Chosen for His People A Biography of Patriarch Tikhon

St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin, 1865–1925) is one of the most important figures of both Russian and Orthodox Church history in the 20th century. Yet 90 years after his death this remains the only complete biography ever published in the English language. It has now been updated and revised with a new preface and bibliography, together with revised and additional endnotes, by Scott M. Kenworthy. The biography reveals a picture of a man whom no one expected to be chosen as Patriarch, yet who nevertheless humbly accepted the call of God and the people to guide the Church during the most turbulent of times as it faced both internal upheavals and external persecution. Both specialists and general readers will become better acquainted with St. Tikhon through this modest but carefully crafted monograph.

Jane Swan taught history at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and served as the director of the Women’s Center. She earned her doctorate in Russian history from the University of Pennsylvania. Scott M. Kenworthy is an associate professor of comparative religion at Miami University in Ohio. He was the recipient of the 2010 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History for his book The Heart of Russia: Trinity-Sergius, Monasticism, and Society after 1825. He lives in Oxford, Ohio.