Primate of the Russian Church leads celebrations in Donskoy Monastery marking the centenary of Patriarch Tikhon’s demise
DECR Communication Service, 06/04/2025
On 6th April, the 5th Sunday of Lent, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ led the celebrations marking the centenary of the demise of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon, which took place in the Donskoy Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow.
His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon fell asleep in the Lord on 7th April 1925 – the Feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, at its session held on 13th October 2022 (Minutes No. 106), approved a plan of commemorative events timed to the 100th
anniversary of St. Tikhon’s demise. Since the day of the saint’s death coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, the Synod scheduled the celebrations for 24th March/6th April, the 5th
Sunday of Lent, with the Polyeleos services in commemoration of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon to be celebrated in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church.
At the entrance to the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was met by Mr D.N. Chernyshenko, deputy chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, co-chair of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the Centennial of St. Tikhon’s Blessed Demise; Metropolitan Feognost of Kashira, chairman of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism, abbot of the Donskoy Monastery; Mr L.E. Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, chair of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs; and Mr V.A. Levin, acting general director of Sofrino Art Production Enterprise.
In the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church venerated St. Tikhon’s relics and celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.
Among His Holiness’ concelebrants were the following hierarchs and priests: Metropolitan Yuvenaly (Poyarkov); Metropolitan Pavel of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Patriarchal Vicar for the Moscow Metropolia, co-chair of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the Centennial of St. Tikhon’s Blessed Demise; Metropolitan Grigory of Voskresensk, chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate, first vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ for the city of Moscow; Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Nikandr of Vladimir and Suzdal, chairman of the Finance and Economic Administration of the Moscow Patriarchate; Metropolitan Vadim of Yaroslavl and Rostov; Metropolitan Feognost of Kashira; Metropolitan Yevgeny of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, chairman of the Synodal Department for Religious Education and Catechisation; Metropolitan Amvrosy of Tver and Kashin, chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Commission and of the Church-Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ for promoting Russian ecclesiastical singing; Metropolitan Matfei of Pskov and Porkhov, chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Commission for Promoting Pilgrimage and Bringing Shrines; Bishop Nikolai of Balashikha and Orekhovo-Zuyevo, head and editor-in-chief of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Publishing House; Bishop Alexy of Ramenskoye, personal secretary to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill; Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’; Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, chairman of the Education Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church, rector of Saints Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies; Archpriest Alexander Farkovets, dean of the Donskoy Church District of the Moscow City Diocese, rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe; Archpriest Oleg Vorobyov, dean of the Danilovsky Church District of the Moscow City Diocese, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity; Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov, president of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities and St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Institute; Archpriest Kirill Kaleda, executive secretary of the Church-Public Council under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ for Commemoration of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church; Hegumen Nikita (Vikhlayev), coenobite of the Donskoy Monastery; Archpriest Vyacheslav Shestakov, rector of the Patriarchal metochion church in Zaryadye in Moscow, sacristan of the Patriarchal Dormition Cathedral and the Moscow Kremlin churches; Priest Alexander Mazyrin, chief researcher and deputy head of the Department of Contemporary History of the Russian Orthodox Church at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, cleric of St. Tikhon’s University’s Church of Great Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles; Priest Igor Konstantinov, dean of the Spassky Church District in Moscow, rector of the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God; and Priest Dimitry Safonov, DECR consultant, cleric of the Church of St. John of Kronstadt.
Taking part in the Divine Liturgy were also representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches, namely, Bishop Stefan of Remesiana, Representative of the Serbian Patriarch to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’; Protopresbyter Zoran Ranković, dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Belgrade; Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemiatovsky), Representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; and Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America.
Among those who attended the divine service were Mr D.N. Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, co-chair of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the Centennial of St. Tikhon’s Blessed Demise; Mr L.E. Slutsky, chair of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs; Ms O.S. Koroleva, deputy director of the Department of Culture of the Government of the Russian Federation; Mr I.N. Kagramanyan, director of the Healthcare Department of the Government of the Russian Federation; Mr S.G. Malyshev, senior vice-president of MMC Norilsk Nickel; Mr V.A. Levin, acting general director of Sofrino Art Production Enterprise; Mr M.M. Ivanov, chair of the Supervisory Board of the All-Russian Public Movement “Orthodox Russia;” as well as members of the Organizing Committee for the Celebration of the Centennial of St. Tikhon’s Blessed Demise; and organizers of a project for bringing a shrine containing St. Tikhon’s relics to different cities and towns in Russia and Belarus. Among those praying at the Divine Liturgy were also representatives of the Patriarchal Volunteers and “Sorok Sorokov” Movements.
The liturgical hymns were performed by the Donskoy Monastery choir.
During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church read a pray for the Holy Rus’.
Prior to the communion, Patriarchal Archdeacon Konstantin Bargan read out an Address by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the passing away of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon.
After the Liturgy, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill lifted up prayers of praise to St. Tikhon in front of the shrine with his holy relics.
Mr D.N. Chernyshenko read out a message of greetings from President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill thanked Mr Chernyshenko, saying:
“I thank you, Dmitry Nikolayevich, for reading out a message from our President Vladimir Vladimirovich, and on behalf of the hierarchs, the clergy and the faithful people I ask you to convey to him our gratitude. It is very important that the head of state addresses Orthodox people on such momentous occasions when we commemorate the outstanding representatives of our Russian clergy who in times of the most severe hardships had done everything in their power to help people preserve Orthodox faith and to shield them from schisms and divisions, thus contributing to the unification of our people. In a sense, Patriarch Tikhon’s spiritual heritage is our today’s Church that overcame schisms and divisions and, I hope, will overcome their residual effects too, which are tormenting spiritual life of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. I hope that by the prayers of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon our Church and its unity will be strengthened and the grace of God will be upon our people.”
After that, His Holiness delivered a Primatial homily.
A solemn ceremony followed, during which His Holiness Patriarch Kirill handed over a shrine containing a particle of St. Tikhon’s relics to the organizers of the project who will later bring the reliquary to various cities and towns in Russia and Belarus.
The reliquary had been made by craftsmen of Sofrino Art Production Enterprise to mark the centenary of St. Tikhon’s demise. Prior to the Divine Liturgy, it had been placed on the altar of the Donskoy Monastery’s Great Cathedral.
After the clergymen brought the shrine out of the chancel, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed a few words of exhortation to those who will later bring it to other cities and towns for veneration, saying:
“Today we begin an all-Russian procession of the cross, and I give this particle of the saint’s relics to its participants so that as many Orthodox Christians as possible could venerate his holy remains. By the prayers of St. Tikhon the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’, may the Lord preserve Orthodox faith in our people, granting us piety, chastity and spiritual strength. Amen.”
The reliquary will first be brought to the dioceses of the Belarusian Exarchate (in the early 20th century the northwest part of the present-day Belarus was under the jurisdiction of the Vilna Diocese headed by future Patriarch Tikhon). After that, the shrine will return to Russia and be brought to the village of Klin in Pskov region – St. Tikhon’s birthplace. Toropets town in Tver region will become the next stop; there the saint had spent his childhood. After that, the reliquary will be brought to dozens of other cities and towns across Russia.
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the project was organized by the Russian Orthodox Church’s Commission for Promoting Pilgrimage and Bringing Shrines with the assistance of the Russian regions’ administrations, the World Russian People’s Council and Tsargrad Charitable Foundation.
Later that day, representatives of the Serbian diaspora in Moscow presented to His Holiness on their behalf and on behalf of the Russian Metochion in Limassol, Cyprus, a portrait of Patriarch Tikhon painted by artist Philip Moskvitin. His Holiness thanked them for the gift, saying, “We have unfailing love for the Serbian people, especially our brothers the archpastors and pastors serving in the Serbian land.”
Those who attended the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy received icons of Saint Tikhon with the Primatial blessing.