Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II (C) throws soil on the coffin of Empress Maria Fyodorovna in the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Cannon shots boomed, motorists honked their horns and church bells tolled as the remains of the Danish-born empress who was the mother of Russia‘s last czar were interred in the Romanovs‘ royal crypt 78 years after her death.
The pomp-filled events began with Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II leading prayers in St. Isaac‘s Cathedral, the principal church of the Romanov dynasty. He praised Maria Feodorovna as a true daughter of Russia.
As the procession moved around the city, people crossed themselves, military officers saluted the cortege, and car drivers blew horns.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Romanov family have been working for the remains of Maria Feodorovna to be sent to Russia.
The pomp-filled events began with Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II leading prayers in St. Isaac‘s Cathedral, the principal church of the Romanov dynasty. He praised Maria Feodorovna as a true daughter of Russia.
As the procession moved around the city, people crossed themselves, military officers saluted the cortege, and car drivers blew horns.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Romanov family have been working for the remains of Maria Feodorovna to be sent to Russia.
It reflects the importance of Orthodoxy and a growing retrospection within Russia, I am told that crowds were quite large.
2 comments:
What a wonderful event! It was certainly an improvement on events surrounding the funeral of Tsar Nicholas II and his family eight years ago, when the Russian Church wouldn't even allow the names of the dead to be mentioned, as the Patriarch would not recognise that these were the remains of the Imperial Family.
Now, suppose there is a hole somewhere near Ekaterinburg, in which nine bodies are buried. Two of them are a mature man and woman whose DNA tests positive for a relationship to key members of the Royal Families of Europe. Three genetically identical females test positive as the children of the first two.
Each of the other four tests positive as relatives of the servants who died with them: Dr Yevgeni Botkin the Imperial physician; Ivan Kharitonov the cook; Anna Demidova the Tsarina's Lady-in-Waiting; and Aloyzii Trupp, the Tsar's valet and the only Catholic in the group.
What more proof do you need apart from the gold teeth, the bullet holes in the skulls and the fact that the location of the hole was passed down in utmost secrecy within the family of one of those involved in the murder?
Now can we see Blessed Charles of Austria - my paternal grandparents' King in right of Hungary - reburied in Vienna with his ancestors where he belongs? It would be a fitting gesture to do it while his son Otto von Habsburg is still alive - the last of the three Imperial Crown Princes of Europe, the German Crown Prince having died in the 1950s, and the Tsarevich having been killed with his sisters and parents in 1918.
Grant unity to your Church Lord, You have given us a wise and learned Pope, help him to bring truth and light where there is confusion and darkness. Amen
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