I think I found in St. Tikhon\'s biography the passage Evdokimov was referring to:
\"Tikhon discouraged hasty monastic professions. When (Kornily) the Archimandrite of Zadonsk monastery informed him of a tradesman who desired to adopt a life devoted to God, Tikhon replied: \'Let him simply stay for a while among the brethren; the black habit will not work salvation. A man in lay garb, yet clothed with obedience, humility and charity is in any case an untonsured monk.\' (21 November 1763)\" [Gorodetzky, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, p. 48)
Now, in the contexts I had seen this before, it almost sounded like a manifesto. But here it seems like normal good advice couched in a colorful phrase. Pun intended.
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