Patriarch Tikhon
| Saint Tikhon, 11th Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia | |
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Saint Tikhon of Moscow
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| Confessor, Patriarch of Moscow, Apostle to America | |
| Born |
31 January 1865 Klin (Toropets district, Pskov Province), Russian Empire |
| Died | 7 April 1925 (aged 60) Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodoxy, Episcopal Church (USA) |
| Canonized |
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| Major shrine | Donskoy Monastery, Moscow |
| Feast |
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Saint Tikhon of Moscow (Russian: Тихон, 31 January [O.S. 19 January] 1865 – 7 April [O.S. 25 March] 1925), born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin (Russian: Василий Иванович Беллавин), was the 11th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia of the Russian Orthodox Church during the early years of the Soviet Union, 1917 through 1925.
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, Bishop Tikhon was made Bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska. He thus traveled 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.
As head of the Russian Orthodox Church in America in 1900, Bishop Tikhon reorganized the diocese and changed its name from "Diocese of the Aleutians and Alaska" to "Diocese of the Aleutians and North America". He had two vicar bishops in the United States: Bishop Innocent (Pustynsky) in Alaska, and St. Raphael (Hawaweeny) in Brooklyn. On 22 May 1901, he blessed the cornerstone for St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City (fundraising for which had begun in 1894 and to which Tsar Nicholas II contributed 5,000 in 1900) in a great ceremony attended by New York Mayor Seth Low, Russian diplomats and sailors, and enthusiastic worshippers. He celebrated the first liturgy in the new building's basement on July 20, 1902, and in the main hall on November 10, 1902. Bishop Tikhon was also involved in building other churches in North America, and establishing a dialog with Greek Orthodox churches in America. On 9 November 1902, he consecrated the church of St. Nicholas in Brooklyn for Syrian Antiochian Orthodox immigrants.
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