Patriarch Tikhon: Angel of the Russian Orthodox Church

This translation was sponsored by the Australian and New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

What does a man harbor within himself? A name is called: it may strike one’s heart, and a spark ignites. The person hastens to meet the call concealed in this name.

Where does this call lead? Our heart has many strings, and the tones of their resonance are multiplied as a man is enriched by culture. There are hosts of names capable of drawing out a sympathetic response from the depths of our consciousness, and sometimes subjugating us to a particular leading light of our age.

Yet who is behind the leading lights of this world, if not the Prince of this world?

Fortunately for man, there are hosts of names that summon him to something else: the names of those who were able to put to nought all the temptations of this age and be entirely lightened by the light of Christ.

Man is rent in twain! For some of us, we find that there is no more attractive force in the names of those great and glorious people who, perhaps, have been themselves saved as from fire by making their way to God, yet whose works, while at times carrying a reflection of heaven, are earth all