|
 Finally,
in 1917, with the Fall of the Monarchy, the Patriarch was re-established
and Tikhon, Metropolitan of Moscow, was elected Patriarch by the All-Russian
Council of that year. Sadly, however, the Church was soon engulfed in
the fires of the Bolshevik Revolution of that year and the unprecedented
persecutions which followed. In the period from the Revolution until the
collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church
endured sufferings without parallel, contributing a new rank of Martyrs
to the Church Triumphant. Yet, despite the severe decimation of her faithful,
clergy, and institutions during this period, she remained a powerful spiritual
and moral force in Orthodox World, confirming that the Church of Christ
is built upon a rock, for, in the words of the Savior, the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). And no fitting memorial exists
of this truth than the fact that in 1991, with the collapse of the Communist
order in Eastern Europe, the Russian Orthodox Church still remains, purified
by the blood of her Martyrs and standing forth as the symbol of a higher,
spiritual order that even "the gates of Hell" are unable to withstand. |
