Patriarch Tikhon / Vasily Bellavin /

(19.01.1865 - 25.03.1925)
Tikhon was standing at the altar of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin on Nov. 21, 1917. At high place - one. Nearby were Metropolitans Vladimir and Plato, just dressed him in magnificent old clothes predecessors. For open Holy Doors agitated sea of people. All with candles in their hands, as at Easter.
And yet he was one. And before him stood his cross - so small in appearance - the white cowl of the Patriarch. Hood waited for his head. The people at the bottom waiting for a miracle - the resurrection of Russia, the disappearance of the Bolsheviks, like a bad dream ... What can he sdelatN "Lord, let me blowjob cup". But no, too late. He looked sideways - on the east wall of the main cathedral Russia rose the crucifixion. Christ's hands were cut off by a shell ...
It will be a 11-m by the Patriarch of Russia's history and the first since the 200-year hiatus. That he felt this momentN Perhaps remembering childhood: Charming, cozy Toropets soup, jackdaws on a golden cross, a cheerful hubbub of the bazaar, through which he had little Vasya - son of the priest John Bellavina, runs a religious school. Students playfully swinging a censer in front of Basil improvised, exclaimed: "Your Holiness Many Years!", And in the seminary of his right called the "patriarch". St. Petersburg Theological Academy, the teaching of theology and French in the Pskov Seminary, the first sermon, and now - vows as a monk under the name Tikhon ... Mighty bass Archdeacon Rozova boomed triumphantly: "Divine grace, feeble vrachuyuschi ... posazhdaet on the throne of the Primate of Russian saints Peter, Alexis, Jonah, Philip, and Hermogenes ... our father Tikhon, the Holy Patriarch of the great city of Moscow and All Russia ... "Aksios! Aksios! Aksios "(Greek. Worthy!) - Loudly answered the chorus.
The good-natured Tikhon, who became bishop of Lublin, served in the land of Chelm, softening people's attitudes multinational region. Look for the full economic mess in one of privislenskih monasteries headed by the Countess-prioress, he said this, Archbishop. Mother Superior was so angry at the young bishop, rushed to St. Petersburg to influential friends. Synod, as usual, decided all "hush up" and sent Tikhon away - Bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska. He well remembered that the steamer "Champagne" that brought him back in 1898 from Le Havre to New York, met at the port and the first speech in which he appealed to the U.S. flock. Wild forests, cool rivers. Lord of floats from the natives in a fragile canoe in deaf poor settlement of the Aleutians is the canoe on their shoulders through the swamps, sleeping on the ground, fighting with mosquitoes. He was the only one among the companions who never became ill during these trips ... In big cities it serves in Church Slavonic and English, laying the stones for the new cathedrals ... At 1907 m it is transferred back to Russia - Yaroslavl on Department. Orthodox Americans are crying, saying goodbye to your good shepherd ...
... Ritual enthronement stretches painfully long. Candles in the hands of people seem to be a reflection Tikhon flames priugotovlennogo Russia. He saw how it all began: the raging anger and lies in the newspapers, the general wave of brutality and corruption, gradually marsh Rus ... Prophecies Father John of Kronstadt ... He's not heard in the palaces! He did not want to hear, and many bishops, steeped in selfishness - "teplohladnye" ... How far removed from other shepherds of the flock, as is often behaved unworthily! Hospitals of war: mutilated people, pus dressings, and nearby, just behind the wall, far from good merchants fed on cabs, arrogant gentlemen ... The generals and courtiers had betrayed the King, the Church remained silent ... But for all this must necessarily happen was retribution! At the church council in August, disputes arose about the patriarchate. They said: Synod, created by Peter, was one of the cogs of state and the patriarch was once able to speak on equal terms and to argue with the sovereigns, they were the second sovereigns, the conscience of the people. Now there is no king, so let the people be the Patriarch! Many objected: "contrary to the communality, reminisced about Nikon, abused patriarchal authority, could split, the persecution ... And yet decided - to be the Patriarch. Hieromonk Alexis - hermit, unaccustomed to the earth - after the prayer service in the Church of Christ of the three pieces of paper stretched out his name ... But why onN Archbishop - Antony, Arseny - they deserve ... What will now
If Tikhon through the haze of candles and incense smoke could look in the near future, it would probably shudder. ... Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, robberies, arrests, hunger, hostages scandal of Brest-Litovsk, "Decree on Freedom of Conscience", once known as the decree on freedom of conscience, "blasphemy, to the opening of the relics ... And on the other end: the dust on the steppes - the horse, epaulets - White movement comes from the Don to release Russia from the "Council of Deputies". Discounted eyes and ... gallows, ditches with corpses. In churches all over Russia read a message from Patriarch Tikhon anafematstvovaniem Bolshevik Atheists. At the same time, to visit him envoys from Denikin to bless white. No blessing: "The Bolsheviks - punishment and test Russia. Sword they do not win - only the Russian blood is spilled in vain ". In response to the sacrilege and robbery of churches in cities across the country gathered thousands of processions. Against believers authority expose armored cars and machine guns - killed no one thinks ... Soon appear and the first martyrs: brutally slain priests, bishops, bishops. The Patriarch wrote to the People's Commissars of accusatory letters, trying to appeal to the conscience, while stressing that no matter the Church to overthrow the power of God, calamity, assigns charges of "counter-revolutionary conspiracy" of the clergy. All in vain! Tikhon feels like standing barefoot on a sharp high steeple: the Bolsheviks arrested and shot spread his message, fiercely growling at him in the newspapers, narrows, but ... hesitant to rush and tear. Council of the United Parishes of Moscow organized unarmed citizens volunteer guard at the patriarch's quarters Trinity Court. In the case of the arrest hit the alarm, a ringing catch all "forty times forty" in Moscow, urging Muscovites to universal procession. Commissioners are not sure that the Red Army would shoot ... Only in November 1918 for the first time the authorities will decide on the house arrest of the Patriarch, but soon released under pressure from religious and ... reasons of "big politics".
Blood ... how it will shed. Many people (not only the Bolsheviks and "sympathizers", but also part of the priests) try to blame it and the Patriarch. .. Hunger 22-year ... In the provinces, hundreds of thousands die, unmade corpses, cannibalism. "Why would the Church not to give their wealth to the starving, because it would be in hristianskiN!" - With diabolical cunning are asking the Bolshevik newspapers. "The Church is ready to give everything that does not directly address the church requires", - writes the Patriarch in Pomgol (Commission for Famine Relief in the Central Executive Committee). Priests in parishes prepared to voluntarily donate the precious icon's, pendants, stones, and instead of the sacred vessels and crosses the flock is ready to make the appropriate amount of money and bread. No, the Bolsheviks to another: after feigned agreement with the Patriarch of the Central Executive Committee of the ruling goes forcibly seized church property. Lenin wrote a famous letter closed with a call for a long time to teach a lesson that the public "and" shoot as many of the reactionary clergy ". At the same time, the Bolshevik leadership sends money to "fanning the fire of the world" with their accomplices in other countries, and myself do not forget: "people" commissioners to eat dishes from the Winter Palace, and flaunt their wives in the royal diamonds. Patriarch Tikhon calls flock to voluntarily donate to the starving, while directly referring to a forced removal of sacrilege. Flock starts to resist. Authorities responsible shootings ... After one such incident in Shuya Bolsheviks portray the trial of the Church. Holy cause ... witness, although the prosecutor stipulated from time to time - "an accused citizen Bellavin" ...
. At one of the religious processions in Moscow, he frantically shouting from the crowd: "Father native, . Deliver us! Lead us to the Kremlin! "How can, . He utishaet passion: not against the "authority on earth" abuse of the Church, . against "spiritual wickedness in high places"! And these spirits, . people entering the, . squinted now with the ancient Kremlin walls on the sea banners ...,
. Well-wishers offered him to escape abroad "to save themselves for Russia, for the Church" - he will reject it with a smile: "My place is here"
. More difficult to reject overdue inside - make bogobortsam in the face of all that he thought of them, suffer, become a martyr ... And what will happen to the Church, with pastvoyN No, he can not, and this ...
. The next day after the trial - again under house arrest, and after a few days: flashing lights, preoccupied with the square face security officers, a black car: the Patriarch of the guard to a new place of conclusion - in the Donskoy Monastery
. His almost every day, hauling in for questioning in the Cheka, . Soviet newspapers are full of ominous headlines: "Tikhon bloody", . "End tihonovschine!" Alarmed by the attendant asked the Patriarch after another interrogation: "How tamN" - "Oh very severely interrogated",
. - "What do you budetN" - "The head promised to cut" - as always good-naturedly answered Tikhon.
. Using baiting patriarch, . raises the most active and notorious of the "Renovationists" - "Living Church" (pro-Soviet organization obnovlencheskaya, . received its name from the first number of the magazine, . prepared by the Moscow priest with,
. Kalinovsky), "Living Church", dubbed by his contemporaries "live bait". Broken into the night with the staff of the GPU into the cell the prisoner Tikhon, . main "live bait" Archpriest Vvedensky, . priests Krasnitsky, . Protein, . Kalinowski, . acolyte Stadnik require, . that he walked away from the church authorities, and even took off the San, . become a layman ..,
. Threatened, insisting: "We will defend the rights of the Church, we are friends of Soviet power, and you - her enemy. Matters of church administration are ". By refusing to lift the San, who were about to transfer Tikhon instruct the printing and the office of his deputy metropolitan Agafangel and blessed it, evicted the intruders out the door. But instead, "live bait" stated that the Patriarch allegedly gave them full ecclesiastical authority, of the highest ecclesiastical control, will confuse and split the souls of pastors and their parishioners. If they want to cancel the monastic vow of virginity and close the monasteries, to move from Church Slavonic into Russian in worship, to remember to pray for health "pious Sovnarkom ... The joy and the active support of the GPU usurpers personally would compile lists of "reactionary clergy, has not recognized the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority - hit list. Before you send them to secret police for execution, "live bait" will be their "solution" put out the victim from the Church ...
. One after another, from his imprisoned Archbishop shunned and side Renovationists bishops and priests - who by fear, who believed the slander of Soviet newspapers and the magazine "Living Church" who deceived the lucrative
. Last year in the conduct of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Authority will have two-thirds of Orthodox parishes in Russia ... All are sure: the Patriarch, or shot, or zatochat until the end of life. Then Tikhon and sign this statement in the Supreme Court. Clearly not composed by them, that it contained "a minimum of loyalty", which is expected of him tips: "... I declare to the Supreme Court, that I was now an enemy of Soviet power. Ya.. strongly dissociating themselves from both foreign and internal monarchist White Guard counter-revolution ". Patriarch release from custody, be allowed to serve. To howls of "Murderer!" - "Left" will now be added the cries of "compromiser, an apostate!" - "Right" ... "Let my name perish in history, if only the Church had the benefit" - is responsible Tikhon. "Legalize" it will not ask the authorities to support him against Renovationists, but will simply serve in Moscow and St. Petersburg - where in the temple, and where the porch (if temple desecrated "live bait"). And the flow priests and bishops, who changed his pastor, the Patriarch cell, will prinarodno repent ... In a few short months, the triumph of "live bait" disappear "like a smoke
At the time to fade away "executions on the trials of priests, many released from prison. Tikhon was about to agree to go to church life in the new style calendar, as he wants Sovnarkom, but flatly refuses to be called "Patriarch of the USSR". Later he bitterly convinced that the limit of concessions required by the Soviet regime, lies beyond the bounds of loyalty to Christ. "Are not I ustupilN" - he asked himself. Until the end of his life he will be sorely balance without risking more publicly condemn the government, thinking of trustees of the "catacombs", but never called the Church to go there. It will be used to hunt, try to smash his head with a truncheon, poke a knife in the side when you exit the church by mistake instead shot his favorite secretary and attendant Jacob Polozova ... Compromises with bogobortsami will grow three times after his death ....
... "ITO-on-ogaya l-e-ETA-ah!" - Sounded under the arches, ending with the rank of the enthronement, bass Archdeacon. Time! Tikhon sighed and walked to the white patriarch's cowl, which already had suspended Metropolitans. Bowed his head - the cowl fell just right.
II. RIGHTEOUS AND AGE
The future Patriarch of Russia Vasily Bellavin was born January 19, 1865 in the churchyard Klin Pskov province, in the family of hereditary priest John Timofeeva Bellavina. Name this was quite widespread in the near Pskov, and was given only to people the clergy (the vast majority of modern "secular" media name Bellavin followed by Soviet newspapers, 20-ies distorting, omitting one "l"). Since childhood Tikhon was very good-natured, gentle, and pious without wickedness and svyatoshestva ". His pupil in the Pskov Seminary Boris Tsarevskii remembered as a young teacher Vasily Ivanovich visited their home. "You saw what he glazaN - asked after he left his daughter's mother Carevskogo. - Clean, clear, like a dove ". "From it emanates warmth and good humor, and he is so clever ..." - She replied. Father, finish their tea, both busily warned: "You do not see that he is talkative and cheerful this. Its in the student called the Patriarch, and one dear to him - a monk. "
Postrigshis in 1891 under the name Tikhon, he was just 6 years became bishop of Lublin - the youngest of the Russian priests. After seven years serving in faraway America ... And at home at this time began and ended ignominiously Russian-Japanese war, the thundering explosions of terrorist attacks, raging first revolution ... Proponents of the "great turmoil" all fiercely rocking the boat under the name "Russia". Bishop Tikhon wrote in November 1905 from New York: "It seems that all the ruling lost his head. God knows what all this will. Surely the Lord was angry at the end of nasN "
Tikhon returned to Russia, served in the Yaroslavl diocese, and since the war - in Lithuania. He was always on the road - sanctifies hospitals, bypasses seriously, confess and partake of the troops on the front, funeral services were killed. Temples, where he serves, is always crowded, and a blessing to the Lord and want to get Catholics and Old Believers ...
There comes a fatal 1917 st. The February event, the king's abdication, the Provisional Government, the drunken crowd of deserters on the streets, meetings ... In the Church, as well as throughout the state, disorder. New chief procurator of the Synod VN. Lvov announced his person, "the center of religious and social movement", declared that democracy and socialism is no different from Christianity, and ordered the bishops to monitor and inform him about their attitudes. Six archbishops - among them Tikhon - issued a statement of disagreement with such policies. In retaliation, he picked up Lviv new composition of the Holy Synod of bishops of the tolerant. His brainchild - the newspaper "Moscow church voice", where ran the "famous" later Archpriest AI. Vvedensky, became the mouthpiece of "Renovationists". Nicknamed "obnaglentsami", they called strike out past the Russian Orthodox Church, priests remove the robe, curse "tsarist" ... Tired of anarchy and rejecting the henchmen Lviv, June 21, 1917. Moscow itself elected archbishop himself - Tikhon.
Held shortly sanctified church council for a long time (more than 2 months) and heated debate about the revival of the patriarchate. While soboryane argued, the windows are increasingly rifle was heard, and then the gun shooting - the Bolsheviks seized the first capital. We had to hear 90 more speakers, but from a group of the Kuban Cossack army was made Earl rm. Grabbe, demanded an end to debate and vote immediately for the establishment of the patriarchate. In the end, the vote had been scheduled three candidates popular archbishops. When the ancient Kremlin, already sitting commissioners, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took the procedure "God's choice" - lots, which fell to be the Patriarch Tikhon. When he brought the definition of the cathedral, he said: "Your news about the election of the Patriarch of me is for me to scroll on which is written," Weeping and mourning and woe, and what was supposed to eat a roll of the prophet Ezekiel <...>. Like the ancient leader of the Jewish people, . Prophet Moses, . and I have to talk to the Lord: "Why are you torturing slave TvoegoN And why am I not found favor in thy sight, . that you entrusted me with the burden of all the people segoN <...> I am not able to bear all this people, . because it is too heavy for me ... ",
. At first the Soviet May Day, . dubbed in Moscow "Judah Passover" (he came in on Wednesday of Holy Week), . when sparse columns of demonstrators marched past the Nikolsky Gate of the Kremlin, . red flag, . hid icon Nicholas at the gate, . suddenly broken off by itself and from beneath it shone the image of old,
. Some of the Red Army soldiers took off their hats and crossed themselves ... On May 9 Nicholas Day celebration at the request of people from all Moscow churches occurred procession to the gates of Nikolsky. Results were about 400 thousand people. Before many of its members received communion and preparing for death. Cheka plastered in ads promised to "wipe out" all those who would act "with speeches and actions against the Soviet Union". But instead of speeches - the singing of penitents, instead of weapons - sign of the cross. Lenin himself surrounded by Chinese-hour watched from the Kremlin wall on the dammed area, quickly and busily writing something in a notebook ...
. A few months earlier, Patriarch Tikhon wrote in his message to anathema to the Bolsheviks: "... Wake up, fools, stop your massacres
. After all, . what you are doing you, . not only cruel thing, . is truly a case of Satan ... "In this Holy appealed to his flock:" д?adca mine! Let weakness seems different this holy nezloblivost Church, . these calls our patient to endure anti-Christian hatred and malice <...> but we implore you <..,
. > Do not depart from this, the only saving mindset Christian <... > On the path of admiration of worldly power or revenge ... "
. There is a story of a contemporary interpretation, which gutted when Lenin was lying in a pagan temple on the main square, and most Tikhon did not stay long before resting, someone told him that in the mausoleum burst sewage pipes
. "On the relics, and oil" - the Holy mildly stated.
The Bolsheviks did not only openly persecuted the Patriarch, but they tried everything to tear him from the flock. When a failed idea from the Living Church ", and Tikhon went to the famous compromises on power, the GPU has tried to play a split card" new style ". Archbishop Hilarion, the Patriarch of the nearest employee, agent power insinuatingly whispered: "Persuade Patriarch create a new style. Can not he make a small concession vlastiN "At the same time at a meeting with another bishop of the same agent" was indignant: "You have heard, . that Patriarch starts a new stilN Why etoN Do you agree with nimN Separate from the Patriarch - Moscow loves you all and for you go.,
. March 25, 1925, the day of the Annunciation, tired of straining, Patriarch passed away quietly at b0-th year of life
. Before his death, he said, sighing: "Soon will come the night, dark and long". And the night has come.
September 28 Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Tikhon ranked the saints. February 9, 1992, Mr.. accomplished the acquisition of the holy relics of Patriarch Tikhon. Between these events there was one - November 5, 1991. (the anniversary of the election to the Patriarchal throne), someone set fire to Don Small's Cathedral in Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, where the relics were preserved. Holy Tikhon, pray for us!