By Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk (Sokolov)
Circular letter to the Voronezh clergy
By the grace of God, humble Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh and Yelets, to the archimandrites, abbots, hieromonks, archpriests, priests and other clergy of the Voronezh diocese, the brethren in Christ beloved in the Lord God, rejoice.
I. Knowing how drunkenness has especially increased in people at the present time, and therefore warning those who have not yet been tempted by it, and turning away from that passion those who have been tempted and are in it, I offer the following to your love.
You yourselves know that the passion of drunkenness destroys not only the body, but also the soul. It destroys the body, because nothing takes away health like drunkenness. It ruins the soul, for when are there more quarrels, hostility, fights, screams, foul language, foul thoughts, disorderly conduct, and other similar temptations, if not in drunkenness? That is why Saint Chrysostom says that “no one is so pleasing to the devil as one who is in drunkenness.” And why? Because no one fulfills his will as much as a drunkard. Temptation comes from drunkenness. “But woe,” according to the word of Christ, “to that man through whom the temptation comes” (Matthew 18:7)! But you, lamps placed on a candlestick, to which all look and take an example from you, you are the “light of the world,” you are the “salt of the earth,” according to the word of Christ, how will you serve, perform the sacred rites in the morning, when yesterday those entrusted to you saw you drunk, quarreling, disorderly? Will not anyone who has seen a drunken, disorderly priest think to himself, saying: what kind of priest is he! Yesterday he did this, and today he serves: what kind of a worshipper, intercessor, and so on is he?! He condemns you, and you are guilty of condemning him, and so it is a sin for both. It is a sin for him that he condemns you; it is a sin for you that you have given him cause for condemnation. For this reason, as your pastor, I advise, I exhort you brotherly: beware of drunkenness in every way, so that you can more easily avoid sin and not give temptation to your neighbor.
II. Not only a filthy word, but also a “rotten word,” I say in the words of the apostle, “let it not proceed out of your mouth” (Eph. 4:29). Every idle, unprofitable word, not spoken for edification, is a rotten word, for which, according to the word of Christ, one will have to give an account on the day of judgment. “Let all bitterness,” as the same apostle teaches, “and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, with all malice, be put away from you” (Eph. 4:31).
III. Have peace among yourselves, love, brotherly love, “with all humility and meekness and longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4:2-3, 32). If the holy apostle commands all Christians to forgive one another’s sins, how much more so the priests, from whom all should take an example of every virtue. God forgave us sinners in Christ Jesus, as the apostle said above: Should not we sinners forgive those who are like ourselves? Your neighbor has offended you in some way today, and you perhaps yesterday (offended him in some way), and so we sin against one another. And since we sin against one another, we must mutually forgive one another. Pointing to this, the apostle also says: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). If anyone is at odds and bears malice toward his neighbor, such a person should not even approach the priesthood, otherwise he will sin greatly. For how will he receive forgiveness of sins from the merciful Heavenly Father, before Whom not only every day, but also every hour and every minute we all sin greatly? With what confidence will he pray to the Heavenly Father: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” – and he himself is angry with his neighbor, desiring to destroy his memory? When we pray thus in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” – do we not make an agreement with God thus: so, they say, You, Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins, as we forgive our neighbors? Therefore, although we pray to God for the forgiveness of our sins, but do not forgive our brother’s offense, we will not receive forgiveness from God either. Therefore, we must first forgive our neighbor’s sins, and forgive from the heart, that is, not only in word, but also in fact to consign the offense to oblivion. And so, having forgiven your brother’s sins, you must approach the generous God with boldness and hope and ask for forgiveness of sins. Think about this, brothers, take care of this.
IV. Moreover, remember that Christ the Lord God has made you watchmen in His house, that is, in the Holy Church. You must, as faithful servants of Christ, guard this holy house by deed, word and thought. By deed – showing an example of honest and Christ-like living to people entrusted to you by Christ our Savior, “that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). In word – it is fitting to guard, instructing and teaching to keep the law of God. In thought – always think about the spiritual benefit of the verbal sheep. If anyone neglects this and through his negligence destroys the souls entrusted to him, for whom His most pure Blood Christ has shed it, then let him know for sure that the Lord will demand it of him for their destruction on the Day of Judgment.
V. There is a bad and harmful custom – to celebrate holy holidays, which the Holy Church has established for the glory and honor of God, and others in memory of the holy saints of God, in drunkenness and indecent games. It is a pagan custom – to celebrate their filthy holidays in drunkenness, in disorderly singing, in disorderly games; this is a pagan custom, I say, they do not know the true God, but worship the creature instead of the Creator and have deified lawless passions; and for Christians this is not proper, but more than that – disgusting. You, however, celebrate the holidays established by the Holy Church not in drunkenness and disorderly behavior, but with reverence and reflection on the great blessings of God, accomplished for us in those days. Thus celebrating, instruct the people of God entrusted to you. When I suggest that you celebrate holy days not in drunkenness, I do not mean that you should abstain from drinking in every way. You can drink wine or something else for the glory of God, so that on such days, along with spiritual joy, there will also be bodily consolation, so that a person will rejoice in spirit and body, and, rejoicing in heart and lips, thank God, the benefactor. Therefore, I reject here not the use of wine, but excessive use, that is, drunkenness, from which all sorts of outrages occur; I forbid not drinking, but getting drunk, although always, but especially on holidays. I tell you this especially about Cheese Week, so that you do not spend it the way it is spent. Cheese Week is the threshold of Great Lent, as the Holy Church calls it. And therefore we must live more abstinently during this week than we lived before, and prepare for the exploits of Great Lent. For this reason the Holy Church forbade the laity to eat meat, so that they would gradually get used to the fast. And the week before Cheesefare Week is therefore called Meatfare Week, as is the following Cheesefare Week. But our misfortune! When is there more drunkenness and other filthy deeds than in those days? I beg and pray your love to put aside that soul-destroying custom and not to look at what has happened; but to reason about what must be done and what the Holy Church, our Mother, commands us – and also to pray to the people of God, entrusted to you, and in every way to exhort them about the same. One must at some time give an answer to God about everything.
VI. In preparing for the sacred service, try in every way to have reverence and tenderness, which especially comes from saving reflection on the Providence of Christ our Savior for the human race. Reason how the Son of God, the Lord of all, clothed himself in the image of a slave, how the Beginningless One was conceived in the womb of the Most Pure Virgin; How the eternal God was a Child. How He “who has heaven as His throne” (Ps. 10:4) and sits upon the Cherubim, He reposed in the manger of the poor. How the Ruler of all creation became poor, how “He who gives food to all flesh” (Ps. 135:25) He hungered and thirsted; how He comforted those who mourn and “who takes away every tear from the eyes” (Rev. 7:17, 21:4) He wept. How He appeared invisible on earth and deigned to live with people; how, while still a Child, He was persecuted and condemned to be killed by Herod; how He fled from city to city, from village to village, how He underwent circumcision according to the law, how He who has no blemish or spot was baptized as a slave. How He who helps those who are tempted was tempted by the devil; How He went out to preach the kingdom of God, how He went through cities and villages, preaching the Gospel, bringing the good news, the remission of sins. How He endured blasphemy and dishonor from an unruly and envious spirit, how He was called a Samaritan, a flatterer, a blasphemer, furious and possessed by a demon, how, finally, He endured terrible and unbearable passions. How, praying to the Heavenly Father, He was in a struggle, “and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44); how for such a small price, for thirty pieces of silver, He was sold by His disciples and betrayed to the wicked; how before the high priests Annas and Caiaphas He was mocked, spat upon, beaten and, the Judge of all, was judged; how He was led bound, like a captive, through the streets, and was clothed in various garments for mockery; how He was crowned with thorns, and like a king, He was greeted in mockery: “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matt. 27:29). How, in comparison with Barabbas the robber, He was considered worse and more vile by the crowd; how, exhausted in so many torments and bitterness, He carried His Cross; how, like a villain, He was nailed to the Cross; how, hanged in the midst of thieves, He was mocked by passers-by: “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself; if You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matt. 27:40). How, thirsty, instead of water, He was given vinegar and gall to drink; how, finally, in suffering, He, at whose death all creation sympathized, gave up His most holy soul, the sun was darkened and gave no light, the earth shook, the rocks split, the curtain of the church was torn, the graves were opened. All this the merciful and humane Lord, for our sake and our salvation, deigned to endure out of His immeasurable love. Reflecting thus, prepare for the Divine Liturgy, for the Holy Liturgy also constitutes His saving providence, about which I propose to reflect.
VII. When you enter the church for the Divine Liturgy, bring to mind how Christ came into the world for our sake, and God became man. When you leave the altar at the usual time with the Holy Gospel during the Liturgy, and the candle is brought out in front, think how Christ after Baptism came forth to preach salvation, and His saving teaching, like light, enlightens all of us who sit in the darkness of ignorance. When you leave the altar for the second time during the Cherubic Hymn with the offering, bring to mind how He gave Himself up to voluntary and saving Passion. And when, after the end of the usual commemoration, you turn to the altar through the royal doors, and place the sacred vessels with the offering on the holy table, and cover the Holy One with air, – think how He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the tomb, and covered with a clean shroud – for which reason the verses are read at that time: “fair Joseph”, and so on, “in the tomb in the flesh”, and so on; “as a life-bearer, as more beautiful than paradise”, and so on.
During the reading: “I believe in one God,” and so on, when you raise the holy air, remember how He rose from the dead, and the guards shook with fear. When you proclaim: “Take, eat, this is My body,” and so on, – and further: “Drink from it, all of you, this is My blood,” and so on, – remember the Last Supper, at which He gave His most holy Body and Blood to His divine disciples and apostles, and after them to us, sinners and unworthy, for food, and commanded “to do this” in eternal “remembrance” of His good deed (Luke 22:19). When you bless the holy bread and the holy cup, try in every way to raise the eyes of your heart to the merciful Heavenly Father, and to pray with all reverence and tenderness; and so bless with undoubting hope, believing that the bread into the honorable Body of Christ, and “what is in the cups” into the honorable Blood of Christ is transformed by the Holy Spirit. When the doors of the holy altar are opened and, raising the holy chalice, you show it to the people, saying: “with the fear of God and faith approach,” – think about how after the Resurrection Christ appeared to the divine apostles and other brethren. Moreover, know that with these words: “with the fear of God and faith approach,” – you call the faithful to the communion of these Holy Mysteries. And when you see that no one approaches, be grieved in your heart that Christ calls everyone to Himself and gives His most pure flesh and most holy Blood for food, but no one comes to such a Merciful One for the supper. When you raise the holy chalice the second time and show it to the people, say: “Always, now and ever, and to the ages of ages,” – think how Christ appeared the other time to the disciples and the rest of the brethren, and ascended into heaven with glory, before their eyes, and sat down on the right hand of God the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so the Divine Liturgy forms the whole mystery of the providence of our Savior. VIII. Read the prayers read at the Divine Liturgy with all attention and zeal, and when performing the service, especially the Holy Liturgy, collect your whole mind, and having collected it, raise it up to God, as intercessors before God for His people; and leave everything earthly and worldly, and think of nothing earthly, standing before God. For you stand before God, serving Him and propitiating Him for your own sins and for the sins of men.
IX. Read the New Testament, that is, the Gospel and the Epistles of the Holy Apostles, with all diligence and attention, and while reading, pray to the Mediator of the New Testament, Jesus Christ our Lord, that He may enlighten the eyes of your souls by His Holy Spirit, so that you may understand its power. Reading this God-inspired book, you can strengthen both yourselves to piety and the people entrusted to you. But if you abandon this reading, then know that you will be blind leaders of the blind, “and if the blind lead the blind,” according to the word of Christ, “both will fall into the ditch” (Matt. 15:14), that is, into eternal destruction, from which the merciful Lord save you. God Himself commands us to read the Holy Scripture diligently: “The book of this law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may understand and do all that is written: then you will prosper, and make your ways straight” (that is, your life), “and then you will understand” (Josh 1:8). “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). I could give more evidence here about reading the Holy Scripture, but these two passages cited are sufficient to demonstrate the truth. For this reason God in His goodness gave us the Scripture, that we might read it and, reading, do what is written in it. For the Holy Scripture is a kind of message from God to man, in which He reveals His holy will to us and instructs us on how to live. Consider, then, with what willingness and attention we should read God’s message to us. If the earthly King, our monarch, wrote you a letter, would you not read this letter with great joy? Yes, with great joy and attention! The Heavenly King sent a letter to you, an earthly and corruptible man (the Holy Scripture): why then do you leave such a gift, this priceless treasure? When you read the Gospel, Christ God speaks to you. When, reading, you pray to Him, then you speak to Him. Ah, sweet conversation! Ah, kind and all-pleasant conversation! God with man, the Heavenly King with corruptible dust, the Lord with a servant speaks! What could be more pleasant than this, and what is more useful? You see what benefit there is from reading the Holy Scriptures. If you leave them, you will see for yourself what will happen to you. – Behold, I have told you: God is the mediator between me and you.
X. When you confess a penitent, confess with all reasoning and fear. When a penitent sinner has finished confessing his sins, he should be asked whether he has named all the sins he remembers, so that he will examine his conscience and bring his life to mind and examine whether there is anything else of which he is guilty before God. Then he should be exhorted to forsake those sins and guard against others, realizing that God hates sins very much. And if anyone has offended him in any way, he should forgive him from the heart, because God forgives the sins of those who forgive their neighbors. Thus Christ teaches: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14). And besides, he should be reminded to deeply regret and be contrite in his heart that he has angered God his Creator; since oral confession without contrition of the heart is of no use; to the repentant with regret and contrition of heart, it is necessary to represent the mercy of God, by which God embraces all repentant sinners and forgives sins, as Christ described in detail in His Gospel. Read it yourself, and you will find everything there, and in this way you can save yourself and others. And when someone falls ill, and you learn about it, do not wait for someone to call you – go yourself, without being asked, and comfort the sick person. And when you confess someone approaching death, in every way persuade him that God will not abandon him and will forgive his sins by His goodness alone, if only he would regret the sins he committed. Here you represent to him that Christ forgave the repentant thief near death and accepted him into paradise and that God extremely does not want human destruction. And besides, remind him that the Mother of God, the strong Intercessor of the Christian race, and the other saints pray for us all to the merciful God and protect us with their prayers. “And the Holy Church will pray for you, and I, an unworthy priest with my brothers – the priests, will make a prayer for you” – thus comforting the sick, encourage him with God’s mercy. And also present to him that for this Christ came into the world and shed His Blood, to save sinners. Having written all this briefly to you, I conclude with the apostolic word: “I adjure you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the chosen angels to observe this without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality” (1 Tim. 5:21). And also: “Be thou an example to the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Take heed to thyself and to the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1 Tim. 4:12, 16).
May the Lord God have mercy upon you, and protect you with the fear of His Divine, and instruct your hearts to do His holy will, and to live worthily of the calling.
Pray also for me, the unworthy one, that the merciful Lord may have mercy upon me, and instruct me how “I ought” to live “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.”
An Instruction or Model for Exhorting and Inclining the Accused to Repentance and Confession
I, an unworthy one, have been commanded by my shepherd to exhort you to come to your senses, and repent, and tell the whole truth before the court. Hear me, and what I shall say to you, give heed to it, and write it in your hearts, and repent.
We Christians all await the second coming of Christ. There was the first, as the Gospel and our faith teach us. There will be a second coming of Christ, as the word of God declares to us. At the first coming Christ came to save us; and those who believe in Him and repent of their sins and do good works and please Him are saved. At the second (coming) He will come to judge the sins of those who have not repented here. I trust that you know who Christ is. I will only remind you: Christ is our true God, as we always hear in the Church, and as our faith teaches us. He, as God, knows perfectly what everyone is doing, saying, thinking, and writes it down in the book of His judgment. He will also judge everyone, and we will all gather at His judgment, the righteous and the sinners. With the righteous will come good deeds; with the sinners will come evil deeds, which they did openly and secretly. Then every sinner will see laid out before him all that evil he has done, thought, and said today, and thereby destroyed the law of God. Then he will hear with shame before the whole world: “Behold the man, and his deeds!” God, in His love for mankind and mercy, now commands all sinners to repent, so that they may atone for their evil deeds by repentance, and so that these evil deeds will not appear at the judgment of Christ, and those who have committed them will not be condemned for them as criminals of God’s law and despisers of God. Sinners who, having gratefully accepted this love for mankind from God, come to their senses and repent, and cease to sin, and strive to please God with good deeds, receive mercy from God and accept forgiveness of all their evil deeds. Therefore, their evil deeds will no longer appear at the judgment of Christ, as atoned for by repentance; and they will be received with the righteous into eternal life, where there will be unceasing joy and gladness. But those sinners who despise this God’s love for mankind and do not repent, and do not cease to sin and do evil deeds, and try to hide and conceal them, their evil deeds will certainly appear with them at the Last Judgment, and they will be convicted of them before the whole world by the righteous Judge Christ, and they will hear such a rebuke from Him: “This is what you did while you lived in the world! I came to save you, and I suffered and died for you; but you did not want to use that mercy of Mine for your salvation, and to follow Me, and to be with Me in My kingdom, but you followed Satan, and did his will, and did his evil deeds, and thus were My adversaries. “Depart from Me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25). I wanted to save you, but you chose destruction, not My salvation. Taste the bitterness of eternal destruction, which you have chosen for yourselves.” Think about this, and repent, and tell the whole truth, so that you too may escape eternal torment and receive eternal life. People question and judge you, but they are sent by God. Recognize the truth and do not lie before these messengers of God, for this will be clearly revealed later before the whole world at the judgment of Christ. And what you now declare with all the truth, and repent of it, will already be blotted out by the mercy of God and will not appear at the Last Judgment.
It is better to endure shame here before a few, than there before the whole world.
It is better to be punished here, temporarily, and thank God for it, than to endure punishment there forever.
It is better to be here, temporarily, in exile, than to sit there in hell forever.
It is better to endure bonds here, temporarily, than there forever.
It is better to endure all suffering here, temporarily, than there forever. For all that is temporary will pass, but the eternal will never pass. Endure the temporary, so as to avoid eternal punishment. People have put you in this prison and are keeping you, but this is done by God’s Providence. God wants to save you and through this suffering of yours, as it were, compels you to repentance. Submit to God’s Providence and His saving will and repent, so as to be saved. Do not say before the court that which did not happen; say that which did happen, that is, the truth, and do not declare a lie. Her Imperial Majesty has mercy on you and pities you: she does not order you to be tortured and wounded and thus seek the truth from you, as happened before with those like you, but wants, in her love for mankind, for you to voluntarily confess what you have sinned before God, before the Sovereign and before the Fatherland. Fulfill the merciful desire of our Sovereign and voluntarily confess what you are guilty of. If you do not do this, then even the judges will be convinced to torture you with wounds and thus seek the truth. Spare yourself and your soul and confess what you have sinned. I also advise you to do this. Accept my advice as useful, so that both here and in the next century you will avoid wounds and punishment, and you will be prosperous. Amen.
Ad Notem:
“Circular Epistle to the Voronezh Clergy” was written in 1765, and copies were sent throughout the diocese. What prompted the saint to write this epistle can be partially seen from the epistle itself. For more information on the needs of the then clergy of the Voronezh diocese, read the article: “Works of St. Tikhon the First, Bishop of Voronezh, on the Management of the Voronezh Flock” (Works of the Holy Fathers. 1862, Book 2). It was first published in “Other Works”, under the title: “Instructions to the Clergy of His Flock on Avoiding Drunkenness and Other Things.” This edition is printed from a manuscript that, like most of the original manuscripts of St. Tikhon, in the Usman Sophia Monastery, where the originals were left by the saint’s cell attendant Ivan Efimov.
“Instruction or Model for Exhorters” was written by the saint in connection with the highest decree (dated January 29, 1763), according to which it was required “that all those who, by their deeds, come to torture, without first inflicting them, should be admonished by learned priests to show the truth; and since Her Imperial Majesty is not unaware that in other cities there are no such learned priests, then for this admonition to compose a special booklet, with sufficient arguments from the Holy Scriptures.” One of the first to respond to this “merciful desire” of the Monarch was Saint Tikhon. This philanthropist liked such a desire. Burning with love for man, spending whole nights in conversation with the unfortunate brothers-prisoners, the saint, as it seems, met this wise, gentle measure with deep joy for the prisoners and gratitude to the monarch, who “from now on no longer orders to torture prisoners with wounds and to seek truth from them, as it used to be before.” He compiled this beautiful, meek and compassionate “model” as a guide for exhorters and sent it throughout the diocese in 1765.
(to be continued)
Source in Russian: Writings of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church, relating to the interpretation of Orthodox worship. Volume III. – St. Petersburg: In the Printing House of Grigory Trusov, 1857. – P. 225-248.
