Seraphim of Sarov
July 19, 1754 — January 2, 1833 · Feast day: January 2
Seraphim of Sarov spent twenty-five years as a hermit in the Russian forest, most famously praying on a granite rock for 1,000 successive nights with arms raised to heaven. When robbers beat him nearly to death with his own axe, he pleaded for their mercy at trial. He died in 1833 kneeling before an icon of the Mother of God — a life that ended exactly as it was lived.