St. Tikhon of Moscow

St. Tikhon of Moscow was born Vasily Bellavin on 19 January 1865 in the Russian province of Pskov, the son of a priest. A gentle and much-loved bishop, he served for a time in the United States, where he organized and strengthened the Orthodox Church in America, before returning to Russia. In 1917, as the empire collapsed, he was chosen by lot to be Patriarch of Moscow, the first to hold that restored office in more than two centuries.

He was thrust at once into the storm of the Bolshevik Revolution and the fierce persecution of the Church that followed. With great courage he denounced the violence and the seizure of church property and defended the faith against the atheist regime and the schismatics it fostered, for which he was slandered, harassed, and placed under arrest. Worn down by suffering and constant pressure, he died on 7 April 1925, his death widely believed to have been hastened by his persecutors. Glorified as a confessor in 1989, he is honored as a steadfast shepherd in a time of martyrdom.