Everyday Saints and Other Stories 
By Archimandrite Tikhon (Shekunov)
Pokrov Publications 490 pp

Just as the film Ostrov (The Island) set records for attendance several years ago in Russia, so too is Archimandrite Tikhon’s new book Everyday Saints and Other Stories.

A clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shekunov) is the Abbot of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, and the Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Cultural Council of the Moscow Patriarchate. He is also a member of the Presidential Council on Culture and the Arts for the Russian Federation.

Just published in the United States, the book is a huge success in Russia with over a million printed copies and several million electronic versions sold since its publication in 2011 in Russia. Thanks to the superb English translation from Russian by Julian Henry Lowenfeld, Archimandrite Tikhon’s stories read like a conversation among friends. Five hundred pages aren’t enough to contain the riches in these stories. It’s that good of a book.

A former film student, Archimandrite Tikhon begins by telling the story of how he joined the Pskov Caves Monastery, the years as being a novice and the people he’s met along the way. He writes with a deep-seated gladness and humor for all he has been given and for all those he comes into contact.

He writes in the preface: 

In this book I want to tell you about this beautiful new world of mine, where we live by laws completely different from those in “normal” worldly life—a world of light and love, full of wondrous discoveries, hope, happiness, trials and triumphs, where even our defeats acquire profound significance: a world in which, above all, we can always sense powerful manifestations of divine strength and comfort.

Woven throughout the book are examples of how during the Communist era, the Russian Orthodox Church did not capitulate or succumb to government pressure but rather stood against the forces of evil whenever and wherever she could. In fact, proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to build a memorial cathedral in Moscow dedicated to the victims of communist repression in Russia.

Inspiring, enlightening and edifying, Everyday Saints and Other Stories is a book that should be read by every Orthodox Christian.

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