"There will come a time when there will be in Russia an extraordinary prosperity. Many churches and monasteries will open, even foreigners will come to us to be baptized. . ."
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By the grace of God, A. S. Igovskaya sent me her memories of him. "Father Serafim Vyritsky was of merchant rank. When came the massacre of the monks of the city of Petrov, on the night of February 18, 1932, he was already an old man in his seventies. He entered monasticism with his wife, already having one son. Husband and wife were dispersed among the monasteries under the influence and blessing of Father Barnabas of Gethsemane.
Fr. Seraphim's name in Holy Baptism was Basil, and in the tonsure he took the name Barnabas. His spouse was tonsured with the name of Christina. Father Barnabas entered the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, and his wife entered the Novodevichy monastery in the same city. Their son married and gave his daughter to the monastery under the guidance of his grandmother. This girl was of unusual beauty and wore the form of a novice in the monastery with the headdress customary in that convent.
Father Barnabas labored behind the candle box. When, after the murder of Metropolitan Benjamin, temples began to be taken away from the Lavra in order to preserve the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, they began to serve in it during the winter. The cathedral was not heated. It was terribly cold there. The candle box was located near the front door, and Fr. Barnabas caught a cold for the rest of his life: intercostal neuralgia. He could neither stand nor lie down, but only sat half-lying in an armchair. So he "sat" for 17 years.
When they came to his cell to arrest him, they could not "get" him. He was the only one who was not taken away that night from the monks. In the morning, his followers hurriedly took him to Vyritsa in a passenger car. And the authorities "forgot" about him. The priest was placed in a private dacha. In the upper floor lived two old housewives. In the lower floor - Father and Mother Christina. She was not placed under arrest, for since Fr. Barnabas had been sick and had been living in his cells and taking care of him. She was not taken away. And in Vyritsa they lived peacefully until his death. When the Germans occupied Vyritsa in early August 1941, they also did not cause the little elder any violence. In Vyritsa also fell "under the Germans" a family of dacha owners, admirers of the Elder. At that time Fr. Barnabas had long ago, since the beginning of his illness, which had confined him to an armchair, taken the monastic schema with the name of Seraphim.
The patriarch was noted for his clairvoyance and told his visitors many years in advance of their future. He knew both the date of the end of the war, and whose victory would be, and said so to many. Not everyone liked it at the time, as some expected the Germans to free them from the "captivity of Babylon". But Father knew God's will...
When Novodevichy Convent was closed, Father's granddaughter, Margarita, returned home. Her further fate is unknown, but she had been to Vyritsa before the war.
The area around Fr. Seraphim's dacha was a corner of an untouched pine forest, and on one pine tree, at Father's behest, an image of the Venerable Seraphim was arranged. This corner Father called "Sarov" and he sent visitors to pray at this pine with the image of the Saint. Father also managed to keep a wonderful image of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky with a part of his relics, which used to be in the cathedral. When the church was opened at the Theological Academy, this icon was transferred from Vyritsa to it, and afterwards, when the Lavra Trinity cathedral was opened, it was transferred there. Now it is on that elevation, where the relics of the Blessed Prince are.
Personally, Father Seraphim foretold my future 23 years before his prophetic words came true. I went to the Elder as to the sun, in the midst of the gloom of those years. There was an untouched pine forest all around; aroma, silence, no crowds; it was as if time had stopped. Father was affectionate, almost gentle and somehow surprisingly reminiscent of the Venerable Seraphim. He passed away in 1949. I was in the Yakutia camps; they wrote to me. He died on April 3, and was buried on Annunciation Day. There were so many people gathered for the burial that there were not enough trains. People would not leave the station in Petrograd, demanded extra trains, and they gave them! It was not a funeral, but a citywide great, triumphant celebration..." (December 1991).
Mother Christina (Olga Ivanovna Muravyeva, nee Naidenova) died in the Lord as the monk Seraphim in 1945. She was buried in the village of Vyritsa, near the Kazan Cathedral, where Fr. Alexei Kabardin served, famous for the fact that he baptized the royal children and was their confessor, for which he received a term, but still survived, came out. Fr. Seraphim's granddaughter, Margarita Nikolaevna, is now in her 70s.
One day a spiritual son asked the elder a question about the future of Russia, "There will come a time" - he answered - "when there will be in Russia an extraordinary prosperity. Many churches and monasteries will open, even foreigners will come to us to be baptized. But it won't be for long, about 15 years, then the Antichrist will come."
Source: 3rm.info (Russian)