Saints of Russia

Can the Church "make" a saint? The answer is no. Only God can do that. 

We glorify those whom God Himself has glorified, seeing in their lives true love 

for God and their neighbors. The Church merely recognizes that such a person 

has cooperated with God’s grace to the extent that his or her holiness is beyond doubt.  -Fr. Joseph Frawley [source]

Saints are an important part of Russian Orthodox culture!  As a follow up to my last post on the Romanov family -- yes, Tsar Nicholas II and his family are canonized as saints in the Orthodox Church.

source

For those of you not familiar with how it is that certain devout men, women, and children come to be called "saints" by the Orthodox Church today, here is a quick explanation...

Orthodox theologians classify the saints in six categories [source]:

• The Apostles, who were the first ones to spread the message of the Incarnation of the Word of God and of salvation through Christ. 
• The Prophets, because they predicted and prophesied the coming of the Messiah. 
• The Martyrs, for sacrificing their lives and fearlessly confessing Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. 
• The Fathers and Hierarchs of the Church, who excelled in explaining and in defending, by word and deed, the Christian faith. 
• The Monastics, who lived in the desert and dedicated themselves to spiritual exercise, reaching, as far as possible, perfection in Christ. 
• The Just, those who lived in the world, leading exemplary lives as clergy or laity with their families, becoming examples for imitation in society.

Tsar Nicholas and his family were glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) in 1981 for martyrdom, but this was a hotly debated decision [source].

Tsar Nicholas, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, Alexi. [source]

Both within and outside of Russia there were those who claimed that Nicholas' reign was weak and prone to extravagance and indifference to the plight of Russia's needy. On the other hand, there was widespread popular devotion to Tsar Nicholas among those who claimed that he was called of God to lead his people at a difficult time in history and did so to the best of his abilities. The religious devotion and piety of the family is well documented and not seriously contested by anyone.

On August 14, 2000, after some 8 years of study, the council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (inside Russia) voted unanimously to recognize Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children as saints. They were not named as martyrs, since their deaths did not result immediately from their Christian faith; instead, they were canonized as "passion bearers" (see the last category above).

The holy Passion Bearers.
Icon painted by the sisters of the New Tikhvin Monastery. [source]  

According to a statement by the Moscow synod, they were glorified as saints for the following reasons:

In the last Orthodox Russian monarch and members of his family we see people who sincerely strove to incarnate in their lives the commands of the Gospel. In the suffering borne by the Royal Family in prison with humility, patience, and meekness, and in their martyrs deaths in Yekaterinburg in the night of 17 July 1918 was revealed the light of the faith of Christ that conquers evil. [source]

There is a beautiful children's book about Orthodox saints that I'd like to highlight today -- A Child's Paradise of Saints, by Nun Nectaria McLess, with illustrations by Elen Stefarova.  It's available here.

Product description:
A treasury of saints for the young. Presented in a warm, informal style, suitable for reading aloud, here are stories of the struggles and triumphs of holy Fathers and Mothers from throughout the world. 15 exquisite watercolors by a Russian iconographer bring these beloved saints to life. Each saint story is 3-6 pages in length, taking 5-15 minutes to read aloud.  Ages 5 and up. (You can also hear an audio review here, from AFR).

There are several Russian saints in this book, including beloved St. Herman, a Russian monk and missionary who brought Orthodox Christianity to Alaska and the Aleuts!

St. Herman of Alaska, from
A Child's Paradise of Saints

Another Russian saint in the book is St. Xenia of St. Petersburg. Basically, the story of Xenia is that as a young woman she married an officer, who died suddenly while at a party.  Xenia mourned not only his sudden unexpected death, but the fact that her husband had not been able to go to Confession or receive Holy Communion before he died.  She was dreadfully worried about his soul.

Young Xenia disappeared from society for a long time.  When she returned, she had given away everything she owned (including her house) and was wearing her husband's old army uniform.  She also told everyone to call her by his name, "Andrei".

She went all over the city doing good deeds (many in secret) for others in her husband's name - hoping that her deeds and prayers would honor him in the eyes of God.

St. Xenia, from A Child's Paradise of Saints

Many people thought she was a bit crazy!  Xenia had become very holy and had many spiritual gifts, which were mostly unnoticed because people were so distracted by her strange dress and the fact that she had given away all her money and belongings, basically living a life of homelessness.

There is one story that St. Xenia would spend even the coldest winter nights in the Smolensky Cemetery. There was a church being built there, and she would secretly carry heavy bricks in the middle of the night, to stack them where they were needed the next day.

The workers wondered how the bricks got there, so one night they secretly kept watch.  Xenia finally appeared, climbing up and down the walls of the half-finished church with her loads of bricks!

My husband and I visited Smolensky Cemetery during our visit to St. Petersburg, and we saw the church that St. Xenia helped build...

I took this photo in the Smolensky Cemetery as I looked toward the church that
- according to tradition -  St. Xenia helped build.   

The azure colored church is at one end of the cemetery, and a pale green chapel built over St. Xenia's burial site and dedicated to her memory is at the other end.

St. Xenia's chapel

As we entered the Smolensky Cemetery, we felt as if we'd walked right into an icon of St. Xenia!

During the times of communism in Russia the faithful were not allowed access to the little chapel that was built over the site of Xenia's burial; so visitors wanting to come and pray would lean their heads against the outside of the chapel, or against the Soviet-built fence that was eventually put around the chapel.

Since then, the tradition has been preserved. We saw several worshippers going around the outside of the chapel praying, leaning their heads against or kissing the outside walls before entering the small sanctuary.

The church is restored beautifully inside and out - and many Orthodox Christians make pilgrimage there, to pray, light a candle, and ask St. Xenia for her intercessions. We were blessed to be among them.

I hope you've enjoyed coming along for some "armchair travel" with me to St. Petersburg, Russia!

Remember, today - May 30 - is your final chance to enter my MAY GIVEAWAYS. The Giveaways end at midnight tonight.

How to enter: Comments left HERE on this post (or on any of my "Russia blogs" posted between May 12 and May 30, 2013) will enter you for a chance to win one of the giveaways! Enter as many times as you like.

Winners announced: I'll pick three people who will each win one of my three "Matryoshka Madness"giveaways (three because I'm celebrating three years of blogging!)  I'll announce the winners tomorrow, May 31, 2013.  

St. Petersburg: The Romanovs

 "Wedding of Nicholas II and Grand Princess Alexandra Fyodorovna"
(1895 Tuxen, Laurits) source - Hermitage Museum

I have always had a major fascination with Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra Romanov - Russia's last Imperial family.  So one place I knew I had to visit during our trip to St. Petersburg was the Tsarkoe Selo (Tsar's Village) estates, in Pushkin, which include Great Palace - or "Catherine Palace" - and Alexander Palace, home of Nicholas and Alexandra and their children.

You can read my past post about them here, where you will also find several books about the Romanovs - for teens and children - that I highly recommend.  Also check out Tskarko Selo in 1910, an online book (commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the town) with everything you'd want to know about the history of this town and the Romanovs who lived there.

No Fairy Tale Ending:
The Romanov Dynasty had ruled in Russia for just over 300 years, when this royal family was put under house arrest at the Alexander Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution before being taken to Yekaterinburg, where they were brutally executed in 1918.

From Left back: Princesses Maria, Tatiana, Olga,
Czarina Alexandra, Nicholas II, Princess Anastasia,
Tsarevitch Alexei (1914).  source

Great Palace:  
Our visit  to Tsarko Selo started at "Catherine Palace", originally built by Catherine I, Peter the Great's (second) wife.  I won't include too many photos, because I'd like to focus on the Alexander Palace.  Great Palace was very ostentatious - reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles, in France.  You can read about Catherine Palace and see beautiful photos, here.

My husband and I outside the Great Palace.

From where we started in the Great Hall upstairs, we went through doorways after doorway, each gold gilded and leading into beautifully appointed rooms.

This is one we had heard a lot about:  The Amber Room 

Downstairs was an area dedicated to the Romanovs.  By the way, the Romanov Dynasty (1613-1917) just had its 400th Anniversary this year!! Go here to see the Romanov Dynasty Family Tree.  In the portrait gallery I even found a case with the ex-libris bookplates of Nicholas II and Alexandra!

Side-by-side portraits of Nicholas and Alexandra.

Alexandra's Ex Libris

Tsar Nicholas' Ex Libris

Just outside the grounds of Catherine Palace, we saw this church and went inside (I've linked to information about it in the caption, if you're interested).

The Church of Our Lady of the Sign

I hope you'll visit the incredible website, Alexander Palace Time Machine - this website is a virtual tour of the palace and has tons of old photos, resources, and links about the Romanovs.  You can also visit this lovely blog, "The Love That Ended An Empire", to see archived photos of the last Imperial family.

Alexander Palace:
I held my breath as we went through the gate and walked up the driveway to Alexander Palace...

The inside was not at all what I expected...much of the interior has not been restored to its original beauty.  It was actually quite a shock after seeing the Catherine Palace. Most of the valuables from Alexander Palace have not been returned since before WWII, when the Russians had to pack up as much as they could before the Germans invaded and ransacked the palace (you can read a short history here). 

Imperial Bedroom:

Seeing this room made me cry.  It's what's left of the Imperial Bedroom.  The royal family had many icons. From what I could understand from our interpreter, the museum guide said that many of the original icons that had been in this room (gifts to the Imperial family from monasteries and churches) were packed up and sent away, but during Soviet times, when the palace was turned into a museum, curators moved other icons belonging to the family here from the children's rooms, and more icons showed up at the Palace from all over St. Petersburg...from palaces such as the Winter Palace, where Romanov rooms had been destroyed.

Alexandra's Mauve Bedroom

The above photo shows a "mock up" of Alexandra's famous "Mauve Boudoir". You can see at the back of the room, how they have mounted a blown up photograph of the original room to help you imagine how they looked when Nicholas and Alexandra lived at the Alexander Palace.  Some of the furnishings are being slowly returned from places they had been sent or sold off to.  Some are gone forever, looted or destroyed by the Nazis during WWII.

Classroom:

Children's blackboard from their school room.

Aleksey's Bedroom:

Tsarevitch Alexy's  icon cabinet

 Close-up of another beautiful portrait of Alexandra:

 Uniforms:

The palace collection of uniforms was amazing 

and in wonderful condition.

Feodorovsky Cathedral:

I could see this church across the grounds as we left.  Dedicated in 1912, the Cathedral was a part of the complex of the Alexander Palace.  It was built by Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra and many famous Russian architects and artists took part in its planning and decoration. We did not go inside, but it is in great disrepair.

You can see more photo tours of how the Alexander Palace looks today - here.

Remember to leave a comment, to be entered in my May Giveaways.  My next post will be "St. Petersburg: Saints of Russia" (and guess who it will include...)

St. Petersburg: Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ

"Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!" That is the greeting and response for today, Pascha! (Orthodox Easter).  I was exchanging this greeting (along with thousands of other Orthodox all over the world) with my fellow parishioners and friends at church last night (and early this morning!) during our midnight Paschal service.

Please enjoy the Youtube music below of Rimsky-Korsokov's Russian Easter Overature, while you peruse my blog post today as I reminisce about a beautiful Cathedral in St. Petersburg...


This glorious cathedral was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881. The church was built as a memorial by Tsar Alexander III, Alexander II's son, between 1883 and 1907. It was officially called the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (a.k.a. The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood ).

Both the interior and exterior of the church are decorated with incredibly detailed mosaics, designed and created by the most prominent Russian artists of the day (Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel).

The cathedral, never used for regular services - just memorials - was closed in the 1930s, when the Bolsheviks went on an offensive against religion and destroyed churches all over the country. It remained closed under the Soviets; to the minds of the Soviets, the mosaic icons were symbols of the absurdity of religion and monarchy. But in 1970 restoration was begun, and it was finally re-opened in 1997 in all its dazzling former glory.

The view of the church from Nevsky Prospect, with its "onion" domes
 shining brilliantly in the afternoon sun was absolutely breathtaking.

Architecturally, the cathedral is different from other buildings in St. Petersburg. The city's architecture is predominately Baroque and Neoclassical (Peter the Great wanted to create a Western city), but the Church of the Resurrection is closer to Medieval Russian architecture. It intentionally resembles the famous St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

I was just as blown away by the interior as I was by the exterior of this incredibly beautiful church!  The magnificent iconostasis ("icon screen") in front of the altar area is carved ivory.  The icons may look like they're painted, but they are all mosaics - tiny little squares of glass.

Here was our view looking up into the main dome...

and a close-up view of the main dome (it is the tradition of the Orthodox Church to depict "God is with us" by having a large "Pantocrator" icon inside the central dome of the church.  Pantocrator means "Ruler of all".)

This photo is the view looking up into a side dome...

As you can see, the outside of the church, also covered with mosaics of various saints, was as beautiful as the inside. 

 It was hard to leave this sacred space...

I can't wait to go back!  In the meantime, I'll have to settle for the memories in my photos.  I'm also reminded of this cathedral whenever I am in my own little parish here in California.  You see, all Orthodox Churches, whether Greek, Antiochian, or Russian share many traditions.  I found a children's book that explains many of the facets of an Orthodox church: the architecture, icons, holy altar, priest's vestments, and more... House of God, by Vyacheslav Marchenko, beautifully illustrated by Elena Stefarova.

 There is nothing like the feeling you get when you walk into a Church
and know to be silent and respectful because it is God's house.

Peter the Great and St. Petersburg

Diane Stanley has written and illustrated a "great" introduction for children to the man "Peter the Great" and his Westernized Russian city, St. Petersburg...

Peter was the grandson of Tsar Michael Romanov.  In 1682, in Moscow (the city of his birth), Peter was proclaimed Tsar at the tender age of 10. And he believed that whatever he wanted, he should have, and the sooner the better.

Peter wanted two things most of all: for Russia to be like Europe, and for his country to have a naval port full of beautiful ships. So when he was grown, he travelled West - the first tsar ever to leave Russia! Wherever he went, he asked, "What does this do?" and "How does this work?" When he returned a year and a half later, he brought with him modern ideas (not all welcome) and equipment and over eight hundred specialists to work in his country.

Russia was vast, the largest nation on earth...but the Russians did not wish to change...Peter produced a razor and began removing the noblemen's long beards. To these men their beards were a symbol of their religious belief. God made men with beards; it was therefore a sin to shave them off.  No matter!...He passed a law that all men, except priests and peasants, must share. If a man insisted on keeping his beard, he could pay a yearly tax on it..."

In Europe, Peter had met women who dined and danced with their husbands and even joined in conversation. He felt ashamed of the women of Russia. Shut away from the world like caged birds, they were ignorant and helpless...

Peter brought Western customs and clothing back with him, and commanded women to come forward and dine with the men.

And he began work on his second dream - to build a naval port and glittering capital city...rising out of a swamp!

In the war with Sweden Peter had captured a marshy strip of land on the Gulf of Finland [1703]. And although it was far to the north, freezing cold, and little more than a swampy wilderness, Peter planned to build there, not just a port and a fortress to protect it, but a whole city. It was to be called St. Petersburg after his patron saint, and it would become the new capital of Russia! [1712]

The Peter and Paul fortress was the first structure to be
built in the new city as a protection from an attack by
the Swedish army.

Below is how the Peter and Paul fortress - with the Cathedral of Ss. Peter and Paul in the middle - looks today (my photo was taken on a cloudy Russian winter day!)  The cathedral is the oldest church in St. Petersburg. It is intimately linked to both the history of the city and to the Romanov dynasty, as it is home to the graves of nearly all the rulers of Russia since Peter the Great!

Peter wanted his city overnight. An army of workers was ordered to the frigid, desolate place...Because picks and shovels were scarce, in the early years workers were forced to dig the foundations with their bare hands. Through floods in summer and unbearable cold in winter the work went on. Thousands of men lost their lives. The Russians called it a "city built on bones".

Originally the city had no bridges, and people had to be ferried between the banks by boat, leading to St. Petersburg's name the "Venice of the North." Bridges were eventually built, joining the nineteen islands to the shore.

The view across the Neva looking from Vasilevsky Island
over to St. Issac's Cathedral.

On January 16, 1725, while he was busy with the building of his city, Peter fell ill...January 28, after days of hovering between life and death Peter died. He was fifty-three years old...Though his life was ended and other tsars would sit on his throne, what Peter began went on and on, and Russia was changed forever.

The Bronze Horseman is a monument to Peter the Great from Catherine the Great. It stands on Senate Square, facing the Neva River and surrounded by the Admiralty, St Isaac's Cathedral and the Senate and Synod buildings. The statue, created by the famous French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, depicts Peter the Great as a Roman hero on horseback, pointing the way for Russia, while his horse steps on a snake, which represents the enemies of Peter and his reforms.

Go here for a photo virtual tour of the sights of St. Petersburg!
Read my past post about author/illustrator Diane Stanley, here. You can see all her books on her website, here.