{"id":142778,"date":"2026-03-21T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142778"},"modified":"2025-11-24T15:41:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:41:47","slug":"st-serapion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-serapion\/","title":{"rendered":"St Serapion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dear Thomas,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You ask me for a simple holiness formula. \u00a0You say you are tired of reading so many books and articles about all the virtues and the sacraments and the devotions and the disciplines\u2026 \u201cSick and tired of complications,\u201d so you say, \u201cgive me the gospel pure and simple.\u201d \u00a0Well, it\u2019s funny you asked me today, because today\u2019s saint has just the ticket.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was a scholar who headed up the famous Catechetical School in Alexandria, Egypt before heading into the desert to serve God in silence and simplicity. \u00a0There he met and followed St Anthony, and he also met St Athanasius. He couldn\u2019t hide his fame for long, and the more he tried, the more it grew, until he was installed as bishop in the city of Thmuis. \u00a0There he put his holiness and scholarship to work defending the true faith against the influential and widespread heresies of the time (Arianism, Macedonianism, Manicheanism\u2026). Most of his writings are lost, but St Socrates recorded his summary of Christian perfection, which, I think, fits the description of what you were looking for. It pithily describes how to rid oneself of selfishness so that God can have free rein to make us into the saints he wants us to be. \u00a0It goes like this (though the English version sounds a bit clumsy):<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mind is purified by meditation and prayer,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The spiritual passions of the soul [pride, envy, arrogance, etc.] by charity [i.e. love of God and neighbor],<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the irregular appetites [gluttony, sloth, lust, etc.] by abstinence and penance.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">St Serapion used to repeat this to himself often. \u00a0It seemed to work for him; maybe it will do the same for you \u2013 if you have the courage to live it out. \u00a0Keep me posted.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your affectionate uncle, Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Thomas, You ask me for a simple holiness formula. \u00a0You say you are tired of reading so many books and articles about all the virtues and the sacraments and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - 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