April 7 marks the 100th anniversary of the repose of Saint Patriarch Tikhon, who was elected Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church after the restoration of the Patriarchate in 1917.
On April 6, the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, festive services were held in parishes in the Philippines and Vietnam.
The priests told the parishioners about the feat of the saint, about his primatial service.
It is interesting that Patriarch Tikhon worked for a long time in America, as did Saint John of Shanghai, whom the Filipinos venerate as the patron saint of the Philippines. Saint Tikhon and Saint John are depicted together on the icon of All Saints of America.
Today special attention was paid to his feat in Soviet Russia, during the revolutionary upheavals and the beginning of the persecution of the Church.
The Filipinos were interested in learning about this page of Soviet history. They had never encountered the ideology of state atheism and the struggle against the Church. Truly amazing is the feat of the zealot of the apostolic traditions, Patriarch Tikhon, who managed to preserve the unity of our Church in the most terrible time for it.
