Posted on 07/20/2018 1:02:56 PM PDT by NRx
A host of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess, the Nun Barbara, and Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov, the Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, and Grand Duke Sergei's secretary Fyodor Remez martyred with them yesterday at the site of their martyrdom.
The celebration followed the festivities in honor of the 100th anniversary of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and their children and faithful servants the day before in Ekaterinburg. St. Elizabeth the New Martyr was the sister of Tsarina Alexandra.
The service in honor of Sts. Elizabeth, Barbara, and those with them was headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursky, with the concelebration of twelve other hierarchs and the clergy of the Metropolitanate of Ekaterinburg.
Following the service, the hierarchs, clergy, and faithful processed to the mine where the bodies of the holy martyrs were thrown on the night of July 17-18, 1918. A moleben was celebrated at the mine, followed by the singing of the Cherubic Hymn, which the martyrs sang throughout the course of several days within the mine until they finally departed to the Heavenly Kingdom. As the hymn was being sung, the mine, which has become a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands from throughout the world, was censed. Particles of the relics of St. Elizabeth were brought out of the church for veneration.
Met. Kirill of Ekaterinburg then addressed the congregation with an archpastoral homily:
For us, believers, today is the day of our personal relationship to Elizabeth Feodorovna and to all the martyrs of the Russian Church and Russian land, who … now defend holy Orthodoxy so our people might live not under the seal of the Satanism, but under the blessing of God. And today, when we incline our heads and the knees of our hearts at this mine, we see the meek face of Elizabeth Feodorovna and her loving heart, which forgives all: the killers and their successors, and prays for all—for our people, and for us today, that this cruelty, this antipathy, this lack of understanding of one another has finally gone from our lives, and we have again become one, great, powerful Russian people, the name and banner of which is the banner of Christianity and the name of Christianity, and the protection of which is the saints of God, who stand before the throne of God today for our infirmity, tearfully praying for us, for our lives, bitter and often unjust.
Among other guests, the service was attended by the head of the Russian Imperial House of Romanov, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and her son and other members of the Romanov family.
Photos: The Diocese of Ekaterinburg
...After Sergei's death, Elisabeth wore mourning clothes and became a vegetarian. In 1909, she sold off her magnificent collection of jewels and sold her other luxurious possessions; even her wedding ring was not spared. With the proceeds she opened the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary and became its abbess.
She soon opened a hospital, a chapel, a pharmacy and an orphanage on its grounds. Elisabeth and her nuns worked tirelessly among the poor and the sick of Moscow. She often visited Moscow's worst slums and did all she could to help alleviate the suffering of the poor.
For many years, Elisabeth's institution helped the poor and the orphans in Moscow by fostering the prayer and charity of devout women.
In 1916, Elisabeth had what was to be her final meeting with sister Alexandra, the tsarina, at Tsarskoye Selo. While the meeting took place in private, the tutor to the tsar's children apparently recalled that the discussion included Elisabeth expressing her concerns over the influence that Grigori Rasputin had over Alexandra and the imperial court, and begging her to heed the warnings of both herself and other members of the imperial family.
In 2010 an historian claimed that Elisabeth may have been aware that the murder of Rasputin was to take place and secondly, she knew who was going to commit that particular murder when she wrote a letter and sent it to the Tsar and two telegrams to Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Zinaida Yusupova, her friend. The telegrams, which were written the night of the murder, reveal that the Grand Duchess was aware of who the murderers were before that information had been released to the public, and she stated that she felt that the killing was a "patriotic act."[5] Death
In 1918, Vladimir Lenin ordered the Cheka to arrest Elisabeth. They then exiled her first to Perm, then to Yekaterinburg, where she spent a few days and was joined by others: the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess's convent. They were all taken to Alapayevsk on 20 May 1918, where they were housed in the Napolnaya School on the outskirts of the town.
At noon on 17 July, Cheka officer Pyotr Startsev and a few Bolshevik workers came to the school. They took from the prisoners whatever money they had left and announced that they would be transferred that night to the Upper Siniachikhensky factory compound. The Red Army guards were told to leave and Cheka men replaced them. That night the prisoners were awakened and driven in carts on a road leading to the village of Siniachikha, some 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Alapayevsk where there was an abandoned iron mine with a pit 20 metres (66 feet) deep. Here they halted. The Cheka beat all the prisoners before throwing their victims into this pit, Elisabeth being the first. Hand grenades were then hurled down the shaft, but only one victim, Fyodor Remez, died as a result of the grenades.
According to the personal account of Vasily Ryabov, one of the killers, Elisabeth and the others survived the initial fall into the mine, prompting Ryabov to toss in a grenade after them. Following the explosion, he claimed to have heard Elisabeth and the others singing an Orthodox hymn from the bottom of the shaft.[6] Unnerved, Ryabov threw down a second grenade, but the singing continued. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the opening and set alight, upon which Ryabov posted a guard over the site and departed.
Early on 18 July 1918, the leader of the Alapayevsk Cheka, Abramov, and the head of the Yekaterinburg Regional Soviet, Beloborodov, who had been involved in the execution of the Imperial Family, exchanged a number of telegrams in a pre-arranged plan saying that the school had been attacked by an "unidentified gang". A month later, Alapayevsk fell to the White Army of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. Lenin welcomed Elisabeth's death, remarking that "virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars".[7][8]
My favorite Orthodox hymn. From the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom by Sergei Rachmaninov. “We Praise Thee”
And I love the juxtaposition of woodland and forests with the great churches of Russia.
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