Hieromonk Seraphim Rose (born Eugene Dennis Rose, August 13, 1934 – September 2, 1982), also known as Seraphim of Platina, was an American Orthodox priest-monk of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). He co-founded the Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California, and through his writings and translations helped introduce traditional Orthodoxy to the English-speaking world.
Born in San Diego, California, into a Protestant family, he was baptized Methodist at age 14. In his adolescence he rejected Christianity, became a nihilist atheist, and was deeply influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche while searching for the meaning of life. After graduating from San Diego High School, he attended Pomona College, where he studied Western and Chinese philosophy and graduated magna cum laude in 1956. Finding no lasting truth in rational Western thought, which he saw as based only on reason and lacking life, he turned to Eastern traditions.
He studied under Alan Watts, the popularizer of Zen Buddhism, at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. In one memorable demonstration, Watts declared that the secret of life is to stop thinking about it and simply experience it—this is Zen—and poured a glass of water onto the stage. Eugene later recalled the moment as “very dramatic.” Watts initially convinced him to leave Western philosophy for what seemed an ascetic, vital Eastern path. Eugene immersed himself in Zen, Hinduism, and Chinese philosophy, learning Sanskrit and Chinese to read the sources in the original. He later concluded that Watts was not a true bearer of Zen but had merely “caught the right wavelength,” combining fragments of truth with his own opinions into a system that ultimately harmed souls, including his own.
He found a more authentic teacher in Gi-ming Shien (also rendered Ji Ming Shen), a professor of Chinese philosophy and genuine disciple of the pre-revolutionary Chinese sages. Eugene was also influenced by the Traditionalist philosopher René Guénon, who urged seekers to look for truth in living ancient traditions. He completed a master’s degree in Oriental languages at the University of California, Berkeley (1961), with a thesis on “‘Emptiness’ and ‘Fullness’ in the Lao Tzu.”
His conversion to Orthodoxy began through his Finnish-born friend Jon Gregerson, who introduced him to the faith and recommended the Philokalia—the classic compilation of writings by Orthodox ascetics on the purification of the heart, constant vigilance, prayer, remembrance of God and death, and the path to deification (communion with God through His energies, becoming “gods by grace”). Gregerson took him to a Russian Orthodox church in San Francisco for an evening service. Though Eugene understood none of the Slavonic, an inner voice told him, “Here is your home; your search is over.” He later described the experience: something happened that he had never felt in any Buddhist or other Eastern temple—his heart recognized that all his searching was finished.
He deepened his study under mentors including St. John Maximovitch (the Wonderworker, Archbishop of San Francisco, +1966), Archbishop Averky Taushev, Ivan Kontsevich, and others. Received into the Church by chrismation in February 1962 (Sunday of the Prodigal Son), he and fellow convert Gleb Podmoshensky (later Fr. Herman) formed the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood with the blessing of St. John. In March 1964 they opened an Orthodox bookstore next to the Holy Virgin Cathedral on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. In 1965, using a hand-cranked press, they began publishing the bimonthly journal The Orthodox Word and established St. Herman Press, which continues today.
Seeking a more complete monastic life after St. John’s repose, they acquired remote mountain land near Platina in northern California (with help from Eugene’s parents). They moved there in 1969 and lived in extreme austerity—no running water or electricity, simple cabins, hauling water, cooking outdoors. On October 27, 1970, they were tonsured: Eugene received the name Seraphim (after St. Seraphim of Sarov) and Gleb the name Herman (after St. Herman of Alaska). Seraphim was later ordained hierodeacon and then hieromonk. The community became the Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery, which still exists and continues its publishing and missionary work.
Fr. Seraphim wrote and translated extensively, making the Holy Fathers and traditional Orthodoxy accessible in English. Notable works include Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, The Soul After Death, God’s Revelation to the Human Heart, and Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age. He reposed on September 2, 1982, at age 48, after a brief but agonizing illness (intestinal blockage from a blood clot) at a hospital in Redding, California. Witnesses reported that his unembalmed body remained supple and emitted a fragrance of roses. He is widely venerated as a saint in many Orthodox circles (with local glorification in some places and formal processes underway in others), and the monastery remains a place of pilgrimage.
You can read his full biography and all his works here:
https://orthodoxyforall.blogspot.com/2025/12/life-and-works-of-st-seraphim-rose-1982.html