Section 08: Canonization
St. Tikhon was glorified twice — by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981, among the New Martyrs and Confessors, and by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1989, at the council marking the four-hundredth anniversary of the Russian patriarchate. This section treats the two glorifications, their dates and documents, and the rarer fact that flows from them: that Tikhon is venerated identically by ROCOR, the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church in America.
Tradition: Russian Orthodox (glorified 1989)
The canonization of St. Tikhon is a small but exact register of twentieth-century church history. ROCOR canonized him while the Soviet Union still stood, as part of its 1981 glorification of the New Martyrs that the Church inside Russia could not yet echo; Moscow followed in October 1989, in the first opening of the glasnost years, when the patriarchate became able at last to canonize a figure of the Soviet persecution. That the émigré Church, the patriarchate, and the American daughter-church all keep his feast — and on the strength of overlapping but distinct claims on him — makes him, after the 2007 reconciliation, a natural figure of unity.
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1981 and 1989 | The two glorifications: ROCOR (Nov. 1, 1981) and Moscow (Oct. 9, 1989); the 400th-anniversary council; the glasnost-era reading; the act’s language; the feast days |
| Shared Veneration | Tikhon as the saint held in common by ROCOR, the MP, and the OCA; his institutions worldwide; the Donskoy commemorations; his use in the reconciliation-era Church |
Cross-References
- Epistles of the Patriarchate — the confessor-testimony the canonization honors
- The Testament Question — the disputed document weighed in assessing his confessorship
- ROCOR: New Martyrs and Confessors — the 1981 glorification in which Tikhon was named
- Orthodoxy Guide: Post-Soviet Revival — the glasnost setting of the 1989 council
- ROCOR: The 2007 Reunion — the reconciliation that made shared veneration canonical
Part of the St. Tikhon of Moscow Reference Guide.