"It was our destiny to love and say goodbye": Remembering the Romanov Family

Few historical figures have been so unfairly maligned as Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. Most of the writings on the Imperial family have been well-meaning but slanted, others extremely critical and some outright slanderous. Called "weak" and "feckless" by most historians, none of these interpretations have considered the man through the light of his Orthodox faith and how that instructed his actions.

Nicholas was born on May 6, 1868, the day the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Job the Long-Suffering, an almost prophetic omen of the sufferings and trials that would be faced by Nicholas and his family. Raised a pious Christian, despite his high position and his wealth, he lived frugally and gave everything he could to those who were less fortunate. He imparted this lesson to his own children, teaching them that "the higher one's position in life, the greater their responsibility to their fellow man."

In 1894, Nicholas married Princess Alix (Alexandra) of Hesse (Germany) who converted to the Orthodox faith. In May of 1896, Nicholas was crowned Tsar of Russia and immediately displayed his love and care for the Orthodox faith by giving much money to the building of monasteries and churches. He considered it his sacred duty given to him by God to restore Russia's ancient traditional culture which had been abandoned in favor of more "Western" styles. He also considered it his sacred duty to produce a male heir to the throne who would one day succeed him. These attempts instead resulted in three beautiful daughters who would become the pride and joy of Imperial Russia.

Angels on Earth: Left to right - Young Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia (correctly prounounced "ahna-stah-see-yuh")

The girls had individual personalities and strikingly different characteristics but all were truly innocent. Even their father-confessor said that they had no concept of sin and he often couldn't help but chuckle at the minor trivialities of which they felt so compelled to confess.

The oldest daughter, Olga, was a highly sensitive personality, emotional and a dreamer. She often said that the sun, moon, sky and stars were her favorite things because they "made me happiest". Her Russian, English and French teachers said her soul was as pure as crystal and that her enhanced emotions often left her overwhelmed by the slightest of things. During World War I she and her sister Tatiana volunteered as nurses in a Red Cross hospital tending to wounded soldiers. Their devotion to their patients was such that they often would rush off to the hospital in the middle of the night upon learning that one of their patients had been asking for them. In my few years of reading Russian history, the pictures of Olga have always stunned and captivated me, almost like seeing someone I knew but couldn't place and definitely like someone I understood in a profound way, being a highly sensitive person myself.

Just look at the pictures, that smile and - especially - those otherworldly eyes:

The second oldest, Tatiana, was more headstrong and a more natural leader, taking after her mother Alexandra, earning her the nickname "the Governess" from her sisters. Often considered the undisputed beauty of the family - and no doubt she is beautiful - she doesn't have the almost mystical hold over me that Olga does.

The middle daughter, Maria, was the most easygoing. A person who loved the simple things in life, she yearned to be a mother and a homemaker, not royalty and would have excelled at both had she been allowed to live.

The youngest daughter, Anastasia, was the prankster, the mischief-maker. Always in trouble for something, she nevertheless perfected her own style of photography, including creating double negatives to look like ghostly images, an amazing feat for the technology at the time.

Anastasia's experimental photography

Double negative image of ghostly Nicholas standing over Anastasia

Finally Nicholas and Alexandra did produce a male heir, Alexei, who was cursed with hemophilia, an illness passed down from Alexandra's bloodline. This led to the family's involvement with the peasant mystic Rasputin, who seemed to have an otherworldly effect on the boy, calming him in his moments of fear and somehow managing to heal his bleeding by the laying on of hands. The daughters loved Rasputin and considered him to be a good friend but relatives of the family thought him to be a demon, possibly even the devil himself, come to tear down Imperial Russia and murdered him in 1917.

Maybe, to some extent, this wasn't entirely untrue. With the western-backed Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution, an international conspiracy was able to create such tremendous unrest in Russia that Nicholas was duped into abdicating his throne to make the strikes and riots stop but to no avail. Not only did they not stop, they increased in violence and the Imperial family was forced into exile. With Lenin's overthrow of the Provisional Government, nothing was off the table. By this time the Romanov family was ensconced in the infamous Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg where they were kept under house arrest and daily tormented by their Bolshevik captors, who especially terrorized the daughters by carving lascivious images on the wall. Nevertheless, the Romanovs remained faithful to God until the end and even many of their captors repented of their actions just by witnessing their pious, forgiving nature.

Sadly, in July 1918 Lenin ordered the entire family murdered. Their captors led them downstairs into the basement of the Ipatiev House late one night and opened fire on them. The daughters had taken many of the jewels that belonged to the family and sown them into their clothing so they could later be sold if need be and this only served to deflect the bullets. Some of the daughters were still alive after being shot multiple times and were bludgeoned and bayonetted to death. Anastasia's little dog was beaten alongside her. From the time the first bullets were fired to the time the last member of the family had died was twenty minutes. It took three days to clean all the blood out of the room. Masonic images were carved into the walls suggesting a ritualistic killing.

The bodies were dumped in a mine nine miles outside of town and not discovered until the 1970s. After the break up of the USSR in 1991 the bodies were finally retrieved and identified. In 1998 the remains were laid to rest and many mourners who attended the services holding icons of the family reported that the icons began to bleed from multiple different points representing gunshot wounds. This coupled with the pious nature of the family and the multitude of miracles, healings and even visitations - including a bright white light and singing voices emanating from the basement of the Ipatiev House - reported by people who had called on them for help and for prayers is largely why the Russian Orthodox Church canonized them as saints in 2000. To this day miracles and spiritual experiences are still reported by Christians who take them on as patron saints.

The Ipatiev House was bulldozed in the 1970s by Boris Yeltsin who said that he did not want people to venerate it as a holy site in the family's honor. Joke's on him because it is now the site of a massive cathedral and the burial site north of town is home to a monastery in their name. On the 100th anniversary of their murder, July 2018, over 400,000 people from all over the world attended the all-night Divine Liturgy in their honor in Yekaterinburg and then a procession of mourners several miles long walked the nine miles outside of the city to the monastery for another service. Doubtless there are few other Christian saints who have received such love and veneration.

The Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land, the former site of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg

Ganina Yama Monastery, the former mine site where the bodies were dumped

The question now becomes whether the Romanovs knew what their eventual fate would be. Shortly before his death in 1833, Seraphim of Sarov wrote a letter, sealed it and addressed it to "the Tsar in whose reign I shall be glorified". The letter was held for seventy years and ultimately given to Nicholas II in 1903 when he insisted that Seraphim of Sarov be canonized by the Orthodox Church. While the exact contents of the letter are unknown, Nicholas was left shaken. The family later visited St. Seraphim's Convent where Blessed Pasha (Parasceva) the Fool-for-Christ spoke to them for several hours and and it is said that she foretold their martyrdom and the collapse of Holy Russia. When they left the monsatery they were as white as a sheet.

Some years later Alexandra visited another monastery and one of the residents rose from her bed and proclaimed "Behold, the Holy Martyr Alexandra!"

Since the murder of the Romanovs the effects have been catastrophic. Russia was plunged into the iron grip of the Soviet Union and the brutality of Stalin, the Spanish Flu epidemic swept the world and claimed the lives of some of the murderers of the Romanov family. World War II and the Cold War left psychological scars that permeate to this day and the Russian Orthodox Church was all but stamped out. Interestingly, with the burial of the Romanov family and their canonization as saints, Russia has steadily regained its strength and power, which grows more and more as the country returns to full Christianity.

All of this to say that in February I reached a point where I needed a little extra help in personal matters so just on a whim and expecting no result I addressed Saint Olga Nikolaevna Romanova and asked for her prayers in certain matters. Not only did I have a profound spiritual experience that I could never put into words within minutes of asking, but each of the things I asked for were answered. Since then she has become my patron saint and now by default her three sisters. The effect has been dazzling but also on a level so deeply personal that it could never be communicated in words. I have since obtained an Orthodox icon of St. Olga as well as of her little sister Anastasia. With them has come a sweet perfume/flower fragrance that permeates the room where I've displayed them and that tends to follow me wherever I go. Soon to arrive are the two middle sisters and the rest of the family.

St. Olga's icon, dressed in her nurse's uniform

St. Anastasia's icon

Two sisters by candlelight

Upcoming icons:

Tatiana

Maria

The family

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

St. Olga's final words written in her diary at only 22 years old are still just as relevant today, if not more so: "Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love", and, most touchingly, "Give my love to all who remember me."

Oh, Holy Romanov Royal Martyrs, remember us as we remember you. Rest in peace and pray for us.

Sources and recommended reading:

1. "Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses" by Helen Rappaport, 2014
2. "The Forgotten Tutor: John Epps and the Romanovs" by Janet Epps and Gabriella Lang, 2014
3. "Thirteen Years at the Russian Court: A Personal Record of the Last Years and Death of the Tsar Nicholas II and his Family" by Pierre Gilliard, reprint 2016
4. "Journal of a Russian Grand Duchess: Complete Annotated 1913 Diary of Olga Romanov, Eldest Daughter of the Last Tsar" by Helen Azar, 2015
5. "The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution" by Helen Azar, 2015
6. "Tatiana Romanov: Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1913-1918" by Helen Azar and Nicholas B.A. Nicholson, 2015
7. "Maria Romanov, Third Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1908-1918" by Helen Azar and George Hawkins, 2019
8. "Anastasia's Album: The Last Tsar's Youngest Daughter Tells Her Own Story" by Hugh Brewster, 1996 (Note: Anastasia's letters should be published by Helen Azar in 2021)
9. "The Romanov Royal Martyrs: What Silence Could Not Conceal" by St. John the Forerunner Monastery, 2019 (Hands down the BEST book on the Romanovs. Includes new sources recently released from the Russian archives that clear up many of the misconceptions and lies about the family. Includes 56 pages of colorized photos).
10. http://fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/nicholas_ii_e.htm