Background
TIKHON, Vasily was born on January 19, 1865 in Toropets, Pskov Province.
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
TIKHON, Vasily was born on January 19, 1865 in Toropets, Pskov Province.
1888 graduate Saint St. Petersburg Theological Academy.
After graduate taught at Pskov Theological Seminary. 1891 took monastic vows name Tikhon and was appointed arch-monk and inspector of Kholm Theological Seminary. Soon elevated to archimandrite and appointed rector, above seminary.
1898 consecrated Bishop of Lyublin. And vicar of Kholm Eparchy. 1899 appointed Bishop of Aleutia and Alaska.
1905 elevated to archbishop. 1907 appointed Archbishop of Yaroslavl', but shortly transferred to Vilnius Eparchy. His simplicity and sociability soon made him very popular, and upon his transfer he was made an Honorary citizen of Yaroslavl’.
1914, with the start of World War 1, he was evacuated with the relics of the Vilnius martyrs to Moscow, then settled in Disna, on the periphery of his eparchy, whence he ministered to the troops, visited the front and attended meetings of the Synod. After 1917 February Revol removed from Synod. 1917 appointed Archbishop of Moscow.
15 August 1917 All-Russian Orthodox Assembly met in Moscow, elevated him to metropolitan and elected him chairman of Assembly. 5 February 1917 elected by the Assembly Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Despite Communist terror following October Revol, he preached in defense of the faith and denounced Communist atrocities.
19 January 1918, in address to ministers of the church and the laity, termed the Bolsheviks’ bloody reprisals the work of Satan and excommunicated them from the Church. 26 October 1918, in address to Council of People's Commissar, accused Soviet regime of deceiving the public, of unprecedented terrorism and of meddling in the Church’s internal affairs When the wholesale arrest of members of the Assembly began, he rejected the idea of of emigrating, thereby dooming himself to martyrdom.
1919, after the Bolshevik regime began to persecute the Church in earnest, he forbade the clergy and laity to make any public attacks on the regime. 1921, during the Volga famine, appealed to the laity to organize famine relief and authorized for this purpose the donation of Church valuables not needed for divine service. Soviet autorities rejected this offer, coupled as it was the demand that the Church supervise the destination of the funds, and the Patriarch was accused of trying to incite public resistance to the regime.
He was proclaimed an enemy of the people and placed under house arrest. The forcible expropriation of Church valuables and various acts of blashphemy provoked widescale protests and resistance on the part of religious believers, leading to some 2,000 trials and executions and the summary liquidation of some 10,000 clergy and believers. April 1922 the Patriarch appeared as a witness in the trial of a group of clergy charged with resisting the expropriation of Church valuables and testified that he alone was to blame, since the defendants were merely fulfilling the will of their superior, sent by God.
In an effort to save the Church from the “renovationist" schism and spare arrested clergy from execution, the Patriarch made some compromises with the Soviet regime. However, this did not satisfy the Bolsheviks, who wanted a person more subservient to their orders on the Patriarchal Throne. Fall 1922 the Patriarch was arrested and incarcerated, at first in a monastery and then at Moscow Main Polit Board (Joint State Political Administration) headquarters.
Prior to his arrest the Patriarch had appointed Metropolitan Agafangel his provisional deputy. The arrest of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church triggered international protests: an appeal by Pope Pius XI to the Genoa Conference, a speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury, a protest by the French clergy and appeals by various governments. All this induced the Bolsheviks to free the Patriarch on 26 June 1923.
Upon his release the Patriarch was in a deplorable physical and spiritual state, none of his concessions had satisfied the Communist government, since he had steadfastly refused to sacrifice the Church's spiritual freedom or serve the interests of the regime, as his successors were shortly to do. 9 December 1923 his private secretary was murdered in the Patriarch’s presence. January 1925 the Patriarch’s health was so undermined by his imprisonment, constant interrogation and spiritual distress that he had to be hospitalized.