Pskov, September 17, 2018
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru His Eminence Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov and Porkhov celebrated the funeral service for the former abbot of the Pskov Caves Monastery Archimandrite Tikhon (Sekretarev) at the monastery on Friday. Numerous believers gathered in the monastery to bid farewell to the man who had headed the monastery for 23 years.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru He was concelebrated by His Grace Bishop John of Jelgava (Latvia), His Grace Bishop Sergei of Maardu, vicar of the Diocese of Tallinn (Estonia), and numerous clergy from Russia and abroad, reports the site of the Pskov Caves Monastery.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru Fr. Tikhon was the abbot of the Pskov Caves Monastery from 1995 to 2018. He was released from his duties in July at his own request in connection with his health, and he reposed in the Lord on September 12.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru Before the funeral, Met. Tikhon addressed those gathered with a welcoming speech, recounting Archim. Tikhon’s life and service in the monastery, along with his own personal recollections from his early years at the Pskov Caves Monastery.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru “Although Fr. Tikhon was outwardly a very restrained man, he did everything ardently, inwardly aware of a huge responsibility for every obedience, for every deed entrusted to him by the Queen of Heaven,” Met. Tikhon reflected.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru Offering a personal story, His Eminence recalled: “I remember my years of obedience here in the Pskov Caves Monastery, when Fr. Tikhon wasn’t even the dean yet, but just a very young hieromonk. Once I had obedience in the infirmary where there were many elderly monks. Suddenly Fr. Tikhon came in with some unpretentious but touching gifts and a book of the Holy Fathers.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru “I don’t think he was fulfilling any formal obedience. It was the calling of his heart. He gave everyone an apple and some kind of candy. Then he sat down and starting reading extracts from the Holy Fathers. He finished this reading, which I will remember my entire life, with the remarkable words of St. Isaac the Syrian: ‘To pray is to give thanks.’ Fr. Tikhon repeated this twice and added: ‘Fathers! Remember that true prayer is thanksgiving to God.’”
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru Following the funeral, Fr. Tikhon’s coffin was carried in procession around the monastery and placed in the brothers’ cemetery in the caves.
Photo: pskov-eparhiya.ru
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