Seraphim of Sarov
Bishop Pankratius (Zherdev), the abbot of Valaam monastery, says in an interview about monastic life that both extremes are dangerous: excessive zeal and carelessness. The latter it is a delusion too and it predominates now. In the state of carelessness, a monk is deceived thinking that he still conducts monastic life while in fact, according to the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, he is just a black firebrand. Though he wears black clothes, he differs from a layman only in that he does not have a wife.