About this time the Lord consoled His saint, who burned with his ardent love for Him, with a new grace-filled revelation. "Saint Tikhon saw in a dream a high staircase standing in the middle of the monastery and surrounded by a multitude of people. He was led to a ladder and demanded that he climb it. He could not excuse himself with weakness of strength and obeyed. The people followed him and supported him, so that he did not feel any fatigue, and when he had already ascended to the clouds, he awoke. Cosmas Ignatievich, who alone had free access to the saint, explained to him that the ladder is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, its height is the difficulty of the path, the people who followed him are those who listen to his instructions and follow them, the ease and help in the ascent are the assistance of the grace of God and the prayers of those who love him. The saint replied to this explanation: "I myself think the same thing, I feel the approach of my death." [103]

And indeed, the time was coming for the departure of St. Tikhon. His bodily strength began to weaken visibly, although his spirit retained all vigor and strength. His voice weakened to such an extent that only one cell-attendant could understand it, through whom he transmitted his dying suggestions to his visiting friends. Communing of the Holy Mysteries. He communed twice in the last week, and in three days he predicted his death. On this day, he allowed all his acquaintances to come to him and say goodbye. As soon as such permission was received, all his acquaintances hastened to take advantage of it, receive his last blessing and say goodbye. A multitude of persons of both sexes had gathered at his bedside, who were no doubt waiting for this moment of their last meeting. The saint lay with his eyes closed. Seeing his utter exhaustion, his friends fell down to his bed with weeping and sobbing, and, kissing his hand, cried out to him: "You are our father! To whom do you leave us, orphaned, sad and bitter? To whom shall we turn and from whom shall we receive instruction to our needy souls?" The saint, heartily loving them, pressed them to him with his right hand, and pointing with his hand to the picture of the crucified Christ, said to them quietly: "To the Lord God I entrust you."

Thus bidding farewell to his acquaintances and sensing the weakness of his tongue, the saint for the last two days gave himself up to contemplation of God and did not order anyone to be allowed to come to him. But on Saturday evening the hegumen Samuel came to him (in his modesty, the cell-attendant notes), sat down by the bed and began to ask: "Will there be any order?" St. Tikhon opened his eyes, looked at him, and quietly told his cell-attendant not to be disturbed, that there was no order. The hegumen, seeing the approaching death of the saint, kissed his hand and departed, and sternly instructed the cell-attendant to immediately let him know how soon the saint's death would come. "Although he lay with his eyes closed all that time," says the cell-attendant, describing his dying moments, "he deepened his mind, thoughts and feelings for God. That's exactly how it was; for his spiritual feelings and intellectual prayers were very remarkable to me forever. For this reason he deigned to tell the hegumen not to interfere with him, that is, with his deepened thoughts to God." [104]

By midnight from August 12 to 13, it became more difficult for him, and the dying saint asked that an early Liturgy be celebrated early in the morning, in order that he might commune of Holy Communion for the third time. Mysteries. At three o'clock after midnight he sent to ask another hieromonk about this, but his request, as it had happened before, was in no hurry to be fulfilled, and meanwhile his death was apparently approaching. The cell-attendant sent to let the hegumen know about this, but they could not wake him, as if by God's special permission. The monastic brethren, hearing of the approaching death of the saint, gathered to his cell and stood in deep silence near him for half an hour, but Schema-monk Mitrophan told the brethren that his death would not follow soon, and so they all went to church to listen to matins. In their absence, St. Tikhon again asked about the celebration of the Liturgy, then, in order to quench his unbearable thirst, he asked for water and, rising with the help of his cell-attendants, drank half a cup of hot tea water and again asked about the celebration of the Liturgy. But this time there was no concern to fulfill his last wish, and yet the last minute came. At the end of the sixth hour of the morning (45 minutes), continuing to lie quietly, the saint opened his eyes for a minute, and then, closing them, breathed his last. He died in the arms of his cell-attendant, in the presence of four of his servants. "His death was as peaceful as if he had fallen asleep." [105] The righteous man, if he come to die, will be in his chamber, and their torment will not touch (Wis 4:7).

Saint Tikhon died at the age of 59.

As soon as the news of the death of the beloved and revered saint spread throughout the city and surrounding villages, the monastery was suddenly filled with people, and everywhere were heard pitiful cries, especially of the beggars and the poor, who were deprived of their nourishment in it. From the day of death to the very day of burial, the villagers and city dwellers of Voronezh and especially Yelets, in great numbers, day and night, flocked to the monastery to say goodbye to the deceased and pray for the peace of his soul. The requirements for serving pannikhidas were so numerous that the monastery hieromonks did not have time to satisfy the desires of the departed's admirers.

According to the will of the deceased, he was dressed in clothes prepared by him. But the Right Reverend Tikhon III, by the right of friendship and by the strength of respect for the departed saint, canceled his orders and, sending from the cathedral sacristy the full episcopal vestments, ordered him to be dressed in them, and the place for his burial was appointed under the altar of the cathedral church. In accordance with the instructions of the Right Reverend, the deceased saint was dressed in full episcopal vestments, and it was noticed that despite the fourth day, his body remained, as if it were alive, unossified; At the same time, the deceased was placed in a new coffin, made by Yelets merchants, and on the 17th he was carried out of his cell to the large monastery church. On the 20th, Bishop Tikhon III performed the burial of the saint, to which the surrounding clergy were invited.

Before the end of the Liturgy, Tikhon III said a touching sermon over the coffin of the deceased [106] on the text: "Blessed is the man who does not go into the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he shall learn day and night" (Psalm 1:1-2). This word is remarkable for us, as a testimony and expression of the respect that people who knew and understood him closely had for St. Tikhon. Let us cite here those few fragments that have been preserved to us from this word and which can serve as an abbreviated repetition of the entire life of the saint of God – Tikhon, which we depict.

Having briefly explained these words of the Psalmist, the preacher applied them to the departed saint, and having enumerated his virtues, such as: avoidance of honor and glory, Christian simplicity, meekness, humility, zeal for the faith, love for one's neighbors, vigilant concern for teaching one's neighbors piety and true Christian virtue, – he showed that the departed had disposed all his life in accordance with this blessing of David and therefore worthy of the name of blessed. Then, depicting sorrow for the greatness of the loss, which his listeners and himself felt at the sight of this lifeless body, the preacher continued: "This saint is blessed, but by his death has not our pleasure on earth diminished? Are there not just (righteous) reasons for the tears that we shed over his tomb? So the listeners! I myself am now deprived of not only my brother and concelebrant, but also my friend. I, the just (righteous), shedding tears, lose in him the one to whose heart my feelings were open and whose experience often supplemented my trials... Now tell us your feelings, all those who enjoyed the same trust and friendly frankness of this virtuous man, tell us the righteous sorrows of your heart. But why? I believe in their sorrows, measuring them to the sorrows of my own heart... Come now to you, to whom he gave fatherly instruction and teaching, you to whom he solved the doubts of conscience, whose hearts he soothed with sweet consolations, to whom he gave soul-saving advice; Tell me, are your tears righteous over the ashes of this virtuous teacher of yours? But all this is not such a great loss for you, who have benefited from his teachings. For for all your needs, for all the perplexities of conscience, for all the sorrows of the soul, he has left you rules, advice, medicines, in his books and in his epistles.

Therefore you have not all lost in the death of this shepherd. He will be immortal for you and others like you in His pious and instructive writings. But you, you who groan under the yoke of worldly misfortunes and calamities! You, orphans and needy! You who are homeless and homeless, who have no clothing, who hunger for bread! You who are condemned to imprisonment in gloomy prisons and chains! Have you not lost the most? Whom are you burying with us now? Whose remains are you now giving your last kiss on earth?..

Behold, the heart that burned with compassionate love for you has grown cold with sweeping scum, those lips that have comforted you in sorrow, which have greeted you like children, which have often even kissed you condescendingly. Those hands that stretched out to help you with generous alms are frozen, those legs are motionless, which always hastily flowed to your sorrowful dwellings, as to the dwellings of joy. Come, turn your tearful eyes to your benefactor, all those who have run to him in every need, and weep now with worthy weeping. Remember that he was like the righteous Job, the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame, the garment of the naked, food to the hungry, the refuge of all the sorrowful, the strength of the weak, the comfort of the sorrowful, the healing of spiritual exhaustion. Depart, when you weep under the burden of misfortunes, when, burdened by illness, you will be without a comforter and helper, when you melt from hunger, wander without cover, freeze without clothing; then your Tikhon, who once sought you himself, will not come to you. You will approach his dwelling, look at the doors from which he appeared to you as a heavenly Angel of comfort, – you will wait and not see the one who opens, you will not see the right hand stretching out to you for alms and almsgiving; you will not find him who asks you about your needs. You, remembering Tikhon, will be overwhelmed with tears, and with increased sorrow of heart you will depart from his dwelling without help, without consolation. You will look for him, and they will show you his tomb, over which you will fall down with sobs in the grievous sorrows of your hearts." Then, offering consolation to his hearers, and exhorting them to imitate his virtues, he concluded his speech with these words: "O holy man! Stand before the throne of the all-good God, remember us who love and revere you." [107]

At hearing this word, all those present shed sincere and unfeigned tears.

Before the last kiss of the body of the departed, the first hierodeacon read the spiritual testament of St. Tikhon, or his farewell conversation with his neighbors, in which he first thanks God for all His blessings, and then bids farewell to everyone, thanks the benefactors, asks forgiveness from everyone, and forgives everyone in return.