Who was Saint Tikhon of Moscow?
Saint Tikhon was born Vasily Ivanovich Belavin on 31 January 1865 (19 January in the Old Style calendar), the son of a village priest near Toropets in the Pskov region. He studied at the seminary in Pskov and at the theological academy in Saint Petersburg, took monastic vows in 1891 with the name Tikhon, and became a teacher and rector before being consecrated Bishop of Lublin in October 1897.
His fame rests on three things: his service as a missionary bishop in North America, his election as the first Patriarch of Moscow after two centuries, and his patient defence of the Church under the Bolsheviks. In Orthodox liturgical texts he is called a confessor, a title given to those who suffered for the faith and did not renounce it, whether or not they were killed. He is among the saints discussed in what makes a saint in Orthodoxy. He was a shepherd in the manner of Christ's words about the good shepherd (John 10:11 listen in the Audio Bible), and Paul's charge to the elders of Ephesus to care for the flock (Acts 20:28 listen in the Audio Bible).
The Church today remembers him as a gentle, unpretentious pastor, with a reputation for modesty, and for kindness to ordinary people. It is a useful reminder that holiness in the Orthodox tradition is not always loud: it can look like a man who simply keeps his post when it has become dangerous.
What did Tikhon do as a bishop in America?
In 1898 Tikhon was appointed Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, and he served in North America until 1907, becoming Archbishop in 1905. At the time the Russian mission, which had begun in Alaska in the eighteenth century, was spreading across the continent, among Native Alaskans, Russian immigrants, and Orthodox Christians from the Arab world, the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
He moved his residence from San Francisco to New York in 1905, travelled widely to visit scattered communities, and supported parishes that were being founded in the new cities. He consecrated Raphael Hawaweeny in 1904 as bishop for the Syrian (Arab) Orthodox in Brooklyn, widely regarded as the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in North America, and he is associated with the founding of Saint Tikhon's Monastery in Pennsylvania in 1905.
For these reasons the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) honours him as the Enlightener of North America, and the OCA, which received its autocephaly from the Russian Church in 1970, regards him as its patron. In 1907 he returned to Russia as Archbishop of Yaroslavl. In 1913 he was transferred to Vilnius, in what is today Lithuania. You can read about the broader life of the Church in apostolic succession explained.
How did he become Patriarch of Moscow in 1917?
In 1917, the year of the revolutions, Tikhon was elected Archbishop of Moscow in June, and raised to the rank of Metropolitan in August. The same year the All-Russian Church Council met in Moscow, the first in over two hundred years, to reorder the Church's life. One of its decisions was to restore the patriarchate, which had been abolished by Peter the Great in 1721 and replaced by a synod.
The Council chose three candidates, and in early November 1917 (5 November in the Old Style, 18 November in the new) the name of Tikhon was drawn by lot, after prayer, from among them. By the account of those present, he accepted with reluctance and without any sign of triumph. He was enthroned shortly afterwards in the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral.
He took up the office at the worst possible time. Only days earlier the Bolsheviks had seized power in Petrograd, and Moscow itself had seen fighting. Within weeks, the new government began to remove the Church's legal status, property and schools. The task of the patriarch was to protect the Church's life while avoiding violence, and to act as a father to a people in turmoil.
How did he respond to persecution and the Soviet state?
In early 1918 the new government issued a decree separating Church and state and nationalising Church property. Tikhon issued an appeal condemning violence and the seizure of Church property; it is often remembered as an anathema against the persecutors, though historians debate its exact wording and intent. In the same year he publicly condemned the killing of the imperial family. For the rest of his life he tried to hold two lines at once: to refuse what would harm the Church, and to avoid political action that could be used as a pretext for further destruction.
In 1921-22 a terrible famine struck the Volga region. Tikhon appealed for help and allowed the Church to give some of its goods to relieve it, but objected when the authorities demanded that all consecrated vessels be seized by force. In 1922 the Soviet authorities placed him under arrest, and he was confined at Donskoy Monastery until June 1923. At the same time the state backed the so-called Living Church, a group of clergy that tried to take control of the Church's administration.
In June 1923, shortly after his release, he issued a statement declaring that he was no longer an enemy of Soviet power. Historians and believers have argued ever since about this: some see it as a compromise made under pressure to keep parishes open, others as a painful concession. Many of the faithful at that time and since understood it as the act of a shepherd who put his flock first. This history is told more fully in the Orthodox Church under Soviet rule.
How did he die, and why is he called a confessor?
Tikhon died in Moscow on 7 April 1925 (25 March in the Old Style, the Feast of the Annunciation), after serving the Liturgy two days before. He was buried on 12 April 1925 in the small cathedral at Donskoy Monastery.
A confessor, in Orthodox usage, is someone who confessed Christ before persecutors and endured suffering for it, but was not put to death on account of it. Tikhon's confession was not a single dramatic act but a long fidelity under pressure: remaining at his post, praying for his flock and refusing to abandon them. The Lord had said, "the one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22 listen in the Audio Bible).
Saint Paul, near the end of his life, wrote, "I have fought the good fight" (2 Timothy 4:7 listen in the Audio Bible). And the Lord's message to the church at Smyrna was, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10 listen in the Audio Bible). Many Orthodox Christians read these verses in the light of Tikhon's life, as well as those of the many new martyrs and confessors of Russia.
When was he canonised?
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia glorified Patriarch Tikhon in 1981 in New York, and the Moscow Patriarchate did so on 9 October 1989 (26 September in the Old Style). He is commemorated by the Church on 7 April, the day of his repose; in the OCA he is also remembered on that date.
The glorification took place while the Soviet Union still existed, and it was a sign that the Church was once again able to speak of its own history. In Orthodox practice, the Church does not 'make' a saint; it recognises and confirms what God has already done in a life. This is explained at greater length in what makes a saint in Orthodoxy.
You can check which saints are commemorated on a given day on the church calendar.
How were his relics found in 1992?
After his burial, Tikhon's grave remained in the small cathedral at Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, but the monastery had been closed and its buildings used for other purposes. When the cathedral was being repaired after a fire in the early 1990s, workers removed a heating pipe, and the grave beneath the floor came to light. The relics were opened on Saturday, 22 February 1992, in the presence of Patriarch Alexy II and clergy.
According to the Orthodox Church in America's account, the grave vault contained a coffin with an identifying plaque, and the mantle covering the body was found intact, with its gold embroidered emblems. The relics were later transferred into the monastery's main cathedral, where they are venerated. The Church's teaching on relics is discussed in why Orthodox Christians venerate relics, and it should be said that the Church treats the finding as a historical event and a source of prayer, not as a proof of anything.
Saint Tikhon's relics at Donskoy remain a place of pilgrimage, and many Russian Orthodox Christians visit them when they travel to Moscow. In Singapore we can remember him in prayer on 7 April, listen to the Gospel at the Audio Bible, and join the services on the liturgy page. He teaches us that faithfulness is mostly ordinary, and that it can be enough.
