Metropolitan Serafim was born on September 4, 1948, in Boholt/Brasov. He graduated from the Sibiu Theological Institute in 1974 and later studied in the St. Sergius Institute in Paris. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1974. He received his doctorate from the St. Sergius Institute in Paris in 1985. He was tonsured a monk on February 17, 1990. He was consecrated Bishop of Fagaras, Vicar of the Diocese of Sibiu, on March 11, 1990. He was elevated to Metropolitan of Germany in 1994.