Vasily Ivanovich Belavin (Tikhon’s given name) was born January19th, 1865. He grew up in a rural area among peasants in a village where his father was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. Even as a child, he loved religion, and by age thirteen he began his seminary training, where his classmates nicknamed him “Patriarch.” At 23, he graduated as a layman and began to teach moral theology. Three years later, he became a monk and was given the n…