Saint Tikhon (born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin) was born in the village of Klin in the Toropets district of Pskov province, into the family of a priest who was soon transferred to the district town after the birth of his son. From an early age, his father took him to church services, and this love for the temple became an inseparable part of his life. Tikhon received his education at the local spiritual school, then at Pskov Seminary and the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. A modest and kind-hearted youth, he earned the affection of friends and fellow students.
In 1888, Vasily Bellavin graduated from the academy and was sent to teach dogmatics, moral theology, and French at the Pskov Seminary. In 1891, the young teacher took monastic vows under the name Tikhon, in honor of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. After being ordained as an hieromonk, he was transferred a year later to the Cholm Seminary, where he was appointed inspector. In the same year, 1892, he was confirmed as the rector of the seminary and elevated to the rank of archimandrite. From Cholm, Saint Tikhon was transferred as the rector of the seminary in Kazan, and on October 17, 1897, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Lublin, vicar of the Cholm diocese, at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
In December 1898, Bishop Tikhon was appointed to the Aleutian-American diocese, based in San Francisco. In 1905, Saint Tikhon was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and two years later, he was transferred to one of the most prestigious sees in Russia—the Yaroslavl diocese. In 1913, Archbishop Tikhon was transferred to the Lithuanian diocese in Vilnius. Here, war caught up with him. By the order of the Holy Synod, Archbishop Tikhon moved to Moscow, bringing with him the relics of the holy Vilnius miracle workers, but soon relocated closer to his flock, nearly to the front lines.
After the February Revolution, Archbishop Tikhon, along with other hierarchs, was dismissed by the chief prosecutor V.N. Lvov from the Synod. In June 1917, Saint Tikhon was elected by the will of the church people to the Moscow diocesan see, after which the Synod bestowed upon him the rank of metropolitan. The Local Council, which took place in August 1917, elected Metropolitan Tikhon as its chairman, and shortly after, he was elevated to the restored patriarchal throne. In his first address to the Russian flock, Patriarch Tikhon characterized the era experienced by the country as a "time of God's wrath"; in his message, he expressed archpastoral concern for the situation of the Church and condemned the bloody disorders. At the same time, as the supreme pastor of the Russian Church, Patriarch Tikhon tried to avoid any political involvement in the ongoing events.
In March 1918, Patriarch Tikhon called upon the Russian people to resist the German Kaiser, who had seized the western territories of Russia, and later condemned the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty: "This peace, signed in the name of the Russian people, does not lead to brotherly coexistence of nations... It contains the seeds of new wars and evils for all humanity." In the summer of 1921, following the horrors of the Civil War, the Russian people faced another calamity: famine. In February 1922, Patriarch Tikhon urged church councils to donate precious church ornaments unless they were intended for liturgical use. However, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTSIK) issued a decree on the confiscation of church valuables for the needs of the starving. The patriarch responded to the decree with a new message to the flock, stating the inadmissibility of seizing sacred items, "the use of which for non-liturgical purposes is prohibited by the canons of the Universal Church."
When the VTSIK decree began to be implemented, crowds gathered around churches, clashes occurred, and blood was shed. Criminal cases were initiated in various cities across the country. Clergy were accused of obeying their Patriarch, of publicizing his appeal, of attempting to negotiate with the authorities for monetary compensation in exchange for church relics, and sometimes for not remaining indifferent to the blasphemous behavior of agents of the state who allowed themselves the most indecent forms of desecration of holy objects. In one of these show trials, Patriarch Tikhon was summoned as a witness.
During the Civil War, a division emerged among the clergy: renewal groups appeared that called for a revolution in the Church. In resisting the anti-canonical modernist encroachments, Patriarch Tikhon emphasized the inadmissibility of liturgical innovations in a special message to the flock on November 17, 1921. In May 1922, the patriarch was imprisoned in the Donskoy Monastery, and in June 1923, he was released. During this period, as a result of the destructive actions of the renovators, church governance was left without leadership: many bishops were expelled from their sees, most churches were seized by renovators, and the church community was thrown into confusion.
After his release from custody, Patriarch Tikhon addressed the flock with a message, stating that "The Russian Orthodox Church is apolitical and does not wish... to be either a white or a red church. It must be and will be the One, Holy, Apostolic Church." On April 5, 1924, the patriarch issued a new, brief, yet substantive message denouncing the serious crimes of the leaders of the renovative schism. In this message, based on church canons and in the name of the Russian Orthodox Church, the patriarch placed the renovators under canonical anathema and confirmed that they, until repentance, are outside the communion of the Church.
In November 1924, an assassination attempt was made on Patriarch Tikhon. Several criminals burst into his rooms and killed Yakov Polozov, a cleric who had come out in response to the noise. By the end of 1924, the health of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon sharply deteriorated. This forced him to go to the hospital of Dr. Bakunin. However, while there, the patriarch regularly attended services on festive and Sunday days in churches. On April 5, His Holiness Tikhon served his last liturgy at the Church of the Great Ascension on Nikitskaya.
On April 7, 1925, on the day of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, Patriarch Tikhon passed away to the Lord.
In 1989, the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.