Faithful “even to the point of blood”: His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the servants of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Moscow’s Spasskaya Sloboda in the 1920s
Keywords:
The Spasskaya Sloboda of Moscow, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Spasskaya Sloboda, Patriarch Tikhon, the Tsarist Army and the Red Army, the seizure of church valuables, the struggle of Renovationists for Moscow churches, protocols of church meetings, interrogations and verdicts of the judicial Troika of the NKVD of the USSRAbstract
The article describes the personalities of the servants of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Spasskaya Sloboda in the context of their relationship with His Holiness Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in the 1920s. An analysis of historical documents from the first half of the 20th century has shown that a fatherly bond in the spirit of love and fidelity was maintained between His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and the servants of the Savior Cathedral. In the new hostile political environment, the parish remained alive and active. Despite the prohibitions of the authorities, the chairman of the board and the rector of the Church of the Savior regularly invited Patriarch Tikhon to serve in the Church of the Savior. New historical information from the investigative files of the servants of the Savior Cathedral sheds light on the yet-to-be-described facts of the life and blessed death of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the spiritual feat of his faithful friends and spiritual children, and complement the history of church Moscow associated with the church on Bolshaya Spasskaya Street, which is so lacking in the capital today.
