Akathist to the Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia, the Wonderworker

Kon­takion 1

To thee, the stead­fast cham­pion of the Holy Or­tho­dox Faith, do we, thy spir­i­tual chil­dren, offer hymns of praise and thanks­giv­ing, mind­ful of the many bene­fac­tions which thou hast be­stowed upon us. As thou hast great bold­ness be­fore the dread throne of the Most High, pray thou earnestly in be­half of all who truly honor thy holy mem­ory and cry out to thee with love:

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Ikos 1

Called by God to His holy priest­hood from thy mother’s womb, for all the faith­ful thou wast an ex­am­ple in word, con­duct, love, spirit, faith and pu­rity, for thou didst fight well the good fight, didst fin­ish the dif­fi­cult course of thy life, and didst keep the Faith, in no­wise fail­ing to hold fast to thy vows. Where­fore, full of grat­i­tude for thy love and sac­ri­fice, we say:

Rejoice, thou who didst preach the word of God with fer­vor; re­joice, thou who wast watch­ful in all things! Re­joice, thou who didst make full proof of thy min­istry; re­joice, thou who as an evan­ge­list didst pro­claim the glad tid­ings of sal­va­tion! Re­joice, thou who didst re­prove those who re­jected the truth of the Chris­t­ian Faith; re­joice, thou who didst re­buke those who em­braced the mod­ern fa­bles of ma­te­ri­al­ism and progress! Re­joice, thou who, when the time of thy de­par­ture was at hand, didst make pro­vi­sion for the Church; re­joice, thou who hast there­fore re­ceived from God a twofold crown for thy right­eous­ness and con­fes­sion! Re­joice, for the Lord stood with thee and strength­ened thee in the hour of thy tribu­la­tion; re­joice, for He de­liv­ered thee as from the mouth of a lion and gave thee rest! Re­joice, for as thou didst live in godly man­ner in Christ Jesus, thou didst suf­fer per­se­cu­tion; re­joice, for thou didst pre­vail until the end and hast ob­tained thy re­ward!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 2

Having re­ceived the royal name Basil in the holy wa­ters of bap­tism, from thine in­fancy thou wast raised in piety and love for the Holy Church of Christ, Who called thee to fol­low thy fa­ther in His priestly min­istry; and from child­hood thou didst come to know the Holy Scrip­tures, which made thee wise unto sal­va­tion through faith in our mer­ci­ful Sav­ior, to Whom we all cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

In thy youth thou didst with fer­vor apply thy­self to the study of the law of God and the dog­mas of the Holy Or­tho­dox Faith at the sem­i­nary in Pskov, O fa­vorite of Christ; and so thor­oughly didst thou ab­sorb the moral teach­ings of the holy fa­thers, that thy com­pan­ions came to call thee "the pa­tri­arch", show­ing them­selves to be un­wit­ting prophets. Where­fore, mar­vel­ling at the guid­ance of the prov­i­dence of God which was man­i­fest through­out thy life, we say:

Rejoice, thou whose heart was de­void of guile; re­joice, thou whose gen­tle­ness touched the hearts of all! Re­joice, thou to whom the Lord granted the gift of in­tel­li­gence, that thou might­est un­der­stand His will; re­joice, thou who in hu­mil­ity didst re­ceive the monas­tic habit! Re­joice, thou who didst drink thy fill of the in­ex­haustible spring of the dog­mas of the Church; re­joice, thou who wast the em­bod­i­ment of Chris­t­ian teach­ings! Re­joice, thou who didst en­lighten Pskov with the ef­ful­gence of piety; re­joice, thou who didst shine forth the light of the Holy Faith in the city of Kholm! Re­joice, for the city of Kazan’ re­joiced in thy teach­ing; re­joice, for by thy mild de­meanor thou didst in­spire heretics to re­turn to the Or­tho­dox fold! Re­joice, for thy life was a bea­con of piety cast­ing its light over a gloom-en­shrouded sea; re­joice, for thereby thou didst guide many to the calm haven of the One Church of Christ!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 3

When the Most Holy Synod heard re­port of thy good works in Kholm, and how the peo­ple were in­structed by thee in right­eous­ness, they com­manded that thou be con­se­crated to the epis­co­pal rank; and thus thou wast en­trusted with the oner­ous task of tend­ing Christ’s rea­son-en­dowed sheep, to which thou didst as­sid­u­ously de­vote thine en­er­gies until the very hour of thy death, show­ing thy­self to be not a hireling, but a true shep­herd of the flock of the all-holy Trin­ity, to Whom we all cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

When rumor spread that thou wast ap­pointed to an­other epis­co­pal see, thy flock rose up in protest, show­ing their dis­may over the loss of their beloved arch­pas­tor; but, sub­mit­ting in obe­di­ence to the ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal au­thor­i­ties, thou didst un­der­take the long jour­ney to thy new dio­cese in far­away Amer­ica, where for eight years thou didst labor tire­lessly in the vine­yard of Christ, bring­ing forth abun­dant fruit. We there­fore cry out to thee thus:

Rejoice, thou who didst in­crease four­fold the parishes of thy see; re­joice, thou who by thy guile­less­ness and hu­mil­ity didst re­store mul­ti­tudes to the Faith of their fa­thers! Re­joice, thou who, in thy love for the saints of God and re­spect for the pious Tsar, didst erect the Cathe­dral of Saint Nicholas; re­joice, thou who didst con­voke a holy coun­cil to fur­ther the spread of the Or­tho­dox Faith! Re­joice, thou who didst ded­i­cate a sa­cred monastery for the es­tab­lish­ment of the an­gelic life; re­joice, thou who didst thus honor the heav­enly pa­tron whose name thou hadst re­ceived at thine own ton­sure! Re­joice, for in thy pas­toral care for thy flock thou didst show forth the spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind; re­joice, thou who didst shine forth the bright­ness of the grace of God in thy spir­i­tual life! Re­joice, thou who wast shown to be an elo­quent preacher, an apos­tle and teacher of the na­tions; re­joice, thou who didst cher­ish well the trea­sure com­mit­ted to thee by the Holy Spirit! Re­joice, thou who didst trans­mit to the faith­ful what thou hadst learned from the holy fa­thers; re­joice, thou who, hav­ing striven law­fully, hast re­ceived thy crown!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 4

When they saw how Almighty God had used thee in Amer­ica as His in­stru­ment for the build­ing up of His Holy Or­tho­dox Church, thy su­pe­ri­ors in Rus­sia de­cided to trans­fer thee from the New World to the an­cient and glo­ri­ous see of Yaroslavl,’ whither thou didst be­take thy­self in all obe­di­ence; and there thou didst as­ton­ish all by thine un­feigned con­cern for the life of even the lowli­est parishes in thy dio­cese and thy love for all the chil­dren of God, to Whom we cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 4

With es­teem for the gifts of the Spirit which so man­i­festly abode within thee, the Most Holy Synod as­signed thee as bishop of the see of Vilna of Lithua­nia, where there were mul­ti­tudes of Latins and Uni­ates who re­jected the Or­tho­dox Church of Christ; but with thy mild ways and gen­tle de­meanor, thou didst win over their hearts, and many con­verted to the true Faith. With them we cry out to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who wast stead­fast in thine Or­tho­doxy; re­joice, thou who in godly man­ner didst edify all in the Faith! Re­joice, thou who with love didst ad­mon­ish those who had turned aside from the Truth; re­joice, thou who didst know that the law of God is good, when used law­fully! Re­joice, thou who didst op­pose that which is con­trary to sound doc­trine; re­joice, thou who didst ad­vance the spread­ing of the Gospel of our Lord! Re­joice, thou who didst en­lighten those who were in the ig­no­rance of un­be­lief; re­joice, thou whose love soft­ened their hard hearts and stiff necks! Re­joice, thou who didst offer up sup­pli­ca­tions and prayers for all men; re­joice, thou who didst in­ter­cede for them and give thanks! Re­joice, for thy labors were good and ac­cept­able unto God our Sav­ior; re­joice, for through thee many were saved and came to a knowl­edge of the Truth!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 5

When the Latin Em­pire of Aus­tria-Hun­gary de­clared war on the King­dom of Ser­bia, and the Russ­ian Em­pire rose up to de­fend its Or­tho­dox brethren, the hor­rors of war beset thy dio­cese as it was in­vaded by the enemy; but though thou wast urged to re­treat to the safety of Moscow, thou didst bravely re­solve to re­main with thy flock, suc­cor­ing those who had lost their homes and were in flight from de­struc­tion, en­cour­ag­ing the sol­diers at the front, and coura­geously cel­e­brat­ing the di­vine ser­vices on the bat­tle­field even as bombs burst round about thee. Where­fore, in awe of thy fear­less­ness, we cry out to the Almighty, Who gave thee strength: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

When the tide of bat­tle turned against the Russ­ian realm be­cause of its sins, and per­fid­i­ous and trai­tor­ous lack­eys, faint-hearted and cow­ardly, pre­vailed upon the Or­tho­dox Tsar to ab­di­cate his throne, as a mer­ci­ful arch­pas­tor thou didst weep for thy peo­ple, who were caught up in the chaos of war, civil strife and famine, and didst beg the Most High not to in­flict un­bear­able tribu­la­tions upon them. And we, mind­ful of thy com­pas­sion, cry out to thee:

Rejoice, thou who didst pray at every time and in every place; re­joice thou who didst lift up thy holy hands, with­out wrath and doubt­ing! Re­joice, thou who didst com­mem­o­rate the ruler and those in au­thor­ity; re­joice, thou who didst pray that all might lead a quiet and peace­able life! Re­joice, thou who wast blame­less and tem­per­ate; re­joice, thou who wast sober-minded and apt to teach! Re­joice, thou who as a good monk didst spurn filthy lucre; re­joice, thou who in thy mod­esty wast a stranger to cov­etous­ness! Re­joice, thou who didst hold the mys­tery of the Faith in a pure con­science; re­joice, thou who wast re­peat­edly proved, and found blame­less! Re­joice, thou who didst rule well each of thy dio­ce­ses; re­joice, thou who didst edify the house of Christ, the Church of the liv­ing God!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 6

Amid the tu­mult and tur­moil of civil un­rest, in the pres­ence of the mirac­u­lous Vladimir Icon of the all-holy Theotokos thou wast elected by the clergy and peo­ple of the glo­ri­ous city of Moscow to be their bishop. And great was their joy and as­ton­ish­ment when they found thee to be a so­lic­i­tous arch­pas­tor, who gladly vis­ited the homes of even the hum­blest of his flock; and they gave thanks for thee unto Christ our God, chant­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

As the dark clouds of un­godly rev­o­lu­tion massed over the land, the hi­er­ar­chs of the Church of Rus­sia and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the clergy and the faith­ful as­sem­bled in the Krem­lin of Moscow to de­lib­er­ate and en­sure the well-being of the Holy Or­tho­dox Church; and they chose thee, O holy Tikhon, to pre­side over their ses­sions, which thou didst do with great in­tel­li­gence and pa­tience. Where­fore, we all ex­claim:

Rejoice, thou who didst labor and suf­fer re­proach for thy trust in the liv­ing God; re­joice, thou who didst not ne­glect the gift which was prophet­i­cally given thee! Re­joice, thou who, tak­ing heed to thy­self and to Or­tho­dox doc­trine, didst save thy­self and those who lis­tened to thee; re­joice, thou who didst take care of wid­ows and or­phans! Re­joice, thou who didst not pre­fer one be­fore an­other, show­ing par­tial­ity to none; re­joice, for thy good works were man­i­fest be­fore all! Re­joice, thou who wast con­tent to have food and rai­ment; re­joice, thou who didst not sup­pose that gain is god­li­ness! Re­joice, thou who, hat­ing riches, wast not en­tan­gled in their snares; re­joice, thou who didst not fall into the man­i­fold per­ni­cious lusts which drag men down to de­struc­tion! Re­joice, thou who fol­lowed after right­eous­ness, piety, faith, pa­tience and meek­ness; re­joice, thou who laid hold on eter­nal life, unto which thou wast called!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 7

With the ab­di­ca­tion and im­pris­on­ment of the de­vout Tsar, and the fall of Or­tho­dox gov­ern­ment, the hi­er­ar­chs of the Church and the lead­ers of the faith­ful con­sid­ered how best to pre­serve the age-old piety of Rus­sia; then, re­solv­ing to re­store the an­cient Pa­tri­ar­chate of Moscow, they elected thee to that ex­alted of­fice. And, ac­cept­ing the will of God when thy bal­lot was cho­sen be­fore the won­der-work­ing Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, thou didst not refuse to shoul­der this heavy bur­den, but didst cry unto the Almighty: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

When thou wast a young man, thou didst as­sume that the hi­er­ar­chal rank en­tailed dig­nity, power, strength and honor; but in time thou didst come to re­al­ize that it sig­ni­fied in­stead toil, strug­gle and sac­ri­fice. And when thou didst ac­cept elec­tion as Pa­tri­arch, thou didst com­pare thy new duty to the scroll of which the holy Prophet Ezekiel spake, whereon were writ the words "Weep­ing, sigh­ing and sor­row; lamen­ta­tion, mourn­ing and woe". More­over, in the words of Moses thou didst say unto the Lord: "Where­fore hast Thou af­flicted Thy ser­vant? Where­fore have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest the bur­den of all this peo­ple upon me?" Yet, un­daunted by the im­pend­ing hor­rors thou didst en­vi­sion, thou didst not refuse this duty; for which cause we cry unto thee:

Rejoice, thou to whom the staff of Saint Peter of Moscow was en­trusted; re­joice, thou upon whose head the klóbuk of Pa­tri­arch Nikon was set! Re­joice, for even the blas­phe­mous sol­diers cast them­selves at thy feet; re­joice, for they would not move until thou hadst blessed them re­peat­edly! Re­joice, fear­less me­di­a­tor for thy peo­ple, who wast not daunted by the weaponry of the enemy; re­joice, thou who, plac­ing thy trust in God, didst lead a pro­ces­sion around the em­bat­tled Krem­lin, pray­ing for the car­nage to cease! Re­joice, thou who didst bind thy­self with an oath to pre­serve the Or­tho­dox Faith; re­joice, thou who with the other mem­bers of the Great Coun­cil didst set down rules to gov­ern the life of the Holy Church! Re­joice, thou who with de­vo­tion to all the saints of the Russ­ian land didst es­tab­lish a spe­cial feast in their honor; re­joice, thou who didst set aright in­jus­tices com­mit­ted of old! Re­joice, thou who didst in­scribe in the lists of the saints the holy hi­er­arch Sophro­nius and hi­ero­mar­tyr Joseph; re­joice, thou who didst protest a treaty de­void of honor!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 8

When the god­less seized power in Rus­sia, they fell upon the Holy Or­tho­dox Church like jack­als upon an in­no­cent lamb, and strove to rend it limb from limb: they un­justly con­fis­cated the lands and funds which were its sup­port, dis­pos­sessed it of all its schools and sem­i­nar­ies, or­dered that thence­forth the clergy re­ceive no pay­ment for their labors, and strictly for­bade the teach­ing of the Holy Faith; for they wished to cre­ate a na­tion where the peo­ple would no longer chant unto God: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

O holy hi­er­arch Tikhon, thou didst clearly per­ceive the evil pur­poses of the en­e­mies of God, and in thy heart­felt con­cern for their sal­va­tion didst com­mit them, and those who sup­ported them, to dread anath­ema and ex­com­mu­ni­ca­tion, for at­tempt­ing to bring about the ru­ina­tion of the Holy Church of Christ. But thou didst urge the faith­ful to en­dure mar­tyr­dom for our mer­ci­ful Sav­ior and the Holy Or­tho­dox Faith; and many who hear­kened to thy zeal­ous ex­hor­ta­tions were later led like sheep to the slaugh­ter, and have been trans­lated to the choirs of heaven, where, hav­ing joined their com­pany, thou hear­est us cry unto thee:

Rejoice, thou who didst con­demn the des­e­cra­tion of the tem­ples of God; re­joice, thou who didst protest the con­fis­ca­tion of the holy churches! Re­joice, thou who didst lament the es­trange­ment of Kiev and Lit­tle Rus­sia; re­joice, thou who didst decry the sense­less mur­ders wan­tonly com­mit­ted by the god­less mob! Re­joice, thou who wast stricken with an­guish by the as­sas­si­na­tion of the pious Tsar and his in­no­cent fam­ily and ser­vants; re­joice, thou who didst pro­claim that those who did not con­demn this sin of regi­cide would bear the guilt of in­no­cent blood! Re­joice, thou who didst fear­lessly cel­e­brate a memo­r­ial for the royal vic­tims; re­joice, thou who didst ad­jure the Russ­ian peo­ple to ac­knowl­edge their sins! Re­joice, for with spir­i­tual sight thou didst per­ceive the famine as a sign of God’s wrath; re­joice, for many, heed­ing thy valiant words, found the strength to en­dure mar­tyr­dom! Re­joice, for thou didst bless them for their final strug­gle against evil in high places; re­joice, for the blade of the de­mo­nized woman who sought thy death did not slay thee!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 9

O the depths of de­prav­ity to which the un­godly sank in those trou­bled times! For, hav­ing cast off all moral re­straints, the min­ions of the evil one falsely ar­rested the clergy and monas­tics, and sum­mar­ily ex­e­cuted them as en­e­mies of the peo­ple, or sen­tenced them to hard labor as slaves; and they de­lighted in slaugh­ter­ing mul­ti­tudes of the faith­ful dur­ing church pro­ces­sions. But thou, groan­ing at the loss of thy brethren, didst re­buke the wicked mur­der­ers, cry­ing out: "The blood of our brethren, shed like rivers and spilled by you, cri­eth out to heaven". where they stand with the saints and an­gels, chant­ing: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

When drought and famine struck the land of Rus­sia, so that the har­vest failed and death stalked the land, thou didst ap­peal to all the faith­ful to help their starv­ing brethren; and, hear­ken­ing unto thee, they gave gen­er­ously of their sub­stance. But the evil op­pres­sors of the peo­ple, fear­ing the power of the grace in­her­ent in holy char­ity and alms­giv­ing, seized for them­selves the funds which had been col­lected, and sup­pressed the or­ga­ni­za­tion formed for the dis­tri­b­u­tion thereof, pre­fer­ring that the starv­ing per­ish of hunger rather than owe their lives to the Chris­t­ian Church. Then also did the god­less regime de­mand all the trea­sures of the Church, where­with the pious had adorned it over the cen­turies; but thou didst re­sist their blas­phe­mous edict, urg­ing the flock not to sur­ren­der unto the un­godly that which is holy. Where­fore, we cry unto thee such things as these:

Rejoice, good hus­band­man of the vine­yard of Christ; re­joice, thou who didst prune the vine of the Church, that it might put forth goodly fruit! Re­joice, thou who didst bravely de­fend the pat­ri­mony of the faith­ful; re­joice, thou who with valor didst de­nounce those who com­mit­ted sac­ri­lege! Re­joice, for thou didst not bury in the ground the ta­lant en­trusted to thee; re­joice, for thou didst wisely in­crease it for thy heav­enly Mas­ter! Re­joice, for Christ the Lord was well pleased with thee; re­joice, for with glad­ness thou didst enter into His joy! Re­joice, thou who didst take care that the starv­ing be fed; re­joice, for by thine ef­forts was aid given them in abun­dance! Re­joice, for the en­e­mies of Christ said all man­ner of evil against thee falsely for His sake; re­joice, for in like man­ner were the prophets of God per­se­cuted be­fore thee!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 10

Though the on­slaught of the god­less en­e­mies of Christ dealt His Church a bit­ter blow, yet more bit­ter by far was the be­trayal of thee and Holy Or­tho­doxy by false brethren who strove to re­fash­ion it in their own fallen image, per­fid­i­ously cast­ing aside the canons of the holy œcu­meni­cal coun­cils and the age-old tra­di­tions of the Uni­ver­sal Church. For though they called them­selves "the Liv­ing Church", yet didst thou rightly de­clare them to be de­void of the life-giv­ing grace of the Holy Trin­ity, since they had basely usurped the le­git­i­mate au­thor­ity within the Church; and as treach­er­ous and trai­tor­ous be­tray­ers they have no right to chant unto God: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

The prince of evil, the an­cient enemy of the sal­va­tion of man, in­spired his hench­men to di­vide the Church of Rus­sia, thus mak­ing it eas­ier to crush it ut­terly; and sup­port­ing the in­vid­i­ous "Liv­ing Church", the athe­ist regime per­se­cuted the true Church of Christ, striv­ing to force all the hi­er­ar­chs and the clergy to aban­don thee, the true arch­pas­tor of the rea­son-en­dowed flock of the Lord. And to achieve their vile aim, they falsely ar­rested thee, O holy pa­tri­arch, and cast thee into prison. Where­fore, we cry out to thee:

Rejoice, thou who didst un­mask the wolves who came to thee in sheeps’ cloth­ing; re­joice, thou who like Paul didst suf­fer per­ils be­cause of false brethren! Re­joice, thou who didst know them by their fruits; re­joice, thou who didst warn them that, lack­ing any good fruit, they would be hewn down, and cast into ever­last­ing fire! Re­joice, thou who didst as­sure them that not every­one who saith "Lord, Lord!" shall enter into the king­dom of heaven; re­joice, thou who didst de­clare that the Lord would say unto them "De­part from Me, ye who work in­iq­uity"! Re­joice, thou who didst ad­jure them not to try to build their house on shift­ing sands, lest its fall be great; re­joice, thou who didst ad­mon­ish them to cleave unto the house of God, which is founded upon the rock of the true Faith! Re­joice, thou who, when thou wast ar­rested, didst not won­der what thou wouldst say; re­joice, for in that same hour elo­quence was given thee, for thee to an­swer the tyrants! Re­joice, for it was not thou who spak­est, but the Holy Spirit within thee; re­joice, for thy tor­menters could not shake thee in thy stead­fast con­fes­sion!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 11

Even as all the foes of the Holy Faith ar­rayed them­selves against thee and beset thee on every side, to smite and de­stroy thee, they found will­ing al­lies in their blas­phe­mous wiles in the per­son of the de­luded Pa­tri­arch of Con­stan­tino­ple and those of like mind with him, who, in­fected with the dis­ease of ma­sonry and ec­u­menism, de­clared his sup­port of the "Liv­ing Church" and con­firmed the de­po­si­tion it had falsely im­posed upon thee. Yet, full of valor and stead­fast faith, thou didst not yield to de­spair, but didst cry out to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

The faith­ful of the Church did not waver in their al­le­giance to thee, the right­ful pri­mate of the Church of Rus­sia, and when in­flu­ence from abroad was brought to bear upon the regime, so that thou wast re­leased from cap­tiv­ity, the "Liv­ing Church" with­ered away like a bar­ren fig-tree. Still, the god­less did not cease to per­se­cute thee, dis­pach­ing a vile tor­menter to wear down thy strength and health by his con­stant de­mands and im­por­tu­ni­ties. Yet, though weak in body, thou didst not allow the Church to fall prey to his evil machi­na­tions; where­fore, we cry to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, for though thou didst see brother de­liver brother unto death, thou didst not de­spair; re­joice, for though thou didst wit­ness chil­dren ris­ing up against their par­ents, thou didst re­sist de­spon­dency! Re­joice, thou who wast hated for the name of the Lord; re­joice, for, hav­ing en­dured unto the end, thou wast saved! Re­joice, for thou didst not fear those who kill the body; re­joice, for thou didst know that such men are un­able to de­stroy the soul! Re­joice, for thou didst con­fess Christ be­fore all men; re­joice, for He hath con­fessed thee be­fore His Fa­ther in heaven! Re­joice, for thou didst pon­der the words of Christ, that a man’s foes shall be of his own house­hold; re­joice, for thou didst not think that He had come to send peace on earth, but rather a sword! Re­joice, for thou wast wor­thy of the Lord, hav­ing loved no one more than Him; re­joice, for thou wast wor­thy of the Lord, hav­ing taken up thy cross and fol­lowed Him!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 12

As chaos and tur­moil de­scended upon the Church of Rus­sia, and thy phys­i­cal pow­ers waned, thou didst fore­see the com­ing of a time when the per­se­cu­tion of the god­less would be­come so in­tense that they would per­mit no true and godly hi­er­arch to over­see the flock of Christ; where­fore, tak­ing coun­sel with thy pious physi­cian, thou didst se­cretly ton­sure him to the monas­tic habit, and didst or­dain him as Max­imus, Bishop of Ser­pukhov, en­trust­ing to him the per­ilous task of found­ing a Church in the cat­a­combs, that the true Faith might con­tinue to be preached, and that the flock of Christ, which would call them­selves Tikhonites after thy name, might con­tinue fear­lessly to chant unto the Most High: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

Pre­cious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, where­fore thy hal­lowed re­pose was also blessed; for, worn out with con­stant con­cern and care for thy faith­ful flock, thy health shat­tered by the un­remit­ting in­ter­ro­ga­tions of the evil tor­menter, thou didst sur­ren­der thy pure soul into the hands of thy Mas­ter, pass­ing over un­hin­dered to the man­sions of heaven, where, greeted by the most holy Theotokos and all the in­cor­po­real pow­ers, thou hast joined the choir of the apos­tles, mar­tyrs and con­fes­sors, for which cause we chant to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, for in thee hath the Lord of hosts been well pleased; re­joice, for the ranks of an­gels re­joice in thy fear­less wit­ness! Re­joice, for the apos­tles of Christ wel­come thee into their choir; re­joice, for the as­sem­blies of the mar­tyrs re­joice at thine ar­rival in their midst! Re­joice, for all the holy hi­er­ar­chs mar­vel at thine un­daunted courage; re­joice, for the com­pany of ven­er­a­ble monas­tics doth stand in awe of thine awe­some strug­gles! Re­joice, for in thee are all the saints of Rus­sia ex­ceed­ingly glad; re­joice, for with thee all the saints of the Or­tho­dox Church praise the in­di­vis­i­ble Trin­ity! Re­joice, for though thy death was lowly, yet through it hast thou at­tained the heights of heaven; re­joice, for in her mirac­u­lous Icon of the Don the all-im­mac­u­late Mother of God guarded thy grave! Re­joice, for after many years in the earth thy pre­cious relics were un­cov­ered and found to be un­touched by cor­rup­tion; re­joice, for those who ap­proach them with faith re­ceive through them the heal­ing of their in­fir­mi­ties!

Rejoice, O hum­ble Tikhon, stead­fast con­fes­sor of the Faith and fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor for our souls!

Kon­takion 13

O most holy hi­er­arch Tikhon, Pa­tri­arch of Moscow and All Rus­sia, meek and hum­ble ser­vant of our meek and lov­ing Sav­ior, the Lord Jesus Christ! With thy mer­ci­ful gaze look down upon the suf­fer­ing Russ­ian land, and re­gard with pity its down­trod­den and op­pressed peo­ples. And even though the tri­als and tribu­la­tions which af­flict us are the re­sult of our own sins, our hard­ness of heart and lack of re­pen­tance, in­ter­cede be­fore the dread throne of the Most High, that He pun­ish us not for our trans­gres­sions and of­fenses, but that He have mercy upon us who, taught by thee, cry out unto Him in Or­tho­dox man­ner: Alleluia!

Се́й конда́къ глаго́лется три́жды. Та́же Икосъ 1-й и Конда́къ 1-й

Prayer to the Pa­tri­arch Tikhon of Moscow

O good pas­tor, our fer­vent in­ter­ces­sor and in­struc­tor, holy hi­er­arch Tikhon! Hear­ken now to the groans and sighs which issue forth from the depths of our hearts, and ac­cept the earnest en­treaty we make unto thee; for we know that as a lov­ing fa­ther thou abidest ever with us in spirit, watch­ing over us, thy sin­ful chil­dren, and pray­ing to the Lord in our be­half. Where­fore, O fa­vorite of God, as thou hast bold­ness be­fore the Mas­ter Jesus Christ with His all-pure Mother, be thou for us a me­di­a­tor and ad­vo­cate, for, now as ever, we stand sorely in need of thine in­ter­ces­sion. As thou wast a peer of the apos­tles, bring­ing en­light­en­ment to those be­nighted by heresy and schism, so lead us into the un­cre­ated light of the grace of God, that we may pass from glory to glory, and may find rest with thee and all the saints in the man­sions of heaven; and as thou wast a fear­less con­fes­sor of the truth of the holy Or­tho­dox Faith, so teach us to stand im­mov­able on the rock of faith, un­shaken by the surg­ing tides and cur­rents of worldly un­der­stand­ings and temp­ta­tions; and as thou didst pre­vail until the end in thine awe­some con­test against the prince of this world and his evil min­ions, so do thou aid us, thy sin­ful and un­wor­thy chil­dren, in our daily strug­gles, that by thy sup­pli­ca­tions we may es­cape the mal­ice of the enemy of our sal­va­tion and may set at nought the schemes and wiles of those who, hav­ing suc­cumbed to his in­flu­ence, pre­fer worldly glory, riches and po­si­tion to hu­mil­ity and all the Chris­t­ian virtues and a stead­fast con­fes­sion of Christ our true God, Who with the un­o­rig­i­nate Fa­ther and His all-holy, good and life-cre­at­ing Spirit, is wor­shiped and glo­ri­fied for­ever. Amen.

Akathist to the Saint Tikhon, Pa­tri­arch of Moscow and of All Rus­sia in Eng­lish
Other hymns in Eng­lish