On September 26/October 9, the Orthodox Church
commemorates the 1989 glorification of New Hiero-confessor
Tikhon (Bellavin), patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
St.
Tikhon is of course best remembered as the first
Patriarch of Russia, elected in 1918, since the 1721
abolition of the patriarchate by Peter I. He guided the
Church as a firm and steady anchor during the early years
of the communist regime, suffering imprisonment in Donskoy
Monastery from 1922 to 1923 for opposing the
government’s confiscation of Church property. He
entered into repose on the great feast of Annunciation in
1925 and is considered a confessor of the Orthodox faith.
Before taking up the yoke of arch-pastor for the entire
Russian nation, St. Tikhon served as a missionary bishop
in the burgeoning American mission. He was appointed as
bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska in 1898 and he traveled
throughout America, visiting parishes, comforting the
faithful, and consecrating new parishes. In 1905 he was
raised to the dignity of archbishop and he relocated the
center of the diocese to New York, before being called
back to Russia in 1907.
St. Tikhon of Moscow and St. Tikhon of Zadonsk holding the monastery church at St. Tikhon's
One of his great and lasting
achievements in America is surely the founding of
St.
Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, PA in
1905, named for his own patron, St.
Tikhon the Wonderworker of Zadonsk. St.
Tikhon’s is the oldest Orthodox monastery in
America and throughout its 110 years, while it has
known highs and lows, it has become a center of
Orthodoxy in America, offering up countless liturgies
and prayers as sweet incense before the throne of
God, enjoying the presence of many saints, and, along
with the seminary established in 1938, molding and
refining innumerable servants of Christ’s
Church in the form of monastics, clergymen, and
hierarchs. Every year the monastic, seminary, and
parish community of St. Tikhon’s commemorates
the Sunday nearest to St. Tikhon’s October
9th feast as its “Founder’s
Day” with a festive liturgy and meal, to which
all are warmly welcomed.
St. Tikhon’s is home to a rich history and a great
many “treasures” of Orthodoxy, some known,
some relatively unknown, which stand as a testament to the
prayers and labors of our American apostle, St. Tikhon,
and his continuing heavenly protection.
RELICS
St. Alexis Toth
The relics of St. Alexis Toth
St. Alexis was a Uniate priest from
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, assigned to serve a
parish in Minneapolis in 1889. Upon arrival in
America he found the Latin bishop quite hostile to
Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, and found himself
without a parish. By God’s providence this led
to his reception into the holy Orthodox Church on
March 25, 1891, after which he worked tirelessly,
delivering fiery sermons throughout all of America to
bring thousands of Uniates into the true Church. He
reposed in 1909, being laid to rest in the monastery
cemetery at St. Tikhon’s. Seven years later his
body was relocated to a special crypt built behind
the Church. Today his relics lie in a reliquary on
the right kliros in the monastery church, where all
are welcome to venerate and pray to this faithful
missionary of Orthodoxy in America.
Archbishop Arseny
The grave of Archbishop Arseny
The idea of founding a monastery on
American soil belongs actually to Hieromonk Arseny
(Chagovtsev), later the archbishop of Winnipeg,
Canada. He arrived in America in 1902 to serve the
parish of St. John the Baptist in Mayfield, PA, just
a few miles from the future site of St.
Tikhon’s Monastery. He envisioned a monastery
to serve the spiritual needs of the monastic clergy
serving in America, and he eagerly promoted the idea
to all who would listen. In 1905 he sought out land
with St. Tikhon and they eventually purchased the
present property in South Canaan, PA, with Fr. Arseny
becoming the monastery’s first superior. St.
Tikhon provided the necessary episcopal oversight and
spiritual guidance, as well as financial support,
while credit for the concept and physical labor in
establishing St. Tikhon’s Monastery belongs to
Archbishop Arseny.
After more service in America, Canada, Russia, and Serbia,
Archbishop Arseny returned to Canada as the bishop of
Winnipeg in 1926. In 1937 he retired to the monastery
which he had founded, and the following year he founded
the pastoral school which became St. Tikhon’s
Seminary.
Archbishop Arseny, locally venerated as a saint in the
Canadian diocese, is buried in a simple grave next to the
chapel in the monastery cemetery.
Metropolitan Leonty
Metropolitan
Leonty faithfully served the Church in America
for many decades. He was ordained to the priesthood
in 1905 and became one of St. Tikhon’s closest
advisors. He became a bishop in 1933 and the primate
of the American Metropolia in 1950, serving until his
death in 1965. During his tenure the first
English-language parishes were opened and various
pan-Orthodox initiatives were undertaken, including
efforts to reunite the various Russian jurisdictions
in the diaspora. He is remembered as a man of
humility, prayerfulness, meekness, dignity, kindness,
generosity, forbearance, thoughtfulness, sense of
humor, vision, erudition and wisdom. He is buried
behind the church at St. Tikhon’s, and is
considered a saint by many.
* * *
St. Tikhon’s Monastery also knows the blessing of
the relics of many other saints, including its revered
founder St. Tikhon of Moscow, its patron St. Tikhon of
Zadonsk, St. Panteleimon, St. John of Shanghai and San
Francisco, St. Raphael (Hawaweeny), and many others,
notably including a piece of the True Cross.
MIRACULOUS ICONS
She Who is Quick to Hear
The monastery church is home to a
miraculous icon of the Mother of God “She Who
is Quick to Hear” which hangs on the left side
of the iconostasis. Upon its founding in 1905 the
monastery was gifted with a copy of the miraculous
icon of the same name of Dochariou Monastery on Mt.
Athos, which is commemorated on November 9. This copy
has also become known as a miraculous icon, through
which the Mother of God especially deigns to help
those couples who are unable to conceive. The icon,
radiant in its beauty, travels throughout America to
bring comfort, healing, and peace to the Orthodox
faithful.
St. Anna
St. Tikhon’s is also home to
a miraculous icon of St. Anna painted in the Holy
Land which began to stream myrrh in 2004.
Subsequently traveling throughout America, St. Anna
is also known for helping couples conceive, and also
many miraculous healings. In the Fall of 2012
Archimandrite Athanasy (Mastalsky), the owner of the
miraculous icon, relocated to St. Tikhon’s
Monastery. St. Anna is not currently streaming myrrh
but she continues to emit a heavenly fragrance and to
answer prayers. A Moleben to St. Anna is prayed in
the monastery church every Sunday, and bottles of
myrrh from the icon are available at the monastery.
We recently published an interview
on the miraculos icon of St. Anna with Fr. Athanasy,
conducted by Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green.
WHERE SAINTS HAVE WALKED
In addition to Sts. Tikhon, Arseny, and Alexis, St.
Tikhon’s has been blessed with the ministry and
prayers of several other venerable American saints.
St. Raphael of Brooklyn
St.
Raphael (Hawaweeny) was born in Lebanon in 1860 and
received his theological training in Halki and Russia.
He came to America in 1895 to assist St. Tikhon,
heading up the Syro-Arab Orthodox mission in America.
On the third Sunday in Great Lent, 1904 he became the
first Orthodox bishop consecrated in America. In 1905
St. Raphael traveled to St. Tikhon’s Monastery to
dedicate the hundreds of acres upon which it sits,
serving also the monastery’s first Divine
Liturgy. He was canonized at St. Tikhon’s
Monastery in 2000, and his relics currently lie on the
property of the Antiochian Village in Bolivar, PA.
St. Alexander Hotovitsky
St.
Alexander was born in today’s western
Ukraine and was ordained to the priesthood in San
Francisco in 1896. He undertook vast missionary
labors with the blessing of St. Tikhon both in
America and later in Russia. He served as editor of
the American Orthodox Messenger and he
visited St. Tikhon’s Monastery on several
occasions, leaving an intriguing account of the 1906
pilgrimage and consecration. He later served as the
rector of Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, and
was arrested by communist authorities in 1937 which
led to his martyric death.
St. Nicholai of Zhicha
The seminary chapel of St. Nicholai of Zhicha
St.
Nicholai is one of the greatest saints of the
twentieth century. Known as the New Chrysostom for
his penetrating preaching, St. Nicholai brought much
comfort to the suffering Serbian Church during the
years of the Second World War. He too suffered, being
imprisoned for two years at the Dachau concentration
camp. St. Nicholai also served the Church in America,
living at St. Tikhon’s Monastery from 1951
until 1956 and teaching at the seminary, for which he
served as rector in the 1955-1956 school year. It was
in the St. Tikhon’s Seminary building that this
giant of Orthodoxy reposed on March 18, 1956 under
suspect circumstances. The seminary chapel is
dedicated to his memory.
Fr. Vasily (Philipoff)
One of St. Tikhon’s
Monastery’s most intriguing
“treasures” is the monk Archimandrite
Vasily (Philipoff) who lived the quiet monastic life
there from 1934 until his repose on March 29, 1986.
Fr. Vasily seems to be mostly unknown—it is
nearly impossible to find any information about him
on the internet, but those who knew him in his
decades of prayer and struggle at the monastery
remember a saintly man. He served in various
obediences but is best remembered as the bread baker
for the monastery and for the orphanage that used to
function also at St. Tikhon’s. He communed as
often as possible and always gave simple and direct
advice: pray, work hard, be faithful in Church
attendance, obey God’s laws, and never hold
anger against another man, and by all accounts, he
lived his life thusly.
Igumen Gregory (Zaiens) who lived several years at St.
Tikhon’s with Fr. Vasily recalls:
As to his spiritual life, Fr. Vasily could be
described as a pillar of Orthodox
piety—blagochestie. He held that which was God's
in honor; he had a holy, blessed, humble, fearless fear of
God. He had assimilated this as a natural, organic part of
his being. To live with such a person is a great lesson in
the Orthodox way of life even if one is never given a word
of instruction. There are a few small words which I
remember that I could pass on. One time I asked Father:
“What is the meaning of humility of wisdom?”
He replied, “When you repent, you become humble and
then God gives you wisdom.” He once said in a
sermon, “Some people say that if you read the Bible
too much you will lose your mind. That is true. You will
lose your carnal mind and get a spiritual one.”
Once after the evening service I was going to venerate
the central icon in the Church. Fr. Vasily who had served
was approaching the icon so I waited. As he neared the
icon and I looked at him his physical appearance changed
so that he physically looked somewhat smaller than he
actually was. He looked extremely humble and it seemed as
though he was on fire with prayer.
Archimandrite Vasily is buried in the cemetery at St.
Tikhon’s where pilgrims can come to seek his
intercession.
MUSEUM AND ICON REPOSITORY
St. Tikhon’s is also home to
a great many beautiful artifacts in its museum and
icon repository, which traces the history of
Orthodoxy in America and houses icons, vestments, and
other Church items that date back several hundred
years. The oldest of the 400 icons is from the
fifteenth century.
Among the most notable articles in the museum are the a
Gospel book gifted by Tsar Michael Romanov to a convent in
Russia which dates to 1636, the mantia of St. Tikhon of
Moscow from his time as the metropolitan of Moscow,
vestments of St. Nicholai Velimirovich, and hand-written
letters of St. Alexis Toth.
The museum is an evangelical effort as many non-Orthodox
come out of an interest in art or history and learn about
our holy Orthodox faith. The museum is open by appointment
to all who are interested.
* * *
The monastery brotherhood, which has known sixty bishops,
currently under its sixteenth abbot, Schema-Archimandrite
Sergius (Bowyer), is growing and continues to serve
the Church in America and beyond through its many
endeavors including the St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press
and Bookstore, iconography, and support of the training of
new clergy in the seminary through providing several
professors as well as the church in which the seminary
community prays and is shaped.
Of course the main task of a monastery is always to pray,
which is a constant emphasis of Abbot Sergius. Perhaps the
greatest treasure the monastery offers to America and to
the world is the daily serving of the Divine Liturgy since
1905. Few places in America offer the holy Eucharist
daily, and certainly none for as long as St.
Tikhon’s. The grace and power of the Divine Liturgy
is inestimable, and the presence of Christ that is
manifest in holy Communion sustains the world.
St. Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary sits on a quiet
property in north-eastern Pennsylvania surrounded by
nature ideal for fostering prayer, humility and love for
God. St. Tikhon’s is indeed a center of Orthodoxy in
America, ever being offered for the benefit of others who
are always welcome to go on pilgrimage to experience the
grace and many “treasures” of St.
Tikhon’s—St. Tikhon of Moscow’s offering
to America.
* * *
More information on St. Tikhon's Monastery can
be found here, and information on St.
Tikhon's Seminary here.
