San Francisco, March 25, 2026
Photo: pravoslavie.ru
A Lenten retreat dedicated to Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina was held at Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco, on Sunday, March 22.
The 15th Annual Lenten Retreat drew over 100 attendees, many of whom had participated in the English-language Divine Liturgy that morning. This year’s retreat was titled “Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of Platina: His Life, Teachings & Legacy,” reports the Western American Diocese of ROCOR.
The two speakers were His Grace Bishop James of Sonora and Archpriest Martin Person, Rector of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Sunnyvale, California—both of whom knew Fr. Seraphim personally in the final years of his life before his repose in 1982.
Fr. Martin Person. Photo: wadiocese.org Fr. Martin gave the first talk, “Biography of a Man Transformed in Christ,” offering a detailed account of Fr. Seraphim’s life interwoven with personal recollections.
Fr. Martin had been a student at UC Santa Cruz when Fr. Seraphim was invited there to give two talks—talks he did not attend at the time, though friends who did were deeply affected, with many going on to become bishops, priests, and monks. Fr. Martin later traveled to Platina to visit Fr. Seraphim, taking long walks with him during which Fr. Seraphim offered clarity on eastern religions and the syncretistic philosophical outlook Fr. Martin had been drawn to.
Fr. Martin highlighted Fr. Seraphim’s embodiment of the harmony between right belief and right practice, reading at length from St. Tikhon of Zadonsk—a passage Fr. Seraphim himself had quoted in his 1979 Jordanville lecture “Orthodoxy in the USA”—which draws a distinction between the outward confession of Orthodox dogmas and true living faith in the heart.
Bp. James. Photo: wadiocese.org
Bp. James delivered the afternoon talk, “Reflections on Fr. Seraphim’s Theological, Pastoral, & Prophetic Legacy.” Drawing on Fr. Seraphim’s well-known talk “Living the Orthodox Worldview,” His Grace warned against what he called “distraxia”—a Romanian word conveying the kind of distraction from God that many today seek through entertainment, social media, and smartphones.
He urged those present to make daily use of Fr. Seraphim’s writings, stating: “I submit to you that not a day should go by without bringing a bit of Father Seraphim’s treasury into your life.”
Bp. James also reflected on Fr. Seraphim’s relationship with St. John Maximovitch, who arrived in San Francisco shortly after Eugene Rose was received into the Church. “We cannot understand the man Fr. Seraphim became apart from St. John,” Bp. James said, noting that Fr. Seraphim later described St. John as “the noblest man I had ever met.”
On Fr. Seraphim’s physical appearance, Bp. James recalled that whenever he met with him, “he didn’t look healthy. He looked tired”—the mark of an ascetic life. Yet when Fr. Seraphim lay in repose for three hot summer days following his death after two intestinal surgeries, he showed no rigor mortis, his skin color appeared healthier, and the wrinkles on his face were gone. As Bp. James put it, “He looked more alive in death than he did while he was alive.”
His Grace also stated that every pastoral conversation he has is direct influenced by what he learned from Fr. Seraphim, and that “in order to understand the world today, there is no more important voice for us than Fr. Seraphim (Rose).”
Photo: wadiocese.org
He closed his talk with the famous line from Blessed Augustine’s Confessions, a book Fr. Seraphim read every Lent: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”
Bp. James also gave a brief update on the commission established by the ROCOR Synod of Bishops in December 2025 to study Fr. Seraphim’s life, legacy, and veneration, of which he serves as Chairman.
The commission is currently in the early stages of gathering materials and reading texts by and about Fr. Seraphim, with the aim of eventually presenting the Synod with the information needed to determine whether Fr. Seraphim is worthy of being added to the calendar of saints. A website is also being created to collect accounts of miraculous intercessions attributed to him.
The retreat concluded with a Q&A session, with many attendees remaining afterward to speak with the two speakers and receive a blessing from Bp. James.
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