Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow

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.

Early life

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.

Bishop in the United States

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 United States citizen. The peripatetic bishop visited emerging Orthodox emigrant communities in various United States cities, including New York City, Chicago and the coal and steel-making cities of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Tikhon (Stepanov)

Bishop Tikhon (secualar name Nikolay Vladimirovich Stepanov, Николай Владимирович Степанов; 2 March 1963, Kostroma – 20 October 2010, Arkhangelsk, Russia) was the Russian Orthodox bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory.

Notes

Tikhon (Shevkunov)

Bishop Tikhon (Russian: Тихон), secular name Georgiy Alexandrovich Shevkunov, Russian: Георгий Александрович Шевкунов (born 2 July 1958 in Moscow) is a bishop of Russian Orthodox Church and a popular writer. He is the bishop of Yegoryevsk, vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and the head of the Western Vicariat of Moscow city. Bishop Tikhon is often referred as the personal confessor of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biography

In 1982 Georgy Shevkunov graduated from the Screenwriter school of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. The same year he accepted Christianity, baptized and moved to the Pskov-Caves Monastery first as a toiler ten as a novitiate. His confessor was Archimandrite John Krestiankin.

In 1986 he was transferred to the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, where he worked under Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechayev). His first appointment was connected with commemoration of the millennium anniversary Baptizing of Rus.

In the first Perestroika years he published a few polemic articles including "Ne uchastvuyte v delakh t'my" (Do not participate in the business of the darkness) originally published in the Zhurnal Moskovskoy Patrirakhii and republished more than one hundred times by different publishers. The work criticized then emerged practice of occult healing. His article "The Church and the State" was published by Literaturnaya Rossiya in November 1990. In the article Shevkunov argued that emerging Russian democracy would definitely act against Russian Orthodox Church.