St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

He quickly became well respected in the Church and in 1761 was consecrated as a bishop. After serving as bishop for about seven years, he retired to the monastery of Zadonsk, where he spent the remainder of his life.

He devoted his "retirement" to prayer and the writing, producing an impressive collection of writings that have earned him the name "the Russian Chrysostom." He reposed in peace in 1783 at the age of fifty-nine. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death, and he was soon proclaimed a Saint by the people. When his tomb was opened in 1845 (over sixty years after his burial) to make way for a new church in Zadonsk, his body was found to be whole and incorrupt; even his vestments were free from decay. He was officially proclaimed a Saint in 1863; some three hundred thousand pilgrims attended his glorification.

From one of his writings, we learn that; "Love does not seek its own, it labors, sweats, watches to build up the brother: nothing is inconvenient to love, and by the help of God it turns the impossible into the possible .... Love believes and hopes.... It is ashamed of nothing. Without it, what is the use of prayer? What use are hymns and singing? What is the use of building and adorning churches? What is mortification of the flesh if the neighbor is not loved? Indeed, all are of no consequence.... As an animal cannot exist without bodily warmth, so no good deed can be alive without true love; it is only the pretence of a good deed."