Seraphim of Domvou
Our Venerable Father Seraphim, who struggled at Domvou in Boeotia
Venerable · Priest · b. 1527, at Zeli (Zelitsa) in Boeotia — d. 6 May 1602, at Domvou on Helicon
Commemorated 6 May — Repose at the monastery he founded at Domvou; his head and relics kept there
Seraphim, in the world Sotiris, was born in 1527 in a village of Boeotia and gave his whole life to the monasteries of central Greece under Ottoman rule: first the house of the Prophet Elias on Mount Karkaras, then the Holy Unmercenaries, then the great monastery of the Transfiguration on Mount Sagmata near Thebes, where he was tonsured and ordained deacon and priest. In his last years he withdrew to the wild western slopes of Helicon, to the place called Domvou, built a church of the Saviour and a few cells, and gathered a brotherhood which he taught for ten years. He reposed on 6 May 1602, aged seventy-five, on the feast of Mid-Pentecost. His head and a portion of his relics are venerated at the monastery that bears his name in Boeotia, and further relics at the Agathonos monastery in Phthiotis.
Boeotia under the Turk
Seraphim's life falls entirely within the long century of Ottoman consolidation in central Greece, between the fall of the last Frankish and Venetian holdings and the Cretan wars — a period in which the monasteries of Boeotia, Phocis and Phthiotis functioned as the only stable Greek institutions in the countryside, keeping the liturgy, the letters and the memory of the people. He was born in 1527 in the village of Zeli (Zelitsa) in Boeotia, of pious parents, and was called Sotiris — "saviour," a name he would in effect keep, since every foundation of his life was dedicated to the Saviour's Transfiguration.
The monasteries of his formation
He left the world young. The tradition traces his monastic course through three houses: the monastery of the Prophet Elias on Mount Karkaras; then the monastery of the Holy Unmercenaries (Cosmas and Damian); and finally the monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour on Mount Sagmata above the Theban plain, one of the historic houses of Boeotia. At Sagmata he was tonsured with the name Seraphim, and there, on account of his manner of life, he was ordained deacon and then priest. The order of the sources' account — a progression from lesser to greater and more disciplined communities, then a withdrawal from all of them — is the classic Athonite-influenced pattern of the period: obedience in a coenobium first, solitude only afterwards, and solitude that ends by becoming a coenobium again.
Domvou
Seeking stillness, he went to a rough and waterless place on the western slopes of Helicon called Domvou (Δομβοῦ, Δομβός), high above the gulf of Corinth in the territory of the modern villages of Prodromos and Kyriaki. There he cleared a site, built a church of the Saviour with a few cells beside it, and lived in ascetic labour. Disciples followed; he received them, and for about ten years he governed and taught them, ending his life as the abbot and founder of a community rather than as a hermit. The monastery of the Transfiguration at Domvou — the Monastery of Osios Seraphim — dates its foundation from these years, the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century; it stands at some 600 metres on the Helicon massif and remains one of the more inaccessible working monasteries of central Greece, under the metropolis of Thebes and Levadeia, from which the saint is also styled "of Levadeia."
Repose and relics
He reposed on 6 May 1602, at the age of seventy-five, on the feast of Mid-Pentecost — the tradition preserves even the hour, the sixth of the afternoon. His head and a portion of his relics are kept in the monastery he founded, and are the centre of the local veneration; further relics are honoured at the monastery of Agathonos in Phthiotis, in the Oiti mountains above Ypati, a diffusion typical of the mainland Greek shrines. The relics are credited with healings, and pilgrims from Boeotia, Phocis and Phthiotis keep his day; his veneration was never formally decreed but grew from the shrine, as with most of the Greek saints of the Turkish period, and passed thence into the modern Greek synaxaria and, through them, into the calendars of the other Orthodox Churches.
Feast and commemoration
May 6 (church date; New Calendar civil May 6, Old Calendar civil May 19). The commemoration is Greek and local, kept above all in Boeotia and Phthiotis and in the metropolis of Thebes and Levadeia, with the vigil served at the monastery of Domvou over his head and relics. It is not in the Antiochian or Slavic printed books, though the modern Greek synaxaria and the OCA's calendar list it. The coincidence with Mid-Pentecost on which he died is a movable feast and falls on May 6 only in some years; the fixed commemoration is unaffected by it, but the local tradition makes much of the coincidence in the year of his repose.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
In thee, O Father, the image of God was preserved unbroken; for taking up the Cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou hast taught us to despise the flesh, which passeth away, and to care for the soul, which is immortal. Therefore, O venerable Seraphim, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Seraphim is painted as a Greek monastic priest of the late sixteenth century: an elder in the black rason, analavos and koukoulion, with a long grey beard, the right hand raised in blessing or holding a scroll, the left holding a cross or an open book. Because he was a priest, the epitrachelion may be shown; because he was a founder, the more elaborate icons place a model of the monastery church of the Transfiguration in his hands or at his feet, with the mass of Helicon behind, and the scene of his repose or of the translation of his head may appear in border panels. No pre-1900 image of him has been located: the monastery's iconography, and the reliquary of the head, belong to later restorations, and every candidate image found in the accessible collections is a modern work under copyright. The entry is therefore recorded for a future icon search.
Disputed questions
The name of the place. The toponym appears as Δομβοῦ, Δομβός, Δομβούς and in Latin transliterations as Dombos, Dombou and Domvou; English translations of the Greek synaxaria also render the saint "of Labodeia," a corruption of Levadeia (Λεβάδεια), the nearest city and the seat of the metropolis. All refer to the same mountain site on Helicon.
The mountains of his formation. "Mount Karkaras" is not a name in current use and has not been securely identified; Sagmata (Sagmation), by contrast, is the well-known Boeotian monastery of the Transfiguration on Mount Ypatos near Thebes. The account of the three houses comes from the Greek synaxarion tradition and is not independently documented.
Not to be confused with the many other saints named Seraphim — above all Seraphim of Sarov (†1833, January 2 and July 19), and the new-martyr Seraphim of Phanarion (†1601, December 4), a contemporary of this saint in neighbouring Thessaly with whom he is occasionally confused in lists.