inundado por um mistério de luz que é Deus e N´Ele vi e ouvi -A ponta da lança como chama que se desprende, toca o eixo da terra, – Ela estremece: montanhas, cidades, vilas e aldeias com os seus moradores são sepultados. - O mar, os rios e as nuvens saem dos seus limites, transbordam, inundam e arrastam consigo num redemoinho, moradias e gente em número que não se pode contar , é a purificação do mundo pelo pecado em que se mergulha. - O ódio, a ambição provocam a guerra destruidora! - Depois senti no palpitar acelerado do coração e no meu espírito o eco duma voz suave que dizia: – No tempo, uma só Fé, um só Batismo, uma só Igreja, Santa, Católica, Apostólica: - Na eternidade, o Céu!
The essence of St. Tikhon's thought is particularly evident in the concept of divine redemption in the soul of the sinner through repentance. The writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was profoundly influenced not only by this interpretation of redemption, but also by the broader image and wisdom of St. Tikhon. As early as 1867 Dostoevsky mentions St. Tikhon as the fullest expression of the "genuine Russian soul."
Deeper connections followed in Dostoevsky's literary work, first in the novel The Possessed, which deals with the sources of political terrorism and the pathology of nihilism. In one of the novel's most challenging parts, "At Tikhon's," the main character, Stavrogin, visits a monk called Tikhon in order to give him a written confession of a repulsive crime. The reader is told that Tikhon is a bishop who has retired to a monastery for reasons of weak health, and that he is known for his compassion and wisdom. These personal details correspond with what is known of the life of St. Tikhon.
The image of St. Tikhon reappears in the form of the elderly monk Zosima in Dostoevsky's final novel, The Brothers Karamazov (1880) Father Zosima is modeled partly on starets Ambrosy, whom Dostoevsky visited at the Optina Pustyn. Yet Dostoevsky also drew upon the wisdom, patience and monastic endurance of St. Tikhon in the creation of Zosima.