Saint Tikhon ( in the world Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin ) was born ( 19 ) January 31, 1865. From an early age, his father took the boy with him to the service, and love for the temple became an integral part of his life. He received education at the spiritual school of his hometown, and then at the Pskov Seminary and St. Petersburg Theological Academy.
In 1888, Vasily Bellavin graduated from the academy and was sent to the Pskov seminary to teach dogma, moral theology and French. In 1891, the young teacher took a tonsure named Tikhon in honor of St. Tikhon Zadonsky. Managed to the rank of hieromonk, he was transferred to the Holm seminary a year later, where he was appointed inspector.
In December 1898, Bishop Tikhon was appointed to the Aleutian-American Department, which was located in San Francisco. In 1905, St. Tikhon was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and two years after that he was transferred to one of the most honorable departments in Russia — Yaroslavl.
In 1913, Archbishop Tikhon was transferred to the Lithuanian Diocese — in Vilna. Here the lord was caught by war. By order of the Holy Synod, Archbishop Tikhon moved to Moscow, bringing with him the relics of the holy Vilna miracle workers, but soon he moved from Moscow closer to his flock, almost to the front line. After the February Revolution, together with other archpastors, Archbishop Tikhon was fired by the prosecutor V.N. Lviv from the Synod.
In 1917, St. Tikhon was elected by the will of the church people at the Moscow Diocesan pulpit, after which the Synod honored him with the Metropolitan's dignity, and soon he was erected on the restored patriarchal throne.
In the first appeal to the All-Russian flock, Patriarch Tikhon characterized the era experienced by the country as « the land of God's wrath »; in the message ( January 19 ) on February 1, 1918, they expressed archpastoral concern about the situation of the Church, condemnation of bloody unrest. In the summer of 1921, after the horrors of the civil war, the Russian people suffered another disaster: hunger.
In February 1922, Patriarch Tikhon called on church councils to donate precious church jewelry, unless they have liturgical use. However, on February 23, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree on the seizure of church values for the needs of the starving. The patriarch reacted to the decree with a new message to the flock, in which he declared the inadmissibility of the seizure of sacred objects, « the use of which is not for liturgical purposes is prohibited by the canons of the Ecumenical Church ».
Criminal proceedings were instituted in various cities of the country. The clergy were accused of obedience to their Patriarch, of announcing his Appeal, of trying to negotiate with the authorities to replace the issuance of church shrines with a cash ransom, and sometimes that, not keeping blasphemous behavior in the temples of agents of power, who allowed themselves the most obscene forms of abuse of shrines, they did not remain indifferent to him.
During the years of the civil war, stratification took place among the clergy: renewed groups appeared calling for a revolution in the Church. By repulsive anti-canonical modernist encroachments, Patriarch Tikhon in his messages to the flock emphasized the inadmissibility of liturgical innovations. In May 1922, the patriarch was detained in the Don Monastery, and in June 1923 he was released.
During this period, as a result of the destructive actions of the schismatic-upil, the church administration was beheaded: many bishops were expelled from the departments, most of the temples were captured by the Renovators, the church people were defeated. After the liberation, Patriarch Tikhon addressed the flock with a message stating that « The Russian Orthodox Church is apolitical and does not want to ... be either a white or a red Church. It must be and will be the One, the Cathedral, the Apostolic Church ».
In April 1924, the patriarch issued a new, short, but informative Message denouncing the grave crimes of the leaders of the renewed split. In this Message, on the basis of church canons and on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, the patriarch subjected the Renovatives to canonical prohibition and confirmed that they, from now until repentance, are outside of fellowship with the Church.
On April 5, 1925, His Holiness Tikhon served his last liturgy at the Church of the Great Ascension on Nikitsky.
On April 7, 1925, on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patriarch Tikhon appeared to the Lord. In 1989, the Bishop's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Tikhon, the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, was counted as a saint.