Here, Patriarch Tikhon, one of the most revered and outstanding bishops in Russia, extends his blessings and teachings to Orthodox believers from outside his cell. This saintly martyr was under arrest from May 1922 throughout June 1923 in Donskoy monastery. This particular scene portrays two basic sides of the service provided by the patriarch: his resistance and his spiritual care. The face of the patriarch and the faces of clergymen and believers are turned to each other. This not only represents a historical event, but a symbolical gesture as well. The faces of the believers are the faces of all Russians, whom the patriarch blesses; and the face of the patriarch is the face of all saints.

In line with this, the image is divided vertically by the patriarch on top, and the little boy below, who is slightly leaning to his left. Horizontally, the image is crossed by the line of the top wall, suggesting with the previous division a symbolical cross with the patriarch on its center. Another concealed cross is formed, this time diagonally, by the soldiers below on the left and the towers on top right, and by the group of people right below and the roof of the tower on the left. With this arrangement, the patriarch stands in the middle of both intersecting crosses as a symbol of maximum spiritual completeness.

The use of pink has also historical and symbolical purposes. On the one hand it resembles the real color of the walls in the Donkoy monastery, and on the other it has been associated since Byzantium with dawn. Applied to this icon, pink represents a spiritual dawn that never dies out, regardless of gloomy persecutions.