On Saturday, Feb 22, on the day of the opening of the relics of Patriarch Tikhon, the memory of this Saint of modern times was triumphantly celebrated in a joint liturgical feast at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago (OCA), a church which the Saint himself consecrated in 1903.

Celebrating was His Grace, Archbishop Daniel, joined by a host of clerics from the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. The service was sung antiphonally between the cathedral choirs of Holy Trinity directed by reader Philip Sokoloff of the Holy Virgin Protection cathedral directed by Dr. Michael Gill.

In his sermon, Bishop Daniel recalled the remarkable life of St. Tikhon pointing out that even before modern conveniences and means of travel, he had visited the rapidly growing Orthodox communities of the New World everywhere from the remotest islands of the Aleutian chain to San Francisco, Chicago and New York. In so doing, he had met with a host of other remarkable church fathers who themselves were to ultimately be recognized as saints. In this very cathedral, he served with parish priest, Fr. John Kochurov, soon to be recalled to Russian and soon to become the first priest-martyr of the godless Bolshevik regime. In New York, he served with Syrian Hieromonk and later St. Raphael of Brooklyn in the newly consecrated cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York City. Back in Russia, he even crossed paths with the remarkable priest Fr. Mardary who following the revolution was made a bishop and assigned to serve the Serbian parishes of the Midwest, and whose relics now can be found at the Serbian monastery in Libertyville, a short drive from Chicago.

Following the Divine Liturgy, the clergy and laity were invited to a reception held at St. George cathedral (OCA) a short distance away. Heeding the special request of the Russian Orthodox Church to honor St. Tikhon on the 100th year of his repose with musical performances throughout the homeland and diaspora, the choir of the Holy Virgin Protection cathedral presented a short concert before the luncheon banquet opening with a poem by Fyodor Sologubov entitled “The sadness of your vastness” which was set to music by the well know composer Georgii Sviridov as the words reflect his love of his homeland and dedication to the very end for his flock:

I love the sadness of your spaces,

My dear land, holy Rus'.

Of your bleak fate

I'm not afraid nor ashamed.

And all your ways are dear to me,

And let the madness threaten

And the darkness and cold of the grave,

I will not waver.

I do not conjure the evil spirit,

But like a prayer I know by heart

I keep repeating the same four words:

“What vastness! What sadness!"