In New York appeared street “St. Tikhon”, named after St. Tikhon (Belavin), Patriarch of Moscow and Apostle of America. The new street name was given on the eve of his feast day on October 9.
St. Tikhon was the Patriarch of Moscow during the years of the Bolshevik terror in Russia, but before that he launched a major mission in North America. In 1898, he became bishop of Aleutia and Alaska (he was later promoted to archbishop of Aleutian and North American) and did a lot for the spread of Orthodoxy. Lays the foundation stone of the church “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker” in Manhattan, New York, which was consecrated by him a little later. On his initiative, the episcopal chair was transferred from San Francisco to New York. St. Tikhon sanctified dozens of Orthodox churches in the country, including the church “St. Nicholas” in Brooklyn for the Syrian Orthodox emigrants (from the Patriarchate of Antioch), established relations with the Greek churches in the USA. St. Tikhon also opened the first Orthodox seminary in the United States in Minneapolis (which existed from 1905 to 1923), as well as the first Orthodox monastery in Pennsylvania, “St. Tikhon”, organized the translation of many liturgical books into English.
Clergy and laity alike loved their archpastor and respected him so much that the Americans made an archbishop. Tikhon Honorary Citizen of the United States.
By God’s providence, he returned to Russia in 1907, and in 1917 he headed the Russian Orthodox Church. In this bloody and destructive period for the Church of Christ, he professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and opposed religious conformism. He died aged 61 in 1925.
He was canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate on October 9, 1989, marking the beginning of the canonization of Russian new martyrs and confessors from the communist era. However, he was canonized as a “saint” rather than a “confessor” due to fears of a negative reaction from the still-active Soviet state structures.
Photo: Sergey Chapnin / dveri.bg
