St. Tikhon, Spiritual Father of St. Paisios, Commemorated for First Time

MT. ATHOS — As reported by UOJ-Greece, the Orthodox Church commemorated the feast of St. Tikhon (Golenkov) on September 23, 2026, for the first time following his recent addition to the church calendar by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Athonite ascetic was the spiritual father of St. Paisios of Mt. Athos.

Born in 1884 in the Russian village of Novaya Mikhailovka, St. Tikhon came to Mt. Athos, where he pursued a life of solitude and prayer. He initially spent five years at the Burazderi Cell before moving to Karoulia, where he lived for another 15 years despite the growing number of pilgrims visiting the area.

St. Tikhon later settled at the Stavronikita Cell of the Holy Cross in the Kapsala Skete, where he cared for an elderly monk. After the monk’s death, Fr. Tikhon remained at the cell alone, devoting himself more intensely to prayer. People increasingly sought him out for spiritual counsel and consolation, leading to his ordination to the priesthood so that he could also hear confessions.

St. Paisios, who was Fr. Tikhon’s novice, later recalled his spiritual father’s profound experience of the Divine Liturgy. According to St. Paisios, Fr. Tikhon experienced the Liturgy as an opening of heaven and could lose all awareness of time while celebrating it in deep spiritual rapture. His testimony was included in a 1972 book about the Athonite elder published by the Monastery of St. David of Euboea.

The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople unanimously decided to add Fr. Tikhon to the Church’s hagiography alongside the 19th-century Athonite ascetic Georgios (Haji-Georgios). St. Tikhon died on Mt. Athos in 1968, leaving behind a spiritual legacy remembered particularly through his influence on St. Paisios and other Athonite monks.

Previously, the UOJ reported that the Romanian Orthodox Church added St. Gabriel of Georgia to its liturgical calendar.