Bishop Tikhon visited Fort Ross in 1905 with Father Theodore Pashkovsky. The duo was pleasantly surprised to find the Chapel had been returned to a religious theme. Father Pashkovsky commented on “the cleanness of the chapel.” “Gone was "the desolation of a holy place", as Bishop Nikolai had commented only eight years before. The improvements had resulted from the acquisition of the Fort by the State of California.
Like Bishop Nicholas and Father Dabovich, Bishop Tikhon and Father Pashkovsky spent the night at the Fort Ross Hotel and returned to San Francisco the following day.
He was reassigned to Russia in 1907 and in 1913 was assigned to the Bishopric of Lithuania. On 1917 on the eve of the Russian revolution he was elected to be Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. As the church’s Patriot he was the highest ranking cleric of the church. During his tenure he witnessed the Great Russian Civil War and rise of the Communist Party which repressed the Church. The Soviets confiscated Church property and persecuted and imprisoned thousands of the clergy. Thousands of churches were forcibly closed by the Soviet government. Bishop Tikhon himself was imprisoned for over a year.
He died in Russia in 1925 at the age of 60. He was canonized a saint in 1989 (in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia – Editor).
They Walked the Walk
In retrospect St. Innocent, Blessed Dabovich and St. Tikhon had their trips to Fort Ross in common with their sainthood. They all took the time to record their observations for posterity. Since 1900, hundreds of Orthodox clerics and thousands of believers have visited the “rather plain” chapel perched on the promontory overlooking the mighty Pacific. The distinctive chapel has been repaired and rebuilt. The cemetery has been studied by scholars and partially reclaimed. In 1897, Bishop Ziorov
in disrepair, had been turned into a barn for animals. When they visited the cemetery they saw further disrepair with “only insignificant remains,” the unkempt graves. Dabovich “emotionally” performed an Orthodox religious rite over the cemetery graves— “with difficulty he pronounced the prayers.” Ziorov expressed anger at “the desolating sacrilege in a holy place”.
Dabovich wrote in the Fort Ross Hotel Register, “I have had the honor to visit this place and pray in the old cemetery yonder on the hill.” He laments that he couldn’t pray in the chapel “which is now a house of cattle.”
Dabovich had a interesting religious career after his visit to Fort Ross. He spent time in Minnesota, returned to San Francisco and organized the first Serbian Orthodox church in Jackson, California. Later he spent time in Alaska, Chicago and New Jersey. In 1914 he became a chaplain in the Serbian Army and after World War I served the remainder of his life in Yugoslavia. He died there in 1940 at the age of 77. In 2007 his remains were unearthed in Serbia and brought back to California. They were reinterred at St. Sava Church in Jackson. He is currently being considered for Canonization as a Saint in the Orthodox Church. If and when “sainted,” he will be the first American so honored in the Russian Orthodox Church.
St. Tikhon (Page 4)
Basil Belavin was born in Russia in 1865. He was ordained a Russian Orthodox priest in 1891, taking the name Tikhon. He was consecrated a bishop in 1897. In 1898 he was promoted to head the Orthodox Church in North America. Well liked, he was made an honorary citizen of the United States in 1900.
Page 3
Continued from Page 2
The Saints of Fort Ross
By Daniel J. Demers
E-MAIL ME ddemers901@sonic.net
Continued Page 4