Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow

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Tikhon of Moscow (

From 1878 to 1884, Bellavin studied at the Pskov Theological Seminary. In 1888, at the age of 23, he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy as a layman. He then returned to the Pskov Seminary and became an instructor of Moral and Dogmatic Theology. In 1891, at the age of 26, he took monastic vows and was given the name Tikhon in honor of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Tikhon was consecrated Bishop of Lublin on 19 October 1897.

On 14 September 1898, he was appointed Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. He went to the United States, and eventually became a naturalized American citizen. The peripatetic bishop visited emerging Orthodox emigrant communities in various American cities, including New York City, Chicago and the coal and steel-making cities in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

While in the United States, Tikhon became aware of the country's tradition of religious diversity, as well as the growing ecumenical and Pan-Slav movements, and the needs of a wide variety of eastern and southern European immigrants. Before his arrival, in 1890, a delegation of Carpatho-Rusyns also had approached the Russian consul in San Francisco and requested a bishop, since the Latin Catholic archbishop of Minnesota, John Ireland was attempting to force their assimilation, although Byzantine Rite Catholics had previously been accorded certain dispensations from the Roman Rite practices of the Latin Church. Their Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic priest, Alexis Toth, was formally accepted into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1892. In 1900, Tikhon attended the consecration of Reginald Heber Weller as coadjutor bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, though he was not one of the consecrating bishops (all Episcopalians).^[3] More Byzantine Catholics joined the Eastern Orthodox fold, especially priests after 1907, when Pope Pius X published Ea Semper, restricting their previously recognized right to ordain married men.

In 1905, the title of archbishop was bestowed on him, and he moved his formal residence and diocesan office from San Francisco to New York.^[4] In June 1905, the new archbishop gave his blessing for the establishment of a monastery in Pennsylvania, St. Tikhon's Monastery which in the 1930s supported the founding of Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary. On September 17,  [O.S. September 4, ] 1905 The Holy Trinity Russian (Greek) Orthodox church was consecrated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on the corner of McKenzie Street and Manitoba Avenue by the new archbishop Tikhon, Head of the Russian Orthodox Mission in North America and soon to become Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Ukrainian teachers studying at the Ruthenian Training School sang at the consecration ceremony.^[5]

In 1907, Tikhon returned to Russia, having been appointed to the See of Yaroslavl. On 22 December 1913, he was transferred to the diocese of Vilno in Lithuania.

However, the

During the Russian Civil War the patriarch, like the entire Russian Church, was widely considered anti-Bolshevik and many bishops were exiled, imprisoned or even executed by the new regime. Tikhon openly condemned the murder of the tsar's family in 1918, and protested against violent attacks by the Bolsheviks on the church. In 1920, he granted autonomy to what became the Orthodox Church in America and other dioceses of the Church of Russia that were cut off from the governance of the highest church authority (i.e. the patriarch), until such time as normal relations with the highest church authority could be resumed.

In November 1921, many of the Russian bishops, who had fled Russia in 1919–1920, had gathered in Sremski Karlovci, Yugoslavia, and adopted a number of anti-Bolshevik statements; in May relations between the two bodies became irregular. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) and the Moscow Patriarchate had no formal relations until 2007.^[7]

In 1922 Russia was afflicted with mass famine. The Communist government used the situation to confiscate ecclesiastical property and to accuse the patriarch of being a saboteur. From April 1922 until June 1923 he resided under house arrest in Donskoy Monastery.^[8] His public protest against nationalization of Church property was reframed as a criminal act. This caused international resonance and several countries sent formal protest notes to the Soviet government.

Under pressure from the authorities, Tikhon issued several messages to the believers in which he stated in part that he was "no longer an enemy to the Soviet power". Textual analysis of these messages shows considerable similarity with a number of documents exchanged in the

In 1924 the patriarch fell ill and was hospitalized. On 5 April 1925, he served his last

Tikhon was

• Anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War
• Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
• Religion in the Soviet Union
• USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)
• List of American Eastern Orthodox saints

References

1. ^ A Western Rite Orthodox Martyrology, (St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church, Washington, D.C., 2015), p. 64.
2. ^ "St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral". www.ruschurchusa.org. Archived from the original on 2013-06-15.
3. ^ "Grafton Commemoration: The Famous 'Circus' Photo". Diocese of Fond du Lac. Archived from the original on 2009-08-03.
4. ^ "A lady on the keyboard, playing for a group of children".
5. ^ Martynowych, Orest T., Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox church, page 2
6. ^ "Церковныя Вѣдомости, издаваемыя при Святѣйшемъ Правительствующемъ Сѵнодѣ". 2 September 1917, № 35, p. 295.
7. ^ "The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia - Official Website".
8. ^ "Speaking to the Soul". Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2014-04-09.
9. ^ "Красный" Собор (The "Red" Council), by Matthew Sotnikov (in Russian)
10. ISBN 978-1-64065-234-7
    .
11. ^ Shevkunov, Tikhon (2012). "The Relics of Patriarch Tikhon". Everyday Saints and Other Stories (2nd ed.). Pokrov Publications.
12. ^ A Western Rite Orthodox Martyrology, (St. Gregory the Great Orthodox Church, Washington, D.C., 2015), p. 64.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tikhon of Moscow.

• Biography of St. Tikhon by the Orthodox Church in America
• Glorification of St Tikhon, the Apostle to America
• Orthodox Icon of St. Tikhon with scenes from his life
• Patriarch Tikhon's Ordeal, Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, 244–266
• Fall of Tikon article from
  Time Magazine
  , 12 May 1923. Broken link. There is no such article for May 1923.
• Saint Patriarch Tikhon – His Missionary Legacy to Orthodox America article from the periodical Orthodox America.
• On the Triumph of Orthodoxy a homily by Tikhon.
• Hieromartyr Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Detailed biography.
• Newspaper clippings about Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Eastern Orthodox Church titles
Preceded by Nicholas (Ziorov)	Archbishop of North America 1898–1907	Succeeded by Platon (Rozhdestvensky)
Preceded by Jacob (Pyatnitsky)	Archbishop of Yaroslavl 1907-1913	Succeeded by Agathangel (Preobrazhensky)
Preceded by Agathangel (Preobrazhensky)	Archbishop of Vilnius 1917	Succeeded by Eleutherius (Bogoyavlensky)
Preceded by Macarius (Nevsky)	Metropoltian of Moscow and Kolomna 1917–1925	Succeeded by himself (as a Patriarch); Sergius (Stragorodsky)
Preceded by Adrian	Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia 1917–1925	Succeeded by Peter (Polyansky) (as a locum tenens) Sergius