Presbyter
Mikhail Petrovich Tikhonitsky was born in 1846 in the family of a psalmist. After graduating from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, he was ordained a priest in 1868. He began his ministry at the Ilyinsky Old Believer Church of the Izhevsk Factory, then in the villages of Podrel'e and Bistritsa, and in 1880 in the city of Oryol. Father Mikhail was an honest and responsive person, loved his parishioners, who reciprocated his love. In Oryol, he taught the Law of God at the local gymnasium, instilling respect for God and people in his students.
In 1917, when Russia was engulfed by the wave of revolution, Patriarch Tikhon issued a message calling for peace and concord. On February 15, 1918, Father Mikhail read this message during the Divine Liturgy at the Kazan Cathedral in the city of Oryol. Soon he was arrested, but the parishioners managed to postpone the arrest. However, six months later, during a new wave of terror, Father Mikhail was captured again. The Extraordinary Commission at the Tribunal sentenced him to execution for spreading counter-revolutionary views, and the sentence was carried out on September 20, 1918.
Three of Father Mikhail's sons connected their fate with the Russian Orthodox Church: Vladimir became a metropolitan, Veniamin served as a priest and became an archbishop, while Elpidifor perished in Stalin's camps. Father Mikhail's daughters worked for a long time in the field of education in Oryol and took care of his grave.
By the decree of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Mikhail was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. His glorification took place in 2003. On September 8, 2008, his holy relics were found at the cemetery of the city of Oryol, which now rest in the parish church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.
