The Foundation of Holy Lives - America's Saints
This Sunday is the Feast of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow. His life is one of the stronger threads uniting the Church in America with the Church in Russia and with the deeper history of Orthodoxy in the modern world.
St. Tikhon served as Bishop of the "Missionary Diocese of North America" until 1907 when he was recalled to Russia, eventually being made Patriarch of Moscow in 1917. He was martyred by the Bolsheviks in 1925.
His vision of the American Church, as a single jurisdiction with representation and respect for all ethnic groups has been a guiding principle in the OCA to this day. St. Tikhon, for example, ordained St. Raphael of Brooklyn, a Syrian, who took on the ministry of organizing Orthodox from the Middle East all across the nation. The Revolution attacked the Church in Russia, and shattered his vision for Orthodoxy in America.
In time, that vision will be fulfilled according to God's own plan.
It is important that we hold St. Tikhon's example and vision in front of us as we seek to be faithful to Christ in our American land. May he pray for us, his children!
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