to study at the old-Catholic Theology faculty in Bern (Switzerland), where he gained the scientific degree of doctor of theology, defending a thesis on: "The Meaning of the Requirements of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount" (173 pages), printed in the German language in Sofia in 1938.
After his return to Bulgaria he was appointed a lecturer at the Plovdiv, and later at the Sofia Theological Seminaries. In the latter, on February 3, 1940 he accepted monasticism with the name Seraphim, in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov, whom he deeply revered during all his life and to whom he later dedicated one of the best favorite books for Bulgarian Orthodox readers – namely, 'St. Seraphim of Sarov' (1957), reprinted many times in Bulgaria.
A turning point in the life of the young monk was his convergence with the residing in Bulgaria Russian Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) (1950). From him he took up the live sense of Orthodox faith and a fine sense of spiritual life, which he subsequently taught himself to his numerous spiritual children.
On Annunciation in 1943 he was ordained a priest and began his soul-benefitting pastoral activity of a dedicated confessor, which lasted nearly half a century.
After two years of service as protosingel with the Sliven Metropolia, Fr. Seraphim was promoted to the rank of Archimandrite in January 1947 and was moved to the office head of cultural and educational department with the Holy Synod in Sofia. In that difficult time for the Church Archimandrite Seraphim repeatedly valiantly defended the Orthodox faith. At the new office, he developed tireless activity as organizer of pastoral guidance courses for priests, as an inspired preacher – in his lectures that he regularly read and as the author of numerous articles and more extensive works. The most important of these are:
"Our Faith"
"Our Hope" (talks on Beatitudes) and
"Our Love" (talks on the Ten Commandments),
as well as brochures on spiritual and moral topics:
"Pride and Humility",
"Enmity and Reconciliation",
"The Meaning of Sufferings",
"The Self-Proclaimed Judges",
"Sick and Sound Mysticism",
"The Forgotten Medicine" and others.
Archimandrite Seraphim had also a rare poetic gift that found expression in numerous poems and verses featured in church publications as well as in two books of poetry collections: "Insights" and "Songs About Life and Death".
All this published and unpublished spiritual works expected yet to be assessed and evaluated.
In 1960, Archimandrite Seraphim was appointed professor at the department of dogmatic theology of the Theology Academy of the St. Kliment of Ohrida, Sofia, and was soon confirmed as an Associate Professor with his habilitation work criticizing the Roman Catholic dogma of the Most Holy Theotokos’ Immaculate Conception. As an associate professor he published in that period (1963-1969) in the Yearbook of the Theology Academy a series of theological studies, including:
"Two Extreme Views of Western Religions regarding the Most Holy Theotokos",
"The State of Man Prior To and After the Original Sin, from the Orthodox, Roman-Catholic and Protestant Points of View",
"Redemption as the Work of God's Love and God’s Righteousness",
"Franz von Bader – a Roman Catholic Philosopher and Theologian in the Search for Orthodoxy and Its Catholicity",
"The Bogomil Heresy from the Point of View of the Orthodox Dogmatic Foundations of Presbyter Kozma and of Orthodox Dogmaticism in General",
"The Church-Missionary Work of Constantine the Philosopher – St. Cyrill" (unpublished).
After ten years of teaching at the Theology Academy Archimandrite Seraphim was forced to retire in 1969 as [one] ideologically disagreeing with the introduction of the new calendar style in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and in general [disagreeing] with the ecumenical tilt of church policy in Bulgaria – a result of the BOC’s membership of the World Council of "churches".
Outside the Academy Fr. Seraphim furthered his much-beneficial creative [writing] activities. In the years that followed he wrote a series of books of ideological and of spiritual-and-moral content. The most important of these are:
"The Orthodox View on the Old and the New Style of the Calendar" (1972),
"Our Prayer",
"Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian in the Light of the Patristic Teaching",
"Life After Life",
"The Optina Elders" and others.
Most of these books are still awaiting to reach [their] readers.
In the last years of his life Archimandrite Seraphim devoted especially great attention and efforts to a thorough critique of ecumenism as a God-repulsive and soul-slaying heresy that eats away Christian Orthodox Church of today and prepares the way for the coming antichrist. The last bequeathal work of Archim. Seraphim [co-authored with his brother in Christ Fr. Serghiy (Yazadjiev) (Feb 15/28, 1924 - May 21/Jun 3, 2008)]
"Orthodoxy and Ecumenism" (Sofia, 1992) was published only three weeks before his death, that came on 13/26 January 1993. This grand work – the fruit of a quarter century of intensive research – gives an exhaustive answer to the question: "Why we are not and cannot be ecumenists?" in a number of justifications, documented and substantiated with numerous quotations from the Holy Scripture, the Holy Fathers and the theological literature.
With this work of his Archimandrite Seraphim crowned his rich spiritual-and-writing activities which elevated his name to enviable heights among Orthodox activists and sowers on the God's field, to have fulfilled the cherished words of the Lord Jesus Christ: "but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:19)."
Orthodox Word
