Father Seraphim Rose on "Traditionalist" groups

[George Australia]

I wouldn't be surprised if, within the next ten years, ROCOR declared him a saint.

Thank you for your personal opinion.

and provided the truth of Orthodoxy in an age where the faith was constantly under attack.

Did he really? That must be why the Orthodox Church has declared the Toll Booths to be dogma.....

He's known, for good reason, as the American apostle to Russia.

Known by whom? And how often did He visit the Land he is supposedly an Apostle to?
These guys also think tthat they are the Apostles to Russia, and are actually there: http://www.fatimafamily.org/rushrine.html
But the fact is that Russia already has it's Apostles: Sts. Kyril and Methodios, who were sent more than a thousand years before either of them.

[Pensees]

It is not a matter of my own personal opinion that Father Seraphim will someday be declared a saint. As for toll houses, all he did was provide the teaching of those who lived before him, with ample patristic evidence.
Father Seraphim's writings gave Russian Christians hope and strengthened their faith in a time of persecution from the communsit government.
http://users.sisqtel.net/williams/blessedseraphim.html

Peace.

[George Australia]

:ohvey: Do you ever bother to check your sources? Or do you just google key phrases and post the first website that comes up? Are you seriously trying to convince me that something posted on the internet by the GOC is "proof" that the majority of Orthodox Christians consider Fr. Seraphim Rose to be a Church Father and the Apostle to Russia?

[GOCTheophan]

But the fact is that Russia already has it's Apostles: Sts. Kyril and Methodios, who were sent more than a thousand years before either of them.

George Sts Kyril and Methodius did NOT go Russia but to the southern slavs a good few hundred years before Russia was converted, St Vladimir the Apostolic and St Olga are considered the enlighteners of the Russian land.

Also Matthew is right- Possibly Blessed Seraphim Rose is venerated in large portions of the "Orthodox world" though yes he is a controversial figure. The reasons people reject him is either due to his Kyprianism or his otherwise unflinching stand for uncorrupted Orthodoxy or again the sins of his youth (which were indeed grave- but didnt Christ come to save sinners?).

He stands in the line of St Paisus, St Ignati, St Theophan the Recluse, St Theophan of Poltava and Blessed Averky of Jordanville but I do not believe that he was of the same stature of those great men of God.

Theophan.

[jckstraw72]

my friend is in Russia right now and told me that Fr. Seraphim is huge over there. When they hear you're American they ask if you knew Fr. Seraphim.

[michigan]

I think anyone who has read "The Soul After Death" would agree that Fr. Seaphim never claimed that the "toll houses" were dogma, or that the metaphor should be taken literally.

Edit: I'd like to add that I have some reservations about that famous tollhouse account by...who was it? Blessed Theodora or something? But I suppose that discussion belongs on another topic... Anyway, I think the point was that we will be held accountable for all our sins, and that the demons will harass us over the sins of which we have not repented.

[Pensees]

I think anyone who has read "The Soul After Death" would agree that Fr. Seaphim never claimed that the "toll houses" were dogma, or that the metaphor should be taken literally.

Father Seraphim did believe literally that there are demons who reside in the air to tempt and torment the souls of the departed, but that "toll house" is only the best human terminology we can provide. There is a long line of patristic and liturgical texts in favor of toll houses, and anyone who would accuse Father Seraphim of being a heretic or neo-Gnostic has no sense of history.

Peace.