St. Seraphim of Sarov praying about Diveyevo St. Seraphim used to say of Diveyevo that he didn’t lay a single stone there of his own will, but only what the Queen of Heaven instructed him. According to Her command, the Churches of the Nativity of Christ and the Nativity of the Mother of God were added to Our Lady of Kazan Church, the Holy Canal was started, and the community by the Mill took shape: Two rows of monastic cells were added and the mill “Provider” was built. St. Seraphim described the area around the mill to Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov with great precision three years before its construction, all the while remaining in Sarov Monastery:
“Go to Diveyevo, my lord. Once you arrive, stand there in front of the middle altar window of Our Lady of Kazan Church, count so-and-so many steps (the number was lost), and once you count them, batiushka, you will see a field boundary; so, beginning from there, batiushka, count so-and-so many steps (the number was lost), and you will see a piece of arable land; then, measure so-and-so many steps again (the number was lost), and you will arrive at a meadow; once you get there, judge by eye and measure, batiushka, its middle point, that’s where you will drive your stake, just enough for it to be seen.”
Once Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov arrived in Diveyevo, and as he ended up at the exact location batiushka had pointed out without seeing it, he was terrified and amazed at the same time. All that he saw around were the fields but all his steps coincided completely with batiushka’s measurements. Manturov carefully followed the instructions and drove a stake in the required spot. When Mikhail Vasilyevich returned to batiushka to report about the job done, the elder silently bowed to the ground before Manturov and became remarkably joyful and excited. Father Seraphim hadn’t reminded him about the stake and the measured field in Diveyevo for a year, so Mikhail Vasilyevich decided that he had forgotten about it. But all of a sudden, batiushka asked Mikhail Vasilyevich to visit, and he handed four more, smaller stakes to him; crossing himself, batiushka kissed the stakes, and commanded Manturov to do the same, then bowed low before him and said:
“Now, batiushka, go to Diveyevo again to the same place you drove a stake last year, and there, counting the same distance, drive these four at four corners, around the large stake. Lest they get misplaced, batiushka, find some rocks and place them around in piles so that they don’t get mixed up and can be easily noticed!”
Having done everything as he was told, Manturov returned to report back to batiushka. Father Seraphim greeted him silently yet joyfully and bowed down to the ground before him. Mikhail Vasilyevich was left guessing about the hidden meaning of these acts or what was about to happen, but he was afraid to ask. Finally, in 1826, a mill, the income provider for the Diveyevo “orphans” (St. Seraphim’s name for the Diveyevo nuns.—Trans.), was built on this exact spot.
There were a great many examples of the holy elder’s clairvoyance. He foresaw the exact location of the Trinity Cathedral and commanded M.V. Manturov to protect this parcel of land against all odds, never allowing it to be sold. He told Elena Vasilievna (Manturov’s sister.—Trans.):
“Here, matushka, what a joy! What a cathedral we will have, matushka! Such a grand cathedral! A true wonder!”
A model of the future Diveyevo Convent. Western view of the monastery.
He would likewise explain to Eudoxia Efremovna:
“It will be so much joy yet we will not live to see it, I will not live to see it, but there will be a cathedral with five domes there! You won’t see how it will come to happen either, matushka! It will stand between two churches facing the Kazan Church, and the holy monastery gates will be right in front of it. Oh, what joy it will bring, so much great joy!”
When a question came up about the cathedral’s construction, a few construction sites were considered, yet it was finally founded at the location indicated by St. Seraphim
When decades later, in 1848, a question came up about the cathedral’s construction, a few construction sites were taken into consideration, both in and around Diveyevo, yet it was finally founded at the location pointed out by St. Seraphim.
Father Seraphim, as evidenced by many, spoke about the future of Diveyevo, commanding they hold services in Our Lady of Kazan Church unceasingly and never call it a parish church, for it will be later added to the monastery and become a heated wintertime monastery cathedral. He prophesied that, in due course and by God’s will, Mother Alexandra’s holy relics would rest there, opened and accessible to anyone.
The Cathedrals and the Holy Canal of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery
Batiushka told the Manturovs, Fr. Vasily, and many sisters:
“No women’s Lavras have ever existed before; but I, the lowly one, will have a Lavra in Diveyevo. The lavra will be around, or outside, the Canal, in the community of Matushka Alexandra, for she was a widow; so the widows, those formerly married, and the maidens may reside there, whereas a cenobitic community will be inside the area of the Kanavka. I, the lowly one, hold to a chaste life, so only those who are maidens will be accepted there. There will be a great summer cathedral built there and then another one, with heating for winter use. This Church of Our Lady of Kazan and the surrounding area will belong to the monastery, the parish church will be elsewhere. So, the Kazan Church, as it is, and the Nativity Church, as it is, will be in the center, and other side chapels will occupy great space around it, so it will become a great heated cathedral, as great as the Jerusalem Temple. The Nativity Church will certainly have a side chapel to the Archangel Michael added on its left side. The stone wall will remain as it is now, except that the Kazan Church will expand towards it and the wall will continue down to the river bank, wrapping westwards along the river; and there, just across from the Mishenka’s house (Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov), a bell tower will be added with the holy gates beneath it. There will be the stone-clad housing units surrounding the cathedrals in the following order. From the south, across from the Holy Trinity Cathedral, there will be a triangular-shaped building, with a member of the royal family residing there, batiuhska. From the northern side of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and across from it, there will be another triangular-shaped building and it will be a refectory. The abbess’s quarters in a simple elongated rectangular shape will be located beside the triangular housing unit in the south. Southwards from Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral and next to the abbess’s quarters, there will be another residential building of the same elongated rectangular shape. To the north across from the Kazan Cathedral and across from the rectangular residential building, there will be another one of the same shape used as a residential unit. Again, another triangular-shaped residential unit will be beside the cathedral, with the windows facing the monastery wall; one part will serve as a monastic residence and another, separated by the wall and having the front-facing windows, will become a hotel. On another side of the cathedral, there will be another identical triangular-shaped housing unit, divided in half and serving the same purpose. That’s how everything will be arranged there, batiushka, for we will have both a Lavra and the cenobitic community in this monastery!”
The Trinity Cathedral, bell tower, and Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery
He even drew with his own hand a layout of the future Lavra in Diveyevo, where he included the existing buildings, those that were there before and will be added in the future—a total of twenty-five objects.
Father used to tell Xenia Vasilievna:
“The Mother of God has chosen this place Herself! And the Queen of Heaven will have anything She ever desires! So, She instructed that I, the lowly Seraphim, should build a double blade mill for maidens to support them. Then, the Mother of God gave Her blessing to build a church for them, matushka! What great joy and goodness it will be: the mill, the church, the land, all of our own there!”
When Xenia Vasilievna doubted these prophecies, he said:
“That’s who you are! You said you have a heart for me yet you doubted and failed to believe me, the lowly one! Trust me, keep faith, matushka, in what I had said—as it will come true!”
Father mentioned the monastic dwellings made of stone. He also told of a great number of sisters residing here, writes Ekaterina Matveyevna in her memoirs—that there would be 300 nuns and 500 novices in Diveyevo.
“Isn’t he a clairvoyant, our batiushka! Who could ever have imagined it at the time but here we are, I truly lived to see our numbers increase so much as to include as many as 800 sisters,” the eldress exclaimed.
There were many prophecies about the monastery that he shared with Venerable Martha. One summer day, she took Ustinya Ivanovna to the Our Lady of Kazan Church and pointed at it saying:
“Keep it in your mind that this church will belong to us, the monastics, while a village parish church will be built elsewhere and they will also have a parish clergy house. But here, as Father Seraphim used to say, we will have a lavra with a cenobitic monastery inside the Canal. Your cemetery church will be consecrated to the Transfiguration of the Lord.”
Matushka Martha objected: “Batiuhska, but isn’t it true that the cemetery churches are usually dedicated to All Saints?”
Panoramic view of the monastery from the west
To this, batiushka responded that the altar to All Saints would be consecrated earlier than that. Then batiuhska revealed the following to Venerable Martha:
“The lowly Seraphim could make you rich but it would not do you any good. I could make gold from ashes but I won’t. Your wealth won’t increase, and neither will the little you do get decrease. In the latter times, you will have everything in abundance, but after that, the end will be near.”
According to his prophecy, at the end of times, the monastery will expand to stretch down to the higher banks of the Vichkinza River, while Our Lady of Kazan Church and the residences of the local clergy will be a part of the monastery grounds. Therefore, a stone wall surrounding the monastery was built to frame the monastery from the north, east, and south only, while a wooden fence surrounded it from the west.
St. Seraphim spoke in figurative language and his prophecies had an allegoric and metaphorical character.
Venerable Seraphim spoke in figurative language, and, more often than not, his prophecies had an allegoric and metaphorical character. That was how his famous words to Fr. Vasily Sadovsky, repeated thrice, were interpreted:
“But Sarov is only a sleeve, while Diveyevo is the entire fur coat!”
It was possible to suggest that, when batiushka compared Diveyevo with a fur coat, he meant speak of Diveyevo’s significance as the jewel and the comfort of Russia.
However, there is an interesting observation by Olga Listopadova, the architect of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, who, upon close examination of the satellite images of Sarov and Diveyevo, did in fact find a similarity between the outline of Diveyevo and a front part of an overcoat with a lowered sleeve, but lacking one sleeve. Meanwhile, the outline of the Sarov Monastery fitted perfectly as that missing sleeve.
Nothing was a mystery for batiushka, for he could see it all—the present, the past, and the future.
