Innocent Tikhonov

Saint Innocent (in the world Boris Dmitrievich Tikhonov, 22 May 1889 - 29 November 1937), hieromartyr, was Archbishop of Vinnytsia of the Russian Orthodox Church, born at Troitsk, a learned graduate of the Petrograd Academy, who died a martyr in 1937. He was glorified on 22 June 1993, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as a locally venerated saint of the Kharkov diocese, and in 2015 his name was entered in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land. He is commemorated on 16 November (the date in our calendar), and in the synaxis of the Vinnytsia saints on 14 September by the new calendar.

Studies and war

He was born on 22 May (3 June) 1889 in the town of Troitsk, Orenburg province, in the family of Dmitry and Zinovia Tikhonov, a non-⁠clerical family, according to the Ukrainian source. He lived and was raised at Tomsk, where he graduated from the secondary school and in 1911 the seminary. In the same year he entered the Theological Academy of Saint Petersburg, which, according to the Russian source, he finished in 1915 with the degree of candidate in theology, and according to the Ukrainian in 1916; he also graduated from the Institute of Archaeology. During his studies, on 5 (18) April 1913, he was tonsured a monk with the name Innocent, in honor of Saint Innocent, bishop of Irkutsk. On Lazarus Saturday, 6 (19) April 1913, the monk Innocent was ordained hierodeacon, and two months later, on the day of the commemoration of the holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates, 8 (21) June, the second Sunday after Pentecost, hieromonk. In 1914 he was confessor of sick and wounded soldiers in a mobile motor dressing detachment, and in 1915 confessor at the second Seraphim hospital. In 1915-1917 he was a teaching fellow of the Petrograd Theological Academy, at the chair of church archaeology.

The Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood

From 1916, with Hieromonks Leo and Gury (Egorov), he took an active part in missionary work in Petrograd. In 1917 he entered the brotherhood of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and was one of the founders of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood; within it he led a circle of lovers of Orthodox worship. In 1918 he was named head of the affairs of the Spiritual Council of the Lavra. From 1919 he held posts in the Russian Section of the Academy of the History of Material Culture. In 1921 he was raised to archimandrite.

The hierarch

On 9 April 1922 he was consecrated Bishop of Ladoga, the consecration being led by Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazansky) of Petrograd, with his vicars. He was arrested on 1 June 1922 (2 June, says the Ukrainian source) and by decision of the GPU of 4 January 1923 was exiled to Ust-⁠Tsilma in Arkhangelsk province (later the place was changed to Turkestan). In spring 1925 Bishop Innocent was released. Returned to Leningrad, from summer 1925 he belonged to the Council of Bishops.

He was arrested again on 19 December 1925, on the charge of "spreading literature of a counter-⁠revolutionary character", and on 29 April 1926 was sentenced to three years of exile in the Norilsk region (the Ukrainian source says he then stayed at Arkhangelsk). In mid-1929 he was released and settled in Vologda, then Arkhangelsk. From 1930 he was Bishop of Blagoveshchensk, an appointment he did not accept. In autumn 1931 he was arrested and on 2 December 1931 sentenced to three years of camp. He was in the Belbaltlag camp, worked on blasting, in 1933 was concussed and soon released, settling in Staraya Russa. From 19 October 1933 he was Bishop of Staraya Russa, vicar of the Novgorod diocese; from January 1937 Archbishop of Kharkov; from 23 March 1937 (23 April, according to the Ukrainian source) Archbishop of Vinnytsia.

On 28 October 1937 he was arrested again. On 29 November 1937, at 24:00, he was shot. The place of burial is unknown.

Glorification

On 22 June 1993, by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he was glorified as a locally venerated saint of the Kharkov diocese. On 1 April 2015, with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, the commemoration of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land was established, in which, among the fifteen strugglers connected with this land, Hieromartyr Innocent (Tikhonov), Archbishop of Vinnytsia (+ 1937), was also entered. The day of the synaxis is 14 September by the new calendar, the beginning of the indiction.