Today we commemorate the holy royal martyrs of Russia: Tsar Nicholas II, Tsaritsa Alexandra, Crown Prince Alexis, Grand Duchesses Ogla, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, and those who were murdered along with them.
As most of you are familiar with, during those dark days of the Russian revolution, the royal family was placed under house arrest and kept captive in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg – a place infamously known as ‘the house of special purpose’. There they remained for 78 days… where the windows were painted over and a high wall obstructed any view or contact with the outside world. Around midnight on this day in 1918 the family was ordered to gather in the basement room where they were told they were being readied for transport to another location. The Tsaritsa Alexandra filed downstairs with the young duchesses, while the Tsar carried the sickly Prince Alexey in his arms. The purpose of their gathering was soon made clear… the commandant Yurovsky announced that they were to be executed and as the family huddled together and attempted to cross themselves, the guards opened fire. Those that were not immediately dead from the gunshots were then stabbed and bludgeoned.
The anointed king had been eliminated and the full force of the new Godless authority was unleashed.
This was certainly an atrocity and arouses our basic human sorrow and sympathy to see an entire family brutally murdered like this. But let us reflect a bit this morning on what this tragedy really means… Why should we, as 21st century Americans, care about an event that occurred almost a century ago in a land so far away? Why should a community of Christians who have experienced oppression at the hands of the Soviets in particular, care for and identify with the Russian Tsar and his family?
I will not paint a picture of Holy Russia that whitewashes the many stains that marred that land and its people during the turn of the century. It is not hard to find fault in some of the decisions and actions of Tsar Nicholas… especially in our western history books which sometimes go to great lengths to discredit him.
But let us reflect this morning on the martyrdom of the Royal Family from an Orthodox point of view… a point of view that looks deeper into what is happening, upon what the spiritual and eternal significance of things are, and that draws lessons which help inform and form the soul.
First of all, laying any personal or political issues aside – it must be acknowledged that the Tsar and the royal family stood for something.
The Tsar was a king anointed by the Holy Orthodox Church to rule his people with love and fatherly concern and to guide and guard the faith and sovereignty of their country. There was a sense of dignity, integrity, and righteousness which accompanied the coronation of a king. This anointing was a Sacrament… a blessing from God and the Church upon the Sovereign to carry out his duties. It was precisely these attributes of dignity, integrity and righteous fidelity to the Holy Orthodox faith that the Godless ones wished to overthrow.
The martyrdom of the anointed king should stir our Christian soul because it is the desecration of a sacred thing, of a sacrament of the Church, and of a way of life that valued order and the law of God.
If one reads the letters of Tsar Nicholas and Tsaritsa Alexandra, we also get a glimpse into the beauty of their souls and the tenderness of their love for one another. It is quite touching to read this correspondence. These were pious Orthodox souls who loved each other, who loved their children, and who loved their country. The murder of these dear people is a profound tragedy simply from a human point of view and from the standpoint of the loss of such noble Orthodox lives.
For those of us that are converts to the Orthodox faith, we must also recognize that the Tsaritsa Alexandra was a convert to Orthodoxy. She was of the royal line of Great Britain – the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Before marrying Tsar Nicholas she adopted the Orthodox faith as her own and over the course of the rest of her life her soul was transformed by the teachings of Orthodoxy – especially beloved to her was St Seraphim of Sarov.
So, in what lies the significance of the royal martyrs of Russia for us standing here in Sunnyvale this morning?
The royal martyrs stood for something… Both in their personal lives and in their public lives they stood for dignity, integrity, and fidelity to God and His Holy Orthodox Church. The very fact that the Bolshevik revolutionaries were so adamant to destroy them testifies to what they stood for. The new regime was determined to do away with the old order of aristocracy and of Orthodoxy.
Brothers and sisters in Christ… it is not necessary that we prescribe to elevate monarchy as the ideal system of government; it is not necessary that we sweep under the rug any black marks in history that occurred during the reign of the Tsars. But what the Church calls us to recognize and to hold dear in honoring the royal martyrs is the Christian dignity, integrity, and fidelity of all that they stood for. And our Orthodox soul should cry out with the witness of the blood of the martyrs.
And let us not bury our head in the sand… this appeal to dignity, integrity, and fidelity to the Christian faith are not nostalgic issues of a bygone era… We are witnessing the continued overthrow of Godly order in our own land and in what used to be a Christian Europe – where, both here and in Europe public displays of Christianity are being stifled; where basic goodness and morality are ridiculed and immorality is normalized; where the narrative of the news and media is constantly directed to stir up our passions of lust and fear in order to divide us from one another. When a nation loses its rudder of law and order it will inevitably run aground into chaos – and chaos will give birth to tyranny.
So what can we do?
Like the Royal Martyrs, let each of us stand for something. Let each of us stand for dignity, integrity and fidelity to Orthodoxy by how we live our lives. In a world which falls deeper and deeper into vulgarity and disrespect, let us stand out and let us stand tall for Christian love and charity. Don’t be afraid to the be the odd man out… As the desert fathers of the fourth century prophesied: In the last days the world will become insane, and they will look upon a sane man and say ‘You are insane, because you are not like us!’.
Through the prayers of the holy royal martyrs and passion-bearers, may God grant us the strength of character to stand for the beauty and sanity of our holy Orthodox faith. Let us continue to pray for all things good and profitable for our souls and peace for the world for as long as we are able. Rest assured, God will never abandon mankind… let us live our lives with great care that we may never abandon God. Let us live our lives with that sense of dignity, integrity, and fidelity which make us stand upon solid ground in a world which is losing its footing.
