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Even in Old Testament times it was already known that the rule of a king was blessed by God. On February 21, 1613 a great church and land Assembly was held in Russia, at which the first Russian tsar of the Romanov dynasty was chosen and blessed. The Assembly decreed that “the elected of God, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, should be the progenitor of all rulers of Russia, from generation unto generation, responsible for his actions solely to the heavenly King, and whoever goes against this decree – be he king, patriarch, or any person whatsoever, – may such a person be damned in this life and in the next, for he shall be excommunicated from the Holy Trinity."
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Holy Martyr Tsar Nicholas |
Emperor Nicholas Aleksandrovich Romanov was the last monarch in Russia, anointed with holy myrrh before stepping on the throne.. The Tsar – the anointed of God, a holy person, carrier of the special grace of the Holy Spirit, was murdered the night of July 4, 1918.
In such a manner was violated the oath of 1613, which tied not only our ancestors who had composed the decree, but all of us – their descendants – to the tsars of the Romanov dynasty.
By violating the oath in not defending their Tsar, the people fell under damnation and excommunication from the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be worse than that! A great sin merits great punishment. In that bitter hour the holy Patriarch Tikhon said: “In accordance with the teaching of the word of God we must condemn this deed, else the blood of the murdered one will fall upon us too, and not only on those who had committed the deed.”
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St John (Maximovich) wrote: “It is a great sin to raise a hand against an anointed of God, and even the slightest participation in such a sin will not remain unavenged. In sorrow we say: ‘His blood is upon us and our children,’ for it is not only the physical executors of the deed who are guilty of the sin of regicide, but the entire people, who rejoiced when the Tsar was dethroned and who allowed his humiliation, arrest and exile, leaving him defenseless in the hands of criminals, which of itself predetermined the end. Let us remember that the iniquity was committed on the day of commemoration of St. Andrew of Crete, creator of the Great Canon which calls us to repentance. A deep realization of the sinfulness of the deed and repentance before the memory of the Tsar-Martyr is required of us. But our repentance must be without any self-justification, without any reservation, with a condemnation of ourselves and of the entire evil deed from its very beginning.
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On a par with holy Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, holy Prince Mikhail of Tver, and holy Prince Dimitri of Uglich, the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his long-suffering family joined the ranks of Russian passion-bearers. All of Russia should bow down before him who was humiliated, vilified and murdered, so that in glorifying his martyrdom we can atone for the crime committed against him.
Just as Christ, crucified on Golgotha for the sins of the entire world, was abandoned by all, so our Tsar was sacrificed for the sins of all Russia and was also left defenseless in the hands of the Bolsheviks. This was the day when the Church commemorates the Russian Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, heinously murdered by conspirators in 1174. Both then and now, many examples convince us that there exists a mighty and terrible secret power that has set itself the goal of destroying religion.
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The Royal Martyrs |
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Apostle Paul wrote: “For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thes. 2:7).
The Tsar was murdered, and from that time on the “mystery of lawlessness” gained freedom. We are all witnesses to the unrestrained spread of evil throughout the entire world.
The Bolshevik Lunacharsky declared in 1923 that from the Bolsheviks’ point of view every person who believes in God is a counter-revolutionary, because he hinders them in building a kingdom on earth. They hurriedly proceeded to clear away a space for establishing this very kingdom. Churches were destroyed, icons were burned, and five-pointed stars were set up everywhere. While throwing churches, crosses and domes down to the ground, they furnished the entire Russian land with thousands of bronze busts, prepared for the glorification of new idols. The Russian people found themselves in a world turned upside down, and decided that so it must be. In such a manner our grandparents and our parents lived out their lives. So we continue to live too, thinking that everything is as it should be, that the turning of rivers, Chernobyl, the death of Russian soldiers in Afghanistan and Chechnya, narcotics, the boring exchange of one set of political idols for another, the placement of material wealth above divine ideals are all natural events.
We justify our atheism by the fact that for seventy years we have not been taught anything religious, anything related to the church. But let us not engage in self-justification, since it has long been time for us to ask God forgiveness for our godless life, it has long been time to thank God for our still being alive, for being able to repent of our sins, for being able to change.
The mortal sin of regicide hangs over our people, and, consequently, in some measure or other, hangs over each one of us. St. John of Kronstadt said in 1905: “If the Russian people do not repent, the end of the world is near.”
In 1981 the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized the holy Tsar-Martyr Nicholas among other Russian New Martyrs.
In order to have hope that the sin of regicide will be deleted from Russia’s conscience, it is necessary for us, besides our personal repentance and prayers to God for forgiveness, to summon the help of the Tsar-Martyr: “O holy Tsar-Martyr Nicholas and all the New Martyrs of the Russian land, pray to God for us sinners.”
We believe that the bright soul of the Tsar will bow down before the throne of God and will pray for the salvation of Russia and for us sinners. Everything is possible for God! He has the power to turn sorrow into joy and to resurrect the holy Orthodox Russia. Amen.
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Penitence for the Tsar
