Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (in the world Vasily), was born on 19 January 1865 in the Toropets district of the Pskov province, into the family of a priest, John Bellavin.

After finishing the Pskov theological seminary, the saint studied in St Petersburg, at the theological academy. With the rank of archimandrite the blessed one was appointed rector of the Kholm theological seminary. From 1898 he was a bishop. The holy father laboured greatly to strengthen the Orthodox faith in America, where to this day he is called the apostle of Orthodoxy. The hierarch Tikhon was raised to the rank of archbishop in 1905, and was appointed to the see of Yaroslavl from 1907 and to that of Lithuania (Vilna) from 1913. From 1917 the saint was Archbishop of Moscow and Kolomna (from August, Metropolitan). On 5 November 1917, at the Local Council of All Russia, which restored the patriarchate, Saint Tikhon was elected primate of the Russian Church. His enthronement took place in the Dormition cathedral of the Kremlin on 21 November. The blessed Tikhon was a wonderfully gentle, kind and warm-hearted man, but in church affairs, and especially in defending the Church against the violence of her enemies, he showed unshakeable firmness. In the years of the Church’s destruction, of schism, and of the persecution and slaughter of the servants of Christ, he was able to preserve the purity of Orthodoxy.

In August 1921, when famine was raging in the Volga region, the Patriarch blessed the faithful to collect valuable objects that had no liturgical use to help the starving. In response to this appeal, in February 1922 the Soviet authorities decreed that all church valuables be removed from the churches. The blessed Tikhon raised his voice against such violence, which was judged to be sabotage, and the primate of the Church was arrested. From April 1922 to June 1923 the chief shepherd was held in custody. After his release, on 26 June 1923, he returned to the patriarchal throne.

Patriarch Tikhon died suddenly on the night of 6–7 April 1925, at midnight, in the hospital on Ostozhenka. On 26 September 1989 he was numbered among the saints, and on 19 February 1992 his incorrupt relics were brought up.