Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, Bishop of Voronezh — August 13 / August 26 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 13 according to the Julian Calendar (August 26 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, Bishop of Voronezh.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, Bishop of Voronezh (Timothy in the world), was born in the year 1724 in the village of Korotsk in the diocese of Novgorod, into the family of the deacon Savely Kirillov (the new surname, Sokolov, was given to him later by the administration of the Novgorod seminary). The boy lost his parents early. After this his brother took upon himself the care of the youngest child, and at the age of thirteen entrusted him to the Novgorod ecclesiastical school. When the school was reorganized into a seminary, Timothy, as one of the finest students, was received there at the archbishop’s expense.

The blessed one studied diligently; he would sell part of his own portion of food and buy candles with it, so that he might read books in the evenings. In 1754 Timothy graduated brilliantly from the seminary and was kept there, first as a teacher of Greek and then of rhetoric and philosophy. In 1758 the saint was tonsured a monk with the name Tikhon. In that same year he was appointed prefect of the seminary; in 1759 he was transferred to Tver and made an archimandrite; and afterwards, on May 13, he was consecrated Bishop of Kexholm and Ladoga. In 1763 the see of Voronezh was entrusted to Tikhon, and for four and a half years he governed his flock wisely.

In 1767, because of his broken health, the saint was compelled to give up the governance of his flock and to live in a monastery in the quiet life of a monk. In this time of solitude the blessed one loved to read the lives of the saints and the writings of the holy fathers; he knew all the psalms by heart and, while travelling, would ordinarily chant them.

By his unceasing labors Venerable Tikhon obtained the grace of the contemplation of heavenly things and of foresight. He prophesied many important events in the life of Russia. For the day of his death the saint had prepared beforehand his burial garments and his coffin.

Tikhon of Zadonsk, the wonderworking Russian father, reposed on August 13 in the year 1783, on a Sunday, at the age of fifty-nine. His canonization and the uncovering of his incorrupt relics took place on August 13, 1861.