The Church remembers the Holy Royal Passion-bearers, the blessed Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich and his family

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The letters and diaries of members of the Imperial Family attest to the deep experience of the tragedy that unfolded before their eyes. But this tragedy does not deprive the Royal Prisoners of the strength of spirit, faith and hope for God's help.
"It is incredibly hard, sad, insulting, shameful, but do not lose faith in God's mercy. He will not leave his homeland to perish. It is necessary to endure all these humiliations, nastiness, horrors with humility (since we are unable to help). And He will save, long—suffering and many-merciful - he will not be angry to the end... It would be impossible to live without faith...
I firmly believe that the time of suffering is passing, that the sun will shine again over the long-suffering Homeland. After all, the Lord is merciful — He will save the Motherland..." the Empress wrote.
There is much less evidence about the Yekaterinburg period of imprisonment of the Royal family. There are almost no letters. Basically, this period is known only from brief entries in the Emperor's diary and the testimony of witnesses in the case of the murder of the Royal family. Especially valuable is the testimony of Archpriest John Storozhev, who performed the last services in the Ipatiev house. Father John served mass there twice on Sundays; the first time was on May 20 (June 2), 1918: "... the deacon spoke the petitions of litanies, and I sang. Two female voices sang along to me (I think Tatiana Nikolaevna and someone else from them), sometimes in a low bass and Nikolai Alexandrovich... They prayed very hard..."
"Nikolai Alexandrovich was dressed in a khaki tunic, the same trousers, with high boots. He has an officer's St. George Cross on his chest. There were no shoulder straps... [He] impressed me with his firm gait, his calmness, and especially with his manner of looking intently and firmly into the eyes..." wrote Father John.
Living conditions in the "special purpose house" were much more difficult than in Tobolsk. The guards consisted of 12 soldiers who lived in close proximity to the prisoners, ate with them at the same table. Commissar Avdeev, an inveterate drunkard, daily refined himself together with his subordinates in inventing new humiliations for prisoners. I had to put up with hardships, endure bullying and obey the demands of these rude people — among the guards were former criminals. As soon as the Sovereign and the Empress arrived at Ipatiev's house, they were subjected to a humiliating and rude search. The Royal couple and the Princesses had to sleep on the floor, without beds. During lunch, a family consisting of seven people was given only five spoons; the guards sitting at the same table smoked, brazenly blowing smoke in the prisoners' faces, rudely took away their food.
A walk in the garden was allowed once a day, at first for 15-20 minutes, and then no more than five. The behavior of the sentries was completely obscene — they were on duty even near the door to the toilet, and they were not allowed to lock the doors. The guards wrote obscene words on the walls, made indecent images.
Only Dr. Yevgeny Botkin, who surrounded the prisoners with care and was an intermediary between them and the commissars, trying to protect them from the rudeness of the guards, and several experienced, loyal servants remained with the Royal family: Anna Demidova, I. S. Kharitonov, A. E. Troup and the boy Lenya Sednev.
The prisoners' faith supported their courage, gave them strength and patience in suffering. They all understood the possibility of an early end. Even the Tsarevich somehow escaped the phrase: "If they kill, just don't torture..." The Empress and the Grand Duchesses often sang church hymns, which their guards listened to against their will. In almost complete isolation from the outside world, surrounded by rude and cruel guards, the prisoners of the Ipatiev House show amazing nobility and clarity of spirit.
In one of Olga Nikolaevna's letters there are the following lines: "The father asks me to tell all those who remained loyal to him, and those on whom they may have influence, so that they do not avenge him, since he forgave everyone and prays for everyone, and so that they do not avenge themselves, and so that they remember, that the evil that is now in the world will be even stronger, but that not evil will overcome evil, but only love."
Even the rough guards gradually softened in dealing with the prisoners. They were surprised by their simplicity, they were conquered by a dignified mental clarity, and they soon felt the superiority of those whom they thought to keep in their power. Even Commissar Avdeev himself relented. Such a change did not escape the eyes of the Bolshevik authorities. Avdeev was removed and replaced by Yurovsky, the guards were replaced by Austro-German prisoners and selected people from among the executioners of the "emergency" — the "special purpose house" became, as it were, its department. The life of its inhabitants turned into a continuous martyrdom.
On July 1 (14), 1918, Father John Storozhev performed the last divine service in the Ipatiev House. The tragic hours were approaching... Preparations for the execution are made in the strictest secrecy from the prisoners of the Ipatiev house.
On the night of July 16-17, around the beginning of the third, Yurovsky woke up the Royal family. They were told that there was unrest in the city and therefore it was necessary to move to a safe place. Forty minutes later, when everyone was dressed and gathered, Yurovsky, together with the prisoners, went down to the first floor and led them to a basement room with one barred window. Everyone was outwardly calm. The sovereign carried Alexei Nikolaevich in his arms, the others had pillows and other small things in their hands. At the request of the Empress, two chairs were brought into the room, pillows were placed on them, brought by the Grand Duchesses and Anna Demidova. The Empress and Alexey Nikolaevich were seated on chairs. The Sovereign stood in the center next to the Heir. The rest of the family and servants settled in different parts of the room and prepared to wait for a long time — they were already used to night alarms and various kinds of movements. Meanwhile, armed men were already crowding into the next room, waiting for the killer's signal. At that moment, Yurovsky came very close to the Sovereign and said: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, by the decree of the Ural Regional Council, you and your family will be shot." This phrase was so unexpected for the Tsar that he turned towards the family, holding out his hands to them, then, as if wanting to ask again, turned to the commandant, saying: "What? What?" The Empress and Olga Nikolaevna wanted to cross themselves. But at that moment, Yurovsky fired at the Sovereign from a revolver almost at point-blank range several times, and he immediately fell. Almost simultaneously, everyone else started shooting — everyone knew their victim in advance.
Those already lying on the floor were finished off with shots and bayonets. When it seemed that everything was over, Alexey Nikolaevich suddenly groaned weakly — he was shot several more times. The picture was terrible: eleven bodies lay on the floor in streams of blood. After making sure that their victims were dead, the killers began to take off their jewelry. Then the dead were taken out to the yard, where a truck was already standing ready — the noise of its engine was supposed to drown out the shots in the basement. Even before sunrise, the bodies were taken to the forest in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki. For three days, the murderers tried to hide their atrocity...
Most of the testimonies speak of the prisoners of the Ipatiev House as suffering people, but deeply believing, undoubtedly obedient to the will of God. Despite the bullying and insults, they led a decent family life in Ipatiev's house, trying to brighten up the oppressive situation with mutual communication, prayer, reading and feasible activities. "The Sovereign and the Empress believed that they were dying as martyrs for their homeland," writes one of the witnesses of their life in prison, the tutor of the Heir, Pierre Gilard, "they died as martyrs for humanity. Their true greatness did not stem from their royal dignity, but from the amazing moral height to which they gradually rose. They have become an ideal force. And in their very humiliation they were a striking manifestation of that amazing clarity of soul against which all violence and all rage are powerless and which triumphs in death itself."
Together with the Imperial Family, their servants who followed their masters into exile were also shot. In addition to those shot together with the Imperial Family by Dr. E. S. Botkin, the Empress's housemaid A. S. Demidova, the court cook I. M. Kharitonov and the footman A. E. Troup, the adjutant General I. L. Tatishchev, the Marshal Prince V. A. Dolgorukov, the "uncle" of the Heir, who were killed in various places and in different months of 1918, belonged to them. K. G. Nagorny, children's footman I. D. Sednev, lady-in-waiting of the Empress A.V. Gendrikov and Goflectrissa E. A. Schneider.
Soon after the execution of the Sovereign was announced, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon blessed the archpastors and pastors to perform memorial services for him. His Holiness himself, on July 8 (21), 1918, during a divine service at the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow, said: "A terrible thing happened the other day: the former Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich was shot... We must, obeying the teaching of the word of God, condemn this deed, otherwise the blood of the executed will fall on us, and not only on those who committed it. We know that when he abdicated, he did it with the benefit of Russia in mind and out of love for her. He could have found security and a relatively quiet life abroad after his abdication, but he did not do this, wanting to suffer together with Russia. He did nothing to improve his situation, meekly submitted to fate."
The veneration of the Royal Family, already begun by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon in the funeral prayer and the word at the memorial service at the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow for the murdered Emperor three days after the Yekaterinburg murder, continued — despite the prevailing ideology — for several decades of the Soviet period of our history.
Many clergy and laity secretly offered prayers to God for the repose of the murdered sufferers, members of the Royal family. In recent years, photographs of the Royal Family could be seen in many houses in the red corner, and icons depicting the Royal Martyrs began to spread in many places. Prayers addressed to them, literary, cinematographic and musical works reflecting the suffering and martyrdom of the Royal family were compiled. The Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints received appeals from ruling bishops, clergy and laity in support of the canonization of the Royal Family — some of these appeals had thousands of signatures. By the time of the glorification of the Royal Martyrs, a huge amount of evidence had accumulated about their gracious help — about the healing of the sick, the union of disunited families, the protection of church property from schismatics, about the myrrh-streaming of icons with images of Emperor Nicholas and the Royal Martyrs, about the fragrance and the appearance of blood-colored spots on the icon faces of the Royal Martyrs.
One of the first miracles witnessed was the deliverance during the Civil War of hundreds of Cossacks surrounded in impassable swamps by red troops. At the call of the priest, Father Elijah, the Cossacks unanimously addressed a prayer appeal to the Tsar-martyr, the Sovereign of Russia — and incredibly got out of the encirclement.
In Serbia in 1925, a case was described when an elderly woman, whose two sons were killed in the war, and the third was missing, had a vision in a dream of Emperor Nicholas, who reported that the third son was alive and in Russia — a few months later the son returned home.
In October 1991, two women went for cranberries and got lost in an impassable swamp. Night was approaching, and the swampy quagmire could easily drag careless travelers. But one of them remembered the description of the miraculous deliverance of a detachment of Cossacks — and, following their example, began to fervently pray for the help of the Royal Martyrs: "Slain Royal Martyrs, save us, to the servant of God Eugene and Love!" Suddenly in the dark, the women saw a glowing branch from a tree; grasping it, they got out to a dry place, and then went out on a wide clearing, along which they reached the village. It is noteworthy that the second woman, who also testified about this miracle, was at that time still a person far from the Church.
The Dane Jan-Michael was an alcoholic and drug addict for sixteen years, and he became addicted to these vices from an early youth. On the advice of good friends, in 1995 he went on a pilgrimage to the historical sites of Russia; he also got to Tsarskoye Selo. At the Divine Liturgy in the house church, where the Royal Martyrs once prayed, he turned to them with a fervent plea for help — and felt that the Lord was saving him from sinful passion. On July 17, 1999, he converted to the Orthodox faith with the name Nicholas in honor of the holy Tsar-martyr.
On May 15, 1998, Moscow doctor Oleg Belchenko received an icon of the Tsar-Martyr as a gift, before which he prayed almost daily, and in September he began to notice small blood-colored spots on the icon. Oleg brought the icon to the Sretensky Monastery; during the prayer service, all the worshippers felt a strong fragrance from the icon. The icon was moved to the altar, where it remained for three weeks, and the fragrance did not stop. Later, the icon visited several Moscow churches and monasteries; the myrrh-streaming from this image was repeatedly witnessed, which was witnessed by hundreds of parishioners. In 1999, 87-year-old Alexander Mikhailovich miraculously recovered from blindness at the myrrh—streaming icon of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II: a complicated eye operation almost did not help, but when he kissed the myrrh-streaming icon with fervent prayer, and the priest who served the prayer covered his face with a towel with traces of peace, healing came - vision returned. The myrrh—streaming icon visited a number of dioceses - Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, Odessa... Everywhere the icon has been, numerous cases of its myrrh-streaming have been witnessed, and two parishioners of Odessa churches reported healing from leg disease after praying in front of the icon. The Diocese of Tulchinsk-Bratslav reported cases of gracious help through prayers before this miraculous icon: the servant of God Nina was healed of severe hepatitis, the parishioner Olga received healing of a broken collarbone, the servant of God Lyudmila was healed of a severe lesion of the pancreas.
Many Christians now turn to the Royal passion—bearers with a prayer for strengthening the family and raising children in faith and piety, for preserving their purity and chastity - after all, during the persecution, the Imperial Family was especially united, carried the indestructible Orthodox faith through all sorrows and sufferings.
The memory of the Holy Passion-bearers Emperor Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, their children Alexy, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia is celebrated on the day of their murder on July 4 (17), and on the day of the cathedral memory of the New Martyrs and confessors of Russia on January 25 (February 7), if this day coincides with Sunday, and if it does not coincide, then the next Sunday after January 25 (February 7).

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