Wednesday, March 25

Modern · 1865 – 1925

St Tikhon of Moscow

Patriarch of Moscow, confessor under persecution

Vasily Belavin was a gentle, humble churchman whom responsibility kept finding. As a young bishop in North America (1898–1907) he reorganized the diocese, founded parishes and a seminary, and envisioned an American Orthodoxy embracing many nations. In November 1917, days after the Bolshevik seizure of power, the All-Russian Council restored the patriarchate abolished by Peter the Great — and of three candidates, the lot drawn before the icon of the Mother of God fell to Tikhon. His seven years as patriarch were a slow martyrdom: he anathematized those shedding innocent blood, resisted the state-sponsored seizure of church valuables and the schismatic 'Renovationist' takeover, endured arrest and house arrest, and bore vicious pressure with unbroken meekness, refusing to flee abroad. 'Let my name perish in history, if only the Church may benefit,' he said. He died in April 1925 under unclear circumstances and was canonized in 1989, first of the new confessors of Russia.

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