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It is with deep and heartfelt love, respect and gratitude that we mark the Anniversary of the Episcopal Consecration of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, which took place at the Monastery Church of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, South Canaan, PA 15 years ago, on February 14, 2004. He had been elected to the episcopacy by the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America at their Fall Session in October 2003.
Born in Boston, MA on July 15, 1966, the son of Francois and Elizabeth Mollard, he and his family settled in Reading, PA after brief periods living in Connecticut, France, and Missouri. After his graduation from Wyomissing High School in 1984, he enrolled in Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Sociology before relocating to Chicago, IL.
Raised in the Episcopal tradition, he was received into the Orthodox Church in 1989, after which he enrolled in Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. The following year he entered the monastic community at Saint Tikhon Monastery as a novice.
After receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Tikhon Seminary in 1993, he was appointed Instructor in Old Testament at the school. He subsequently served as Senior Lecturer in Old Testament and taught courses in the Prophets and the Psalms and Wisdom Literature. He also served as an instructor in the seminary’s Extension Studies Program, offering courses in the lives of the Old Testament saints, the liturgical use of the Old Testament, and the Old Testament in Patristic literature. He collaborated with then-Igumen Alexander [Golitzin] in the publication of The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain, published by Saint Tikhon Seminary Press.
In 1995 he was tonsured to the Lesser Schema and given the name Tikhon, in honor of Saint Tikhon, Enlightener of North America and Patriarch of Moscow. Later that year, he was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery. In 1998, he was elevated to the rank of Igumen, and in 2000 to the rank of Archimandrite. In December 2002, he was appointed Deputy Abbot of Saint Tikhon Monastery.
After his consecration to the episcopacy, he served as Auxiliary to the Metropolitan. He was nominated to fill the vacant See of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania at a special diocesan assembly on May 25, 2005. Two days later, he was elected to that ministry by the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops. He was installed as ruling hierarch of the diocese at Saint Stephen Cathedral, Philadelphia, PA on October 29, 2005. He served as Bishop and later Archbishop of the diocese until his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America at the 17th All-American Council, held in Parma, OH on November 13, 2012.
On behalf of the hierarchs, clergy, monastics and lay faithful of the Orthodox Church in America, we pray that our Lord, Jesus Christ will continue to bless, guide and strengthen His Beatitude in his ongoing ministry “in behalf of all and for all” now and for many years to come!
