Tikhon of Zadonsk

Tikhon of Zadonsk, born Timofey Savelyevich Sokolov, was an eighteenth century Russian Orthodox bishop and spiritual writer who lived from 1724 to 1783 and was canonized a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1861. Born in Novgorod, Russia, and raised in extreme poverty, he entered the Novgorod Seminary on a grant and became a brilliant student, going on to teach Greek, rhetoric and philosophy there. He became a monk in 1758 and in 1763 was appointed Bishop of Voronezh, where he became revered for his energetic commitment to the spiritual education and wellbeing of both the laity and the clergy of his diocese. Due to ill health he retired to the monastery at Zadonsk in 1769, where he lived until his death in 1783, writing luminous books and treatises and becoming a much loved spiritual advisor. His life and works inspired Fyodor Dostoevsky, who reflected them in the character of Bishop Tikhon in the novel Demons and in the characters of Alyosha Karamazov and the Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov.