View source for Serapion of Vladimir

Blessed '''Serapion of Vladimir''' (d. 1275) was a [[Diocese of Vladimir and Suzdal|bishop of Vladimir]]. 
He was [[Archimandrite]] of the [[Kiev]] [[Kiev Pechersk Lavra|Monastery of the Caves]] from 1247 until 1274, and was bishop of the diocese of Vladimir, Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod from 1274 until his death the following year.
The territory of the diocese at the time consisted of the [[Grand Duchy of Vladimir]] and the principalities of [[Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Gorodets]], [[Kostroma]], [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Moscow]], [[Pereslavl-Zalessky|Pereslavl]], [[Starodub-on-the-Klyazma|Starodub]], [[Suzdal]], [[Nizhny Novgorod]] and [[Yuryev-Polsky (town)|Yuriev]].

Five sermons by Serapion have been preserved. His main theme is the disaster of the [[Mongol invasion of Rus|Mongol invasion]], seen as divine punishment for Russia because if its people's sins. 
Four of the sermons appear to have been written in 1274/5, when he was bishop. The fifth is presumably older, and was most likely written shortly after   the [[Siege of Kiev (1240)|destruction of Kiev]] in 1240.
In one of his late sermons, he denounces the [[witch-hunt|persecution of witches]].<ref>
"Witches were executed at Novgorod in 1227, and after a severe famine in the years 1271-4 Bishop Serapion of Vladimir asked in a sermon: 'you believe in witchcraft and burn innocent people and bring down murder upon earth and the city... Out of what books or writings do you learn that famine in earth is brought about by witchcraft?'", Behringer, "Witches and Witch-hunts: a Global History", p. 56 (2004). Wiley-Blackwell.</ref>

He is commemorated on [[July 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)|12 July]] (25 July [[Old Style and New Style dates|N. S.]]).

==References==
{{reflist}}
*"Serapion of Vladimir" in ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]]'' (1991)
*"Serapion of Vladimir (1275)" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages''  (2010) 

==External links==
*[http://www.rusliterature.org/the-works-of-serapion-of-vladimir/ History of Russian Literature]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1275 deaths]]
[[Category:Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church]]