Moscow, November 18, 2024.
At the solemn act of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanities University and St. Tikhon's Institute, the exhibition "Who Will Separate Us from the Love of God" dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the blessed death of St. Tikhon was opened.
The exhibition was prepared with the support of the "Scientific and Educational Foundation named after St. Patriarch Tikhon"1, 2 and is one of the landmark projects implemented on behalf of the organizing committee of the 100th anniversary of the death of St. Tikhon.
St. Tikhon was the first Patriarch elected after the 200-year Synodal period. November 18, the day of the solemn act of the PSTSU, coincides with the day of St. Tikhon's election to the the patriarchal throne. Already during his lifetime he was honored as a saint. Many contemporaries pointed out that the scale of the personality and exploits of Patriarch Tikhon, whose service fell on the hard revolutionary years and the first years of persecution, will be truly understood only after the lapse of time.
The study of the exploit of St. Tikhon is an important area of research at PSTSU. For 30 years the university has published hundreds of scientific books and articles devoted to Patriarch Tikhon and his associates. In addition to the scientific and historical study of the saint's exploits, the PSTSU is working to perpetuate his name in other ways: a service and akathist have been composed, many icons have been written, thematic exhibitions devoted to the history of the Russian Church in the XX century are held, and excursions are organized.
The exhibition at the solemn act was presented by Professor of PSTSU, Doctor of Theology, Priest Alexander Mazyrin. Priest Sergius Ivanov, candidate of theology and philosophy, presented the anniversary edition of the book "St. Patriarch Tikhon and the seizure of church valuables in 1922".
The biographical principle was taken as a basis for creating the exposition. The exhibition consists of 15 modules-chapters, each of which is divided into two sections. of which tells about one of the periods of St. Tikhon's ministry. The title of the exhibition - "Who will separate us from the love of God" - is a quote from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, used by St. Tikhon in his famous letter: "We call you to suffer with us in the words of the Apostle - 'Who will separate us from the love of God'. These are the words that no suffering and tribulation can separate us from God.
The new exhibition is located in the Diocesan House (now the main building of PSTSU), where the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918 took place, which elected St. Tikhon to the Patriarchate. A series of excursions is planned. On the basis of the stationary exhibition, the PTSU staff is preparing its mobile version, which in 2025 will be offered for display in the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, including schools.
During 2025 it is planned to install a memorial granite plaque with the icon Patriarch Tikhon on the facade of the main building of the university.
Bishop Methodius of Egorievsk, Rector of PSTSU and PSTBI:
"The current exhibition is the result of many years of work by St. Tikhon's University and an illustration of the development of the tradition on which it relies. In the Cathedral Chamber, St. Tikhon was elected to the patriarchal throne, then it lost its appearance for a long time, was partitioned and divided into several floors and many rooms, partly reflecting with its fate the persecution of the entire Russian Church and its faithful servants. And today we open at this magnificently renovated church an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the saint's confessional death. Divine services are regularly held here, lectures are given to students, and concerts of spiritual and secular music are held. From here, the voice of the Church is once again carried out to the world through clergy, teachers and lay people. All of this is evidence of a return to the vision that was originally invested in the Moscow Diocesan House by its founders. Today this ministry continues through the varied activities of the University. And such a return would be incomplete without honoring the feat of St. Tikhon, research, education, and service in the many different forms that take place at our University."
Other comments:
Dmitry Vladimirovich Pavlov, Chairman of the Board of the Scientific and Educational Foundation named after St. Patriarch Tikhon:
"Our Foundation was established in 2023 to implement projects aimed at popularizing the personality of St. Tikhon at the national and international levels. We have already funded the Internet project "The Way of the Cross of Patriarch Tikhon", which allows you to trace the exploits of Patriarch Tikhon day by day, from 1917 to the moment of his repose on April 7, 1925. The scale of the project is due to the large number of documents from state and church archives. The current exhibition, organized by the PSTSU, is valuable, like the previous project, because of the variety of documents, a large research base, which in a popular form express the high significance of the feat of St. Tikhon for our culture and history. The scale of the figure of Patriarch Tikhon is still not fully appreciated, and this exhibition is one of the attempts to remedy this situation. In addition, a mobile version of it has been created, which can be used by the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. And this means that the exhibition, born on the basis of 30 years of research, will leave the walls of the university, becoming the property of a wide audience".
Priest Alexander Mazyrin, Doctor of Theology, chief researcher of the Department of Modern History of the Russian Orthodox Church, professor at PSTSU:
"Our university could not stay away from celebrating the centenary of the confessional death of its heavenly patron. The place of the main exhibition was chosen as the gallery of the Cathedral Chamber of the historic Moscow Diocesan House, where the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918, which elected St. Tikhon to the Patriarchal Throne, took place. Now it is the main building of the PSTSU".
Priest Sergius Ivanov, a researcher at PSTSU, author of the monograph "St. Patriarch Tikhon and the seizure of church valuables in 1922":
"The essence of my monograph is to restore the historical authenticity of the facts about the actions and appeals of Patriarch Tikhon, who was accused of counter-revolutionary resistance to the seizure of church valuables to help the starving people Volga region in 1922.
It is authentically known that Patriarch Tikhon never called for the overthrow of Bolshevik power, but he was right in his distrust of Soviet agitation, according to which church valuables in the conditions of an empty state treasury were intended for the purchase of foreign bread for the hungry. The Bolsheviks had money, and it was with their own money, and not with the currency of foreign bankers (as the agitators publicly promised) that they paid for the church valuables given to Pomgol.
It is proved that at the peak of deaths from hunger in February 1922 the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) mothballed 150 million gold rubles for monetary reform without giving them to the starving.
Thus, the state action to seize church valuables was not only sacrilege, but also blasphemy, an insult to the Orthodox shrines revered by the people. In this context, the previously censured position of Patriarch Tikhon, who spoke in their defense, appeared in a new light - impeccable, courageous and wise ".
Prot. Vladimir Vorobyov, President of the PTSU:
"The centenary of the death of St. Tikhon, Patriarch Tikhon's saint. Patriarch Tikhon is a significant date for the Russian Church and the entire Russian people. St. Tikhon was God's special chosen one, who was sent to our people, our Church at one of the most tragic moments in history. Patriarch Tikhon not only had to endure all the horrors of persecution, imprisonment, interrogation, but was obliged to make decisions concerning the earthly fate of his all-Russian flock. Before his eyes the persecutors tried to destroy the Church of Christ, killed the clergy, deceived the people, announced and implemented the "red terror". Monasteries and temples were closed, relics were mocked, icons were destroyed, sacred vessels were taken away, and many millions of people were killed by famine and civil war. The tragedy of this time we can no longer truly feel and imagine, we can not appreciate the inhuman suffering that fell to the share of Russian people in the first half of the XX century.
St. Tikhon was the beloved leader of the faithful church people at the time of their most difficult trials, so the memory of Patriarch Tikhon is sacred to all of us. The veneration of Patriarch Tikhon has become a landmark for us, as it was also during his lifetime, during the struggle against the Renewal schism, at a time when staunch churchmen were called Tikhon's people. And so it is for us - faithfulness to the exploits of Patriarch Tikhon, to his spiritual testament, which resounds in his messages and his sermons, teaches us faithfulness to Christ in these difficult times. Now the Church is free, in this sense the time is favorable, but the scale of the sinful obsession of the world around us is even difficult to realize. It is manifested only in such terrible facts as the loss of moral foundations of human life, terrible weapons of mass destruction, terrible degradation of the institution of the family, abortion. After all, mothers killed hundreds of millions of their own children. Finally, Sodom and Gomorrah, which seek to seize power and rule the world. Only faith in God can counteract this. The spirit of steadfastness, faithfulness to Christ in a special degree shows us the ascetic life of Patriarch Tikhon. That is why we have chosen him as the patron saint of our University. Therefore, the celebration in honor of the 100th anniversary of his death for our University is especially dear and important "
