Fr. Rafail remembers his first encounter with his spiritual father, Fr. Sophrony Sakharov at Essex Monastery in the ’60s.

Subtitles: English (YTranslations Ltd), Romanian

Fr. Rafail: “I got there one evening in August; in those days they were under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, from London… and it was the eve of the feast of St. Seraphim of Sarov.
They started the vespers, we reached the convent at night, it was a beautiful day, sunny, I find Father Symeon in the garden…

The chapel was small, set up in a room, Father Sophrony was at the altar, after that sunny day I couldn’t see anything inside, it was very dark…

On the first occasion that he, as a priest, had a little free time, he welcomed me to sit in the chair that I saw the next day was his, where he sat, under the icon of Saint Silouan.
He invited me to take part in the service, I read the six Psalms of Matins.
After the service, he invited me into the office where he worked and we started talking.”

Video source: D-Studio Production (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxRLwGtYRV4)

This video is part of the speech of Fr. Rafail Noica given at the International Colloquium “Meeting with the spiritual father”, November 13-15, 2016, Iasi, Romania.

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