BORIS BUZILĂ, Patriarch Tikhon: a different kind of martyrdom
The article evokes Patriarch Tikhon, the fi rst patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church after the
establishment of communism in 1917. Tikhon will become the fi rst bishop of the modern era, a great
leader of the Church, in confrontation not with a whimsical or heretical autocrat, but with a regime
and a state apparatus determined to totally destroy the Church, and seen as a formidable political
opponent. He had long suffered from the oppressive communist regime, including imprisonment.
The patriarch also had to deal with the emergence of a so-called “living Church”, a group within the
church, which was open to compromise with the communist state.
KEYWORDS: The patriarch Tikhon, Russian Orthodox Church, the communist regime, martyrdom,
“the living Church,” the Synod of August 1917

BORIS BUZILĂ