The icon shows Venerable Saint Seraphim of Sarov, a hermit and an ascetic, one of the most worshipped saints in the Russian Orthodox Church. Seraphim is dressed in a black raiment of a monk; he has a ‘lestovka’ in his hands: a prayer rope of Old Believers. The Venerable is shown bow-backed: in this way the painter reminds us of an episode from the life of St. Seraphim when he was attacked by bandits and had his skull fractured with the back of an axe. 

In 1807 Venerable Seraphim made the vow of silence: he communicated to almost no one. In 1810 Seraphim returned to the monastery, but became a hermit: he continuously prayed for 15 years running without leaving his cell. Upon finishing his hermitage, he would receive everyone who wanted to speak with him or to seek for his advice. At that time quite a few monastic orders and monasteries were established in the Tambov region with his blessing. Seraphim applied special energies to establishing and expanding the Diveevo nunnery that he took under his beneficience way back in 1789. Later the nunnery was called Seraphimo-Diveevsky.

Seraphim of Sarov died in his cell in 1833 while praying to the Virgin Mary. In 1903 Seraphim was canonized by the Holy Synod.
The Icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov was donated to the museum by a citizen of Tambov in September 1987. The icon was painted around early 20th century by an unknown painter on a wood panel. The painter used a mix of oil paints and tempera: a pigment dissolved in water and egg yolks. Sometimes glue or milk was added to tempera to get the paste-like paint. In such a form it covered better the coated wood panel. Unlike oil paints, tempera practically did not get darker or fade. Usually the painter coated the panel with a thin priming of crushed chalk and fish glue. The latter was made of sturgeon gravels, jackets, scales and bones.