 Serapion came from the Muscovite village of Pekhorka (now Pekhra-Pokrovskoye within Balashikha in Moscow Oblast).He took monastic vows in the Dubensk Dormition monastery, where he went on to become hegumen.He was subsequently hegumen of the Stromyn Dormition monastery (both cloisters were liquidated in the 18th century), and then became hegumen of the Trinity monastery (now Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra) in 1493.