1917-2007: Icons Stream Myrrh as a Cross is Raised up in Repentance
Below we present a description of the momentous events now taking
place in Russia on the ninetieth anniversary of the forced abdication
of the future martyr, Emperor Nicholas II. Decades ago, beneath the unheard
of oppression of the Soviet yoke, several holy men foretold that one day
the atheist yoke would be lifted and that, after a period of transition,
an Orthodox Tsar would come to the throne once more.
We
recall that the present events were unimaginable only ten years ago. Then
the Imperial Family and most of the other New Martyrs and Confessors had
still not been canonized inside Russia. We can only hope that the present
movement of repentance in Russia may lead to further remarkable events
in the coming years, as we move towards the hundredth anniversary of that
fateful abdication in 2017.
A Procession of Repentance Marks the Spot where the Russian Golgotha Began.
On Tuesday 13 March 2007, those taking part in a procession of repentance from Moscow and St Petersburg to the towns of Pskov and Dno raised up a cross. This they did at the very spot where, ninety years before, representatives of the Temporary Committee of the State Duma (Parliament), Alexander Guchkov and Vasily Shulgin, demanded that the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas sign a paper abdicating the Imperial Throne. The procession, accompanied by the rector of the Pskov church of St Alexander Nevsky, Archpriest Oleg Teor, was met in the town of Dno by the local Dean, Archimandrite Pavel (Kravets), together with clergy and the rector of the church of the Archangel Michael in Dno.
On the morning of 13 March, Archimandrite Paul celebrated a service of intercession to the Imperial Passion-Bearers and the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God in the church in Dno. This Icon miraculously appeared on the day of the abdication, indicating that from that moment on the destiny of Orthodox Russia was in the hands of the Mother of God.
After the service local Orthodox, who had come to meet the procession, venerated the Icon of the Mother of God which was weeping myrrh and the icon of the martyred Tsar, which began weeping myrrh after the service. Then the procession arrived at the railway station in Dno, carrying the icons of the Reigning Mother of God, the Royal Martyrs and the Passion-Bearing Tsar, and singing hymns. Another service of intercession was held there and a large Cross, which had been brought all the way from Moscow, was erected in memory of the beginning of the Golgotha of Russia. The Cross was carried to the spot by local children.
In the evening the procession moved on to Pskov where, next to the chapel of the Royal Passion-Bearers, Archbishop Eusebius of Pskov celebrated a service of intercession to the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God, in the presence of the local townspeople.
The procession of repentance began, and will finish, at the very spot where the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God was found on 15 March 1917, in the Kazan church in Kolomenskoye near Moscow, the very day the Tsar was forced to abdicate. On Wednesday 14 March, Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Rus celebrated the liturgy there. On Thursday 15 an All-Russian procession set off from the Church on the Blood in Ekaterinburg, which commemorates the martyrdom of the Imperial Family. The Reigning Icon will visit churches and monasteries in the diocese and in the middle of April will head for Kursk. On the eve of the feast of the holy Royal Martyrs on 4/17 July, the Icon will return to Ekaterinburg.
