The piece of stone presented in the exhibition, on which the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov prayed for a thousand nights while performing the feat of pillar-dwelling, was given to the writer and local historian Valentin Alexandrovich Stepashkin by the nun of the Holy Trinity Seraphimo-Diveyevo Convent, Mother Seraphima (Sofia Alexandrovna Bulgakova), in 1990.
Mother Seraphima was one of the few Diveyevo nuns who lived to see the beginning of the restoration of the Seraphimo-Diveyevo Convent. She preserved and passed on to the convent some personal belongings of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov and the holy blessed Paraskeva of Diveyevo.
Valentin Alexandrovich Stepashkin, having divided the stone into two parts, donated one half to the Museum of Local Lore of the City of Sarov.
Perceiving monasticism as a true service to God and wishing to acquire His grace, the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov went through all the spiritual stages of asceticism. He approached this incredibly difficult labor with humility and true Christian obedience, thereby resembling the Lord Jesus Christ and setting an example for those around him.
One of the monastic feats for the Venerable Seraphim was pillar-dwelling, which involved prolonged standing in prayer on a stone. Wishing to emulate the great saints of Christianity, Elder Seraphim found a granite boulder in the forest, located halfway between his dwelling and the Sarov Monastery. Every night, the Venerable Seraphim would ascend this stone and, kneeling or standing upright, would pray the tax collector’s prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
In addition to this boulder, the holy elder placed another stone in his hermitage (hut) and prayed on it every day from morning until evening. He would only descend from the stone briefly to eat and rest a little.
In this incredibly difficult feat — both physically and spiritually — the Reverend Seraphim spent three years and terminated it only due to severe physical exhaustion and visible wounds. However, it was through such labors that Saint Seraphim of Sarov overcame human passions within himself and acquired the grace of God.
The stone on which Saint
Seraphim prayed was broken into small pieces. Those who received them kept them
as a holy relic.
