Case file · Apparition / miracle
Seraphim of Sarov shines before Motovilov
Nikolay Motovilov wrote that in November 1831, in the forest near Sarov, the elder Seraphim's face became too bright to look at, like the sun, while they talked in the falling snow about 'acquiring the Holy Spirit'.
1831 CE · 54.93, 43.32 · status: account
The account
Motovilov felt warmth, sweetness and joy, though it was winter. His notes were found and published in 1903, the year Seraphim was canonised in the presence of Nicholas II; the tsar's hoped-for heir was born the next year. Sarov later became the closed nuclear city Arzamas-16.
The sceptical view
Known only from Motovilov's own manuscript, published seventy years later.