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==Early life==
Born to Frank and Esther Rose in San Diegoin 1934, Eugene was raised in California, where he would remain his entire life. He was baptized in the Methodist faith at fourteen years old, but later became an atheist, losing all belief in God. Rated at genius level in high school in formal IQ testing, in San Francisco he entered a beatnik phase in his life and practiced Buddhism.
In the summer of 1955, between his junior and senior years at college, Eugene met Finnish-born Jon Gregerson, through whom he came into initial contact with the Orthodox faith. Eugene came out as [[homosexuality|homosexual]] to a close friend from college after his mother discovered letters penned between her son and Walter Pomeroy, a friend from high school. Eugene later shed his identity as a gay man as he slowly accepted Orthodoxy, eventually ending his lengthy relationship with Gregerson.[http://www.pomona.edu/Magazine/PCMSP01/saint.shtml]
==Orthodoxy==
While studying under Alan Watts at the American Academy of Asian Studies after graduating from Pomona College in 1956, Eugene discovered the writings of René Guenon. Through Guenon's writings, Eugene was inspired to seek out an authentic, grounded spiritual faith tradition. Gregerson, a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian at the time, introduced Eugene to Orthodoxy. Just as Gregerson was choosing to abandon his Orthodoxy, Eugene was inspired to learn more about the faith. This culminated in Eugene's decision to enter the Church , being received through [[chrismation]] in 1962.
Eugene and another Orthodox Christian, [[Herman Podmoshensky|Gleb Podmoshensky]], later formed a community of Orthodox [[booksellers]] and [[Magazines and Publications|publishers]] called the [[St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood (Platina, California)|St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood]]. The community eventually decided to flee urban modernity into the wilderness of northern California to become [[monasticism|monks]] in 1966. At his [[tonsure]] in 1970, Eugene took the name "Seraphim" after St. Seraphim of Sarov.
Following his [[ordination]] as [[hieromonk]], Fr. Seraphim began writing several books, including ''[[God's Revelation to the Human Heart]]'', ''[[Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future]]'', and ''[[The Soul After Death]]''. One of his best known books, ''[[God's Revelation to the Human Heart]]'', was originally given as a lecture to a religious studies class at UC-Santa Cruz in 1981, and published in book form after his repose. He also founded the magazine ''The Orthodox Word'', still published today by the Brotherhood. The collective body of work that Fr. Seraphim published was quickly proliferated throughout America upon Fr. Seraphim's death and later in Russia and Eastern Europe upon the fall of atheist Communism in those countries, though typewritten copies of some of his books had been distributed underground for many years prior.
As a monklayman in San Francisco, the future Fr. Seraphim developed a close relationship with his spiritual father and mentor, St. [[John Maximovitch]](+1966), then [[bishopArchbishop]] of San Francisco for the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia|Russian Church Abroad]].
==Teachings==
Throughout his life, Fr. Seraphim stressed an "Orthodoxy of the heart," which he felt was absent in much of the ecclesiastical life in America.
One of his more controversial books is ''[[The Soul After Death]]'', which includes the promulgation esoteric teaching which had been passed on to Fr. Seraphim from Saint John of the so-called [[Aerial Toll-Houses]] doctrine , regarding the soul's journey after its departure from the body. This teaching has drawn much criticism from others some within the Orthodox Church, who describe it as [[gnosticism|gnostic]]. Fr. Michael Azkoul has written a book, ''The Toll-House Myth: The Neo-Gnosticism of Fr. Seraphim Rose'', criticizing the teaching, while Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Monastery, Mount Athos, and St. Anthony's Monastery, Florence, AZ, has upheld the teaching as Orthodox in his ''Counsels from the Holy Mountain''.
[[Image:Father Seraphim (Rose).jpg|left|thumb|200px|Picture of Father Seraphim Rose on Mount Yolla Bolly ([[October 11|Oct. 11]], 1981), holding an [[Icon]] of the [[Holy Trinity]].]]
