By the early 1900s, Vasily and Olga Muravyov were among Russia’s wealthiest people. Vasily, a second-guild merchant since 1915, was a man of achievement. At 54, he had become a prominent fur trader in the capital, a successful entrepreneur, and a generous philanthropist. He had raised a son and sent him to one of the finest schools in Russia.
Beyond his business achievements, Vasily was also a devout Christian, attentive to church services and living according to the Gospel. He and his wife fed the hungry, visited the sick, and supported the lonely and infirm. They often took in patients from public hospitals, convinced that recovery came more swiftly in a home filled with kindness. Heartfelt compassion and genuine love worked wonders — people on the brink of despair, worn down by serious illnesses, would stand on their feet again and return to active lives. The Muravyovs donated to churches and monasteries and ran several almshouses, the largest of which was at the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent. They visited these charitable homes in person, comforting the lonely and helpless with their warm concern, distributing gifts and spiritual books. The Church remembers them as “two seraphims.”
The Muravyov Family
On 13 April 1866 (new calendar), in the village of Vakhromevo, Arefin volost, Yaroslavl province, Rybinsk county, a son was born to peasant parents Nikolai Ivanovich and Khionia Alimpyievna Muravyov. They named him Vasily. His devout, God-fearing parents became his first teachers in the Christian life. The Lord had blessed the boy with a keen mind, diligence, patience, and a remarkable memory. At an early age, he almost taught himself to read and picked up the basics of mathematics. The Gospel and the Psalter were his first books. He soon immersed himself in the lives of the saints: Paul of Thebes, Anthony the Great, Mary of Egypt — and the idea of a monastic life took hold in his young heart.
Vasily Muravyov, aged 10
Tragedy struck unexpectedly: his father, Nikolai, died at only 40, leaving ten-year-old Vasily as the family’s sole provider. A kind neighbour, who worked as a senior shopkeeper in St. Petersburg, came to the aid of the struggling family. He invited the boy to the capital to work with him. And so, in 1876, Vasily Muravyov arrived in St. Petersburg.
Gostiny Dvor shop, early 20th century photo
With his benefactor's help, the boy became a messenger in a shop in the Gostiny Dvor. While running small errands, he learned the ropes of trade and quickly gained the shop owner’s trust. But Vasily's desire for the monastic life never left him. This yearning seized him with overwhelming force when he was about fourteen. In a burst of fervour, he went to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Tearfully, the boy poured out his heart to one of the monastery’s elders. “Vasenka! You are destined for the worldly path, a thorny one, full of sorrows. Walk it before God and your conscience. The time will come, and the Lord will reward you…” Through these words, God’s will was made clear to Vasily: to stay in the world for a time, do good works, build a godly family, to raise children, and then, with his wife’s full agreement, to embrace monasticism. His whole life from then on became a preparation for the monastic life, an act of obedience that lasted over forty years.
At sixteen, Vasily took charge of a shop, keeping order, receiving goods, selling them, and reporting to the owner. Within a year, he became a senior manager. Almost all his wages went back home to his ailing mother.
Vasily Muravyov, a prosperous merchant
In 1892, the shop owner supported him in starting his own business — buying and selling furs. A large part of his goods went abroad — to Germany, Austria-Hungary, England, France, and other lands. Rising from a humble peasant background, Vasily Muravyov became a prosperous merchant, described by his great-granddaughter, Olga Danilovna Naboko, as a man of “high intelligence, deep culture, a master of history and the richness of the Russian language.”
Vasily’s wife Olga Netronina and their firstborn son Nikolai
In 1890, Vasily Nikolaevich married Olga Ivanovna Netronina, a woman of remarkable resolve, keen intellect, and striking beauty. In 1895, the couple welcomed their firstborn, a son named Nikolai.
Elder Varnava of Gethsemane, the Muravyov Family’s spiritual guide
Elder Varnava of Gethsemane was the family’s spiritual guide. “As long as we live, we must do good for others,” he instructed the Muravyovs. Unsurprisingly, their thirty years of marriage were filled with works of mercy. Their daughter Olga died in infancy. After this loss, the couple agreed, with their spiritual advisor's blessing, to live as brother and sister.
When World War I broke out, their son Nikolai left St. Petersburg University after his first year to volunteer for the army and defend his homeland. He became a pilot, served at the front, suffered shellshock, and, bearing the George Cross, left active duty for treatment in a hospital.
Then came 1917. Many of the Muravyovs’ wealthy acquaintances rushed to move their assets abroad and leave the country, hoping to ride out the upheaval overseas.
In 1920 — at the height of persecutions, when the number of those killed for their faith had reached 10,000 — Vasily Nikolaevich and Olga Ivanovna donated all their possessions to the Church and mutually agreed to part ways and enter monastic life. Vasily went to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and Olga to the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent. The long-awaited moment had come, the one Vasily had spent his entire life preparing for: he was about to step on the path of monastic struggle.
Bishop Benjamin (Kazansky) blessed Vasily Muravyov to be tonsured as a monk at the same time as Olga. On 29 October 1920, the Lavra’s abbot, Archimandrite Nikolai (Yarushevich), tonsured Vasily into monasticism, giving him the name Varnava, in honour of his spiritual father, Elder Varnava of Gethsemane. Meanwhile, in the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent in Petrograd, Olga Muravyova received tonsure and the new name Christina.
In just six years, Varnava rose from novice and altar server to spiritual advisor of Russia's largest monastery, guiding a number of prominent hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. At his tonsure to the Great Schema, he received the name Seraphim, in honour of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the miracle-worker, whom he strove to follow throughout his days. From 1930 until his death, Father Seraphim lived in Vyritsa. There, he became known and remembered throughout Russia — the revered elder who carried out a prophetic ministry, guiding people, comforting them in their sorrows, healing their illnesses, and praying for his homeland.
Elder Seraphim of Vyritsa
He had insight into the past and future of those who came to him, predicting the patriarchates of Alexy I and Alexy II (when the latter was still a seminarian). He endured the struggles of World War II. Even in his homeland’s darkest hour, he stood as a living witness that God never abandons us. With his whole life, Elder Seraphim fulfilled the patristic teaching: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and then thousands will be saved around you.” For his tireless love for others, the Lord rewarded the Vyritsa elder with great spiritual wisdom, the gift of healing troubled souls, as well as true vision, guidance and prophecy.
Schema-nun Seraphima (formerly Olga Muravyova), Elder Seraphim’s cell attendant
The next trial on earth — illness — Father Seraphim accepted with remarkable calm and gentle patience, as if it were a new obedience from God. Doctors recommended a change of climate for his health, and with the blessing of Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), he moved to Vyritsa — a place that proved most fitting. Schema-nun Seraphima (formerly Olga Muravyova) accompanied the 63-year-old elder to Vyritsa as his cell attendant. Attending to his needs and looking after his health became her main obedience. And so, in Vyritsa, the “two seraphims” were reunited.
Following the example of his guardian angel, Father Seraphim took on a new ascetic labour. After moving to a house on Pilny Prospekt, he prayed in the garden on a stone before an icon of the Sarov Wonderworker.
In January 1941, his son, Nikolai Muravyov, was arrested and later executed. Another deep sorrow pierced his heart and soul. Yet, to his family and friends, he repeated the words that had guided him all his life: “God’s will be done…” Father Seraphim also knew about the approaching war. When it began, the elder intensified his prayers on the stone, performing them daily. He was nearing his 76th year.
Elder Seraphim in his 76th year
And the elder’s prayers reached God’s throne — Love answered love. Souls were saved, God’s mercy turned towards a suffering Russia, and the path of many major events was altered in ways hidden from human eyes.
Heartfelt prayer notes: lifting up the living and remembering the departed with love
Schema-nun Seraphima remained in obedience in Vyritsa until the end of her days. She departed to the Lord shortly before the war ended, on 17 April 1945. Inscribed on the cross above her grave was this stanza written by Elder Seraphim himself:
No wild green grass shall ever choke the people’s way,
At your hallowed grave, O cherished mother dear;
You loved all people with your heart and soul each day,
Your holy love shall never, never disappear.
In his final years, Father Seraphim was confined entirely to his bed, as his time on earth was drawing to a close. The ascetic knew the hour of his passing. The elder received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and gave his blessing for the Psalter and Gospel to be read. On 3 April 1949, around two o'clock in the morning, Father Seraphim asked for the prayers for the departure of the soul to be read. He then made the sign of the cross, said: “Lord, save and have mercy on the whole world,” and surrendered his soul to God. The Heavenly City — the celestial Jerusalem — welcomed its new citizen.
In 2000, a wooden chapel arose over St. Seraphim’s grave. Nearby lies Schema-nun Seraphima, who had served as his cell attendant. Hieroschema-monk Serafim (Muravyov) was numbered among the saints — among the venerable in the assembly of the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia — at the Archbishop’s Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000. Venerable Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!
A wooden chapel over St. Seraphim’s grave
Prepared by the team of obitel-minsk.ru
Photographs from the internet
Sources used:
1. Filimonov V.P. Life of St. Seraphim of Vyritsa. - St. Petersburg: Satis, 2000.
2. St. Seraphim of Vyra / Editor: Plusnin A.I. - Publisher: Danilovsky Blagovestnik, 2013.
3. https://vyritsamonastery.ru/hagiography
