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OUR
LEGACY |
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Protopresbyter
Alexander Kiselev How
the New Martyrs of Russia Were Glorified
The day has arrived when the New Martyrs of Russia, already glorified
by God in Heaven, those who, in the words of Apostle Paul, "the
whole world is unworthy of," have been included among the host
of saints on earth, loudly, before all of mankind. The Russian Orthodox
Church Outside of Russia declared this to the world on 31 October/1
November 1981. It may be that not everyone can yet accept this greatest
of events, which has witnessed the victory of the Church--adorned
with innumerable martyrs--six years before the 1000-year anniversary
of the Baptism of Russia.
This even is so great, so unheard-of, that it is difficult to wrap
one's mind around it. If the chosen of the chosen--the apostles
of Christ--could not immediately perceive and absorb the news of
the resurrecton of the Son of God, then little wonder that we, feeble
Christians of today, cannot understand, comprehend the significance
of the path of the New Martyrs of Russia towards the holy day of
the awakening of the entire Russian nation from its sinful dreams,
the complete renewal of all our people. The 1000th anniversary is
the deadline upon this path when we must account for what has occurred
and what we have done.
Our Orthodox people, baptized a thousand years ago by Holy Grand
Duke Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, even now, in the host of the
New Martyrs, led by the Holy Royal Martyr Tsar Nicholas, remain
the same. They include tens and tens of millions of Russians who
did not achieve holiness through the manifestation of the truth
in their lives, but remaining true to Christ-God, clothed themselves
in Christ. What does it mean, to clothe oneself in Christ? During
the baptism, these words are sung: "baptize yourselves in Christ,
clothe yourselves in Christ." Clothe yourselves, that is, put
on that which expresses our inner essence, our faith. Inseparable,
indissoluble from our essence must be, for us, the putting on of
the truth of life in Christ, or rather--Christ Himself must become
our clothing. The people clothed themselves in Christ through the
blood of our New Martyrs and through personal loyalty to the truth
of Christ, even if expressed in single grains, in details, in separate
instances in the lives of the suffering majority of our people over
this terrible sixty-year tribulation. This is the examination before
our 1000-year anniversary.
On 31 October/1 November, the trek of the army of Christ, the holy
martyrs, and with them all the faithful, marched upon those who
still slumber spiritually, those who do not see, do not understand,
those who continue to commit outrages, to "awaken" them
from sleep and from insanity, for all to stand with the saints on
the day of the 1000-year anniversary of the first meeting of Christ
with our people--the thousandth anniversary of the Baptism of Holy
Russia. We no longer fear for our people as a whole, for in answer
to the question put to us by Christ, what was done with the talents
given to it, our people will answer with all the Saints of Russia
in the host of New Martyrs and Confessors, the equal of which not
one other people have. All that remains is the fear of individual
negiligence, personal indifference, which may not be inflamed by
the holy fire of the righteous. May this not be!
How victorious is the as yet unseen march of the holy martyrs and
righteous people of Russia, and together with them all those who
now may be weak, but who thirst for and strive to express in life
the truth of Christ's testament!
Do not tarry! Hasten, every Orthodox person, to join their ranks,
for the time has come for a fateful decision: are you with God or
against Him? Two forces, two directions, like two hurricanes, are
at work now: that striving for the center--towards Christ, where
in the words of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, "Pascha will be sung
throughout the year," and that which leads away from the center;
towards the night of the Antichrist, away from Christ: "Let
those who despise Him flee from Him."How did the celebration
of the triumph of Glorification occur?
Those who have never been in the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady of
the Sign in New York, the cathedra of the First Hierarch of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, must imagine a huge hall
belonging at one time to a very wealthy American family, which over
twenty years ago became a church. The wondrous three-tiered iconostasis,
icons, frames, all infused with prayer and with the presence there
of the holy relic of the Russian Church, the Miracle-working Kursk-Root
Icon of the Mother of God (before which Saint Seraphim of Sarov
received his first healing)--all this has long ago erased any traces
of a hall in a worldly house and gave us a cathedral which can hold
some one thousand people.
From the street, through wrought-iron gates, one can see a spacious
flagstone courtyard with two wide, turning staircases rising up
to the second floor, where three enormous glass doors lead to the
Cathedral.
On Saturday, 31 October, at 5 pm, all this was already overflowing
with worshipers who came to the last pannikhida for the New Martyrs
of Russia.
All 16 bishops attending the Council emerged from the altar for
the pannikhida (only two were absent due to reasons of health),
headed by Metropolitan Philaret, the First Hierarch of the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, along with a host of clergymen.
A seemingly endless list of names of New Martyrs was read at the
litanies: clergymen, headed by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, members
of the Royal Romanoff family, headed by Emperor Nicholas II, names
of monastics and laymen, famous and unknown, of various rank and
calling, age and sex, including children who accepted a martyric
death for Christ. These hundreds of names represent only a small
fraction of the millions of sufferers, behind each of whom is a
whole story, a human drama, with years of suffering and torture,
not to speak of losses, separations, tears, abandonment...
Only a few hundred of those who are being glorified today were commemorated
by name. The many thousands who were included to our lists of New
Martyrs, but those about whom there was a lack of exact details
or testimonies were not named. This does not mean that their martyrdom
is questioned. Until there is confirmation, they exist in the continuing
process of glorification—we pray for them Òtheir names, O Lord,
Thy knowest,Ó in time they will be included. But then ÒEternal MemoryÓ
was intoned, the singing of which quickly, like fire, swept through
the entire temple, and the thousand-strong crowd of worshipers joined
the choir and the clergy, so it seemed that the very walls of the
church are singingÉThe final pannikhida was over.
Vigil began. The altar, it seemed, was more crowded than the church.
At times during the service, not all the clergymen emerged from
the altar, but only some, for it was too difficult to stand in the
proper order, to exit the altar, and return to it because of the
lack of room. The entire host of clergy only emerged for the actual
magnification (polyeleos), which consisted of the opening of the
reliquaries of Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and
Novice Barbara, and the removal of the covering from the new icon
of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, the grace-filled beseechers
of the Lord for our people. I stood in fourth place in accordance
with seniority among the priests, on the right side, that is, right
near the relics and the icon: but I could not see how the martyrs’
relics were removed over the shoulders of the Metropolitan, the
Protodeacon and others. What could those standing farther away have
seen? Absolutely nothing. How is it, then, that they stood for 6-7
hours in a row (the anointing and veneration of the relics and icon
lasted until after midnight), compressed into a mass of humanity?
Of course, the people did not just stand, they prayed. And of course,
they waited for the opportunity to venerate the relics, but one
must take another thing into account: the life of the Church is
not rational. The Church, as the mystical Body of Christ, possesses
a special charisma, whose power exceeds that of all human reasoning.
This power can be felt during church gatherings, during especially
important church events, processions of the cross, pilgrimagesÉIt
was felt among us then, during this great occurrence, the glorification
of the New Martyrs of Russia.
The life of the Church is not just preaching the word of truth,
but the recreation of it in real life. Where it happens, where prayer
unites with deed, the life of the general consciousness of the people
is created, an irrational consciousness. During the glorification,
the cathedral and surrounding areas did not contain 2000 separate
individuals, and not a crowd without inner unity--in the cathedral
stood the CHURCH: the holy residents of Heaven, the bishops, Orthodox
people, breathing another kind of air, not knowing why and how.
That is how they could stand for seven hours, and that is why they
uttered to each other: "Christ is Risen!" and "Rejoice!"
And so, the holy relics were uncovered. The relics, the portion
brought from Jerusalem (the right hand of Holy Martyr Grand Duchess
Elizabeth and the bone from the forearm of Holy Martyr Novice Barbara),
came from our Gethsemane Convent, where they arrived in January
1921. The story of the murder of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna,
the sister of the Empress, along with five other Dukes of the Royal
Family, Novice Barbara and F.M. Remeza, the story of who she was
and what she did in Russia, and also how her coffin reached Jerusalem,
can be found in the book Pamyat' ikh v rod i rod ["Their Memory
for Generation Upon Generation"] (St. Seraphim Foundation).
We cannot stop here on the details of the opening of the coffins
in Jerusalem of the holy Martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara, which would
require an entire book: I will speak only of the relics themselves.
When they set about to uncovering them, it turned out that there
was not one, but five coffins, one inside the other, each containing
two martyrs, which was apparently necessary due to the long trek
through Siberia and China to Palestine. The first, outer coffin
was iron. It had rusted to the point that it crumbled at the touch
into separate pieces. The inside of the coffin, however, contained
the partially uncorrupted relics of two martyrs of Christ.
What are relics? The Church calls relics the remains of any reposed
Orthodox Christian. In the book called the trebnik [Book of Needs],
the rite of burial, it says: "having entered the house wherein
the relics of the departed one lie..."
The Orthodox East considers it a sign of holiness when the body
corrupts quickly, when clean bones remain; we in Russia think the
opposite: it even caused consternation when a righteous person's
body disintegrated. Such frustration was present, for example, when
the coffin of St. Seraphim of Sarov was opened, revealing only his
bones. In what way to the remains of a holy person differ from that
of a regular person? Not in that the former exhibit complete or
partial corruption, but that through them (even if they are nothing
but bones), help is provided, miraculous help, the power of the
saints to whom the bones belong. This power is expressed not only
from the surviving portions of the body, but even through their
things, their clothing...Even the shadow of the passing Apostle
Peter performed miracles and healings. Thanks to this, the glorification
of the New Martyrs of Russia occurred through the opening before
us of the holy relics and the holy icon of the New Martyrs. And so the holy relics were opened: the cloth was removed from a very large icon of the New Martyrs. Metropolitan Philaret returned to his cathedra among the other bishops, the censer spread aromatic incense all around, and the choir sang, for the first time on earth, the magnification for those whose life was drained out of them one drop of blood at a time, who traveled that terrible path of martyrdom in our day: ÒWe magnify you, O holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia, and we reverence your honored sufferings, which ye endured for Christ.Ó
Truly inscrutable are the ways of God. Allowing our country to befall
terrible destruction, the Lord preserved, outside its borders, a
clump of Russia Abroad. The glorification of the New Martyrs of
Russia, impossible under the god-battling communist state, is being
performed by the part of the Russian Church that is abroad. Yet
there is more. The Lord allowed that the only holy relics known
to us to exist to be abroad, having traveled during the Civil War
through Siberia, China, the Middle East and end up in Jerusalem,
in our Gethsemane Convent. May no one say that the glorification
of the New Martyrs was a usurpation of the rights of the Russian
Church by the part of the Russian Orthodox Church that is abroad.
The holy act of glorification is being performed by the very Hand
of the Lord!
ÒO victims for God who were buried alive, cast down into a well-like
pit! First among you the passion-bearer Elizabeth, the merciful
princess who strove for the things of heaven, finding the pearl
of Orthodoxy in her new homeland, who in accordance with the Gospel
forgave the slayer of her husband, and who pleased God with prayer
and charity, yet was not spared by the godless! Pray also for us,
ye holy princes! Pray for all, O venerable passion-bearer Barbara!
Hearken unto us, ye who were buried in the Garden of Gethsemane!
Give ear to us, ye whose place of burial is unknown!Ó (From the
new service to the New Martyrs of Russia).
The following day, Sunday, 1 November, began early. At 9 a.m. the
First Hierarch Metropolitan Philaret was greeted. Again, all sixteen
bishops present for the Council served, truly the diaspora-wide
scope of the Church. Here are the names and cathedras of the ruling
bishops:
Some seventy priests and deacons supplemented the host of serving
clergymen, a significant
portion of which came from distant countries, as did many of the
worshipers.
In our ÎmigrÎ situation, we often hear complaints of our decreasing
numbers, our feeble replenishment by the younger generations. This
time, to everyone's astonishment, the uncommon plenitude of young
people caught everyone's notice, from very young priests and deacons,
a large number of sub-deacons and altar boys, seminarians, and young
faces in general, densely filling the crowd, and finally, young
married couples with their progeny in their arms. There were very
many Old-calendar Greek clerics, Americans who converted to Orthodoxy
from Catholicism and Protestantism.
At the end of liturgy, many approached the Holy Chalice. Communion
was administered not only from the ambo, but also from the hierarchal
ambo in the center of the church. The liturgy ended with a glorious
sermon by Vladyka Metropolitan on the present glory of the Russian
Church, and a procession of the cross.
Some two hours later, many gathered in a hall rented for the occasion,
where a feast was served for 900 people. The new icon of the New
Martyrs of Russia was given a ceremonious greeting and placed on
a special dais, at the foot of which sat the bishops. Upon the blessing
of the food, the feast began, during which the Act on the Glorification
of the New Martyrs was read to total silence, along with the ÒEpistle
of the Council of Bishops to the Orthodox People in the Homeland
and the Diaspora,Ó an account of the execution of the first of the
New Martyrs of Russia, Holy Metropolitan Vladimir, who was until
his last moment blessing his murderers, and of the murder of the
Royal Family. In conclusion, two wonderful sermons were given: Archbishop
Vitaly of Canada characterized what we experience over the last
two days of the glorification as Òheaven descended upon the earth,Ó
and the spiritual state achieved when a person desires, in his own
life, to emulate the firmness of the martyrs. Archbishop Anthony
of Geneva said that may Orthodox Christians in Russia are in need
of the prayers of the New Martyrs. ÒAnd you and I,Ó asked the Archbishop,
Òdo we, in our slumber-inducing comfort, feel the need for the prayers
of the New Martyrs?Ó The ÒPaschaÉthroughout the year,Ó of which
Saint Seraphim spoke, was felt by us yesterday, and we wanted to
sing ÒChrist is Risen,Ó said Vladyka. And so ended the glorification
of the New Martyrs of Russia.
In conclusion of this brief description of the indescribably significant
event, which is accepted more and more in our consciousness and
will grow yet more, we will end with one more excerpt from the service
of the New Martyrs: ÒThe Church of Russia is glorified by your sufferings,
O new martyrs, our kinsmen of every rank and estate, who were slain
for Christ by the godless, for the salvation of us who chant: O
God our Deliverer, blessed art Thou!Ó From Russkoye Vozrozhdenie [Russian Rebirth] |