Basil Ivanovitch

Before the first Romanov was born, Donskoi Monastery was building. It rises, barbarous, massive, beautiful, from the sordid fringes of Moscow. Under its countless roofs are a cathedral and six churches. Through its courtyard are always passing "black" monks, mitred abbots, bishops, for high sacrifice.

And through it of late have gone a motley crew--peasants from the Caucasus, coatless students from Kiev, land-robbed landowners from the Volga Valley. They have turned sharply round the gate, up a stone staircase by the wall, into a low-vaulted room half-lost in the acres of masonry. There they have kissed the hands of a scarred and battered old priest, Basil Ivanovitch Baliavin, known to the world as the Most Reverend Dr. Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow, Patriarch of All Russia.

They told him of troubles, of Soviet inquiries and insults. Once, last winter, they brought him a Soviet magazine, showed him a cartoon --Bolshevik Zinoviev climbing up a ladder into the clouds with a sledgehammer ready to annihilate five trembling figures which were labeled: "Jesus Christ, God the Father, Jehovah, Allah, Satan." But each bore the face of Tikhon. The old priest smiled: "Donskoi was before the Romanovs, and after Zinoviev will be Donskoi."

Last week, thousands trooped to Donskoi--this time to the Cathedral, where the bright yellows of Claudio's frescos, the Titian-red of ikons, the jeweled lamps broke the darkness. Upon a catafalque near the altar was laid a dead and gorgeous prelate, a mitre on his head, silks and satins about his body--his white hands stretched out. The thousands sobbed and groaned while priest after priest intoned the sacred words which Dr. Tikhon could not hear.

Basil Ivanovitch came to the U. S. in 1898 as Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. Actually, he was the head of the Russian Church throughout North America. In 1907, still only 42 years old, he went home, crowned with honor, was made Archbishop of Jaroslav and Vilna. Those were the days of Pobiedonostsev and Devialkovsky, two of the most tyrannical ecclesiastics in the history of a tyrannical church. Basil, now Archbishop Tikhon, was liberal in his views but discreet in utterance. He advanced. Finally, during the interregnum between Romanov and Lenin, Dr. Tikhon was enthroned as Patriarch.

But his moderate liberalism eventually clashed with the absolutism of Lenin-Trotzky; and, in 1922, when the latter decreed the confiscation of all church property, Patriarch Tikhon was thrown into jail for his opposition. The Red (Living) Church was promptly convened to unfrock him. Early in 1923, a Roman Catholic monsignor was beheaded. Tikhon, awaiting trial, prepared for the same fate. But Lenin halted. Tikhon signed a retraction and was freed.

Torture and starvation had shattered his little frame. He found the Church in a hopeless muddle of politics. The bourgeoisie rallied to his standard, but he hardly knew where to carry it. Soon Lenin died. The Bolsheviki became less blatantly blasphemous, let churchmen wrangle among themselves. "Where," millions asked of Tikhon, "shall we find the religion of new Russia?" "Where you have always found it," said the tortured man. Bishop John L. Nuelsen of the U. S. Methodist Episcopal Church officiated at the services in Donskoi Chapel. A few days before, Bishop Nuelsen had had an appointment with the Patriarch. He called at Donskoi, was told of the death.

The Patriarch, on his deathbed, bequeathed his responsibilities to Metropolitans Peter of Moscow, Agaphangel of Jaroslav, Cyril of Tambov.