hello.

i am ilya.
To experience true orthodox worship during WYD come to Saint Elias Church in Brampton (30 min. outside T.O.)see www.saintelias.com
we are much better than we look.

i hope i am not being too proud, but it's true.

ilya

Dear Daniil:

As someone who has spent most of his life in the shadow of the Russian Imperial tragedy I would like to say a few words.

I was pleased that the Moscow Patriachate finally canonized the Imperial Family.

I was not completely bothered by the fact that they only proclaimed them Passion Bearers instead of Martyrs this was the compromise they had to make.

One can make a credible case for martyrdom if one takes into consideration the history of Imperial Russia.

When Peter the Great ended the Patriarchate and appointed a council to run the church, he had to dilute the image of the Patriarch to soften the blow to the people.

One of the things he did was allow metropolitans to wear the white klobuk as did the Patriarchs. He also extended similar minor vanities to Bishops.

One unforeseen outcome of this policy was that the highest religious dignitary now became the Tsar of Russia [no longer would the Tsar lead the horse of any Patriarch on foot].

The church as we all know became completely subservient to the state.

In the peoples minds the figure of the Tsar now became holy and sacrosanct. This may not have been true in urban centres but it was a widely held view in the countryside [it was these Narody that the Bolshevist leadership feared the most].

Here is an example of what the Imperial family meant to the narod:

When the Imperial family was under arrest in the City of Tabolsk, Siberia, one of the few freedoms they were allowed was attending religious services. They were allowed to walk to a church which was a short distance from the house where they were interned. The people would line the route to the church and knelt down as the family passed.

This unfortunately made life for the Imperial family more difficult.

Rightly or wrongly the identification of the Imperial family with the divine glories made them extremely dangerous to the new regime and they had to be liquidated.

If they died because of love of God, they were martyrs; if they died because of hatred of the faith, they were martyrs; if they died because the people believed that they were the shadow of God on earth, they were martyrs.

These are the facts, one is free to interpret them as he wishes.

defreitas