Posted on 07/26/2012 6:32:22 AM PDT by marshmallow
Kiev, July 26, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate might reconsider its attitude toward what is widely believed to be the remains of Russia's last Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family and entourage, which were found at the site of their shooting near Yekaterinburg and were buried at the Imperial Burial Vault at the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg in 1998.
"I would like to announce very important information we have received from New York, which is related to the circumstances of the royal family's death. I believe these circumstances will help us determine our position, among other things, on the so-called Yekaterinburg remains. I will provide you with the relevant materials, and we will have to discuss this and make the necessary decision," Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in opening a conference of the Russian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod in Kiev on Thursday.
Patriarch Kirill also said that the participants in the conference should consider the convention of the Bishops' Council. "We are approaching a time when it is desirable to hold a council assembly," he said.
Eleven people, including members of the Russian Imperial Family and people from their entourage, were shot at the Urals regional council presidium's order in the early hours of July 17, 1918.
A grave with nine bodies was found on Staraya Koptyakovskaya Road near Yekaterinburg in July 1991. The remains were identified as those of Emperor Nicholas II, his 46-year-old wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, their daughters Olga, 22, Tatyana, 21, and Anastasia, 17, and their servants Yevgeny Botkin, 53, Anna Demidova, 40, Aloizy Trupp, 62, and Ivan Kharitonov, 48.
The remains of two more people were discovered during archaeological excavation works 70 kilometers south of the first grave on July 26, 2007. The remains have still not been buried, but numerous expert analyses indicate that the remains were most likely those of Crown Prince Alexey and his sister Maria.
The Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court ruled to rehabilitate Nicholas II and his family members on October 1, 2008.
The Investigative Committee said in January 2011 that it had completed an investigation into the death of Nicholas II, his family members and entourage and closed the criminal case.
The Russian Orthodox Church has still not recognized the remains interred in Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral as those of Nicholas II and his family members and entourage, claiming that it was not convinced by the proof of their authenticity that was presented.
In other words, the Orthodox church, like the OJ Simpson jury, doesn’t believe in DNA testing.
Beliefs belong in church.
“the circumstances of the royal family’s death”
It also appears that the Orthodox Church has trouble telling the complete truth. The Czar and his family didn’t just “die” and they weren’t just “shot”.
It was cold-blooded murder of the Czar, his wife, his CHILDREN, and his servants by Leftist thugs.
Obamalini and his friends like Bill Ayres would probably approve.
How far is 70 kilometers?
like the OJ Simpson jury,.............Exactly what I thought as I read the last sentence.
‘Bout 45 miles.
Maybe because Anastasia was 3 and not 17 when she was murdered?
Apparently she was 17. That is what I get for thinking cartoons are historically accurate.
I remember reading a few years back that Prince Phillip gave dna to prove that it was the Russian royal family’s remains.
What exactly is your animus against the Holy Orthodox Church?
The Holy Synod of Moscow proclaimed the glorification of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers Nicholas, Alexandra, and those with them (to use the brief version rather than giving the whole list). Passion-Bearers’ sanctity is shown chiefly in being murdered, going to their death in a Christ-like manner, but in circumstances in which the motive for the murder is not the saint’s Christian faith per se (that would be a Holy Martyr, rather than a Holy Passion-Bearer). The title was first given to Sts. Boris and Gleb, who refused to fight their brother Svatoslav for the throne of Kiev, preferring meek deaths to fighting over worldly things on account of their newly embraced Christian faith.
Interfax is not a house-organ of the Russian Church, so if they left that out, it’s not the Church’s fault.
I would also note that for purposes of writing the lives of saints for inclusion in the Synaxarion, in the case of saints whose death is part of the case for their sanctity, the Church want complete details: “shot” is not enough. If any of the Holy Royal Passion Bearers of Russia did not die of their gunshot wounds and were bayonetted or clubbed to death after being shot (or after being missed in the shooting), for the Church’s purposes, if possible, that needs to be known, so until the Church is satisfied with the investigation a neutral term that does not presuppose a proximate cause of death will probably be used.
(Incidentally I have very strong feelings about this because I criticized the Russian Church Outside of Russia for proclaiming the Tsar and his family as martyrs, insisting for years before the Holy Synod of Moscow agreed with me that their proper title as saints is Passion-Bearers.)
“How far is 70 kilometers?”
Your screen name fits.
I don’t know metrics. But thanks anyway! :)
BTW-I have eleven letters in my last name and SMARTY was the best I could do in re-arranging them with something that would work.
Besides, I figured SMARTY was loads better than SMARTA#@
LOL! "It's not what we don't know that trips us up ... it's what we know that's not so."
There is no animus at all. I do think that every statement referencing the event should emphasize that they and their children and servants were brutally murdered by the Communists.
The article is in error. The two graves weren’t 70 km apart; I think the correct distance is 70 meters.
I wondered why captors would risk removing the Czar’s children (one of whom would be the heir to the monarchy) so far from their place of imprisonment, just to execute them.
In any case, I thought it was horrific that children would be murdered at all ...never mind that they would have to spend their last moments on earth away from their parents and to die so brutally and alone! Ghastly.
For later
Pretty easy to type “how many miles is 70 kilometers” into Google however!
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