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Letter #34, 2018: The family[2018-07-14][Engleză]Saturday, July 1r, 2018"On July 14th, the Romanovs had unexpectedly been allowed the special privilege of a service, conducted for them at the Ipatiev House by a local priest, Father Ivan Storozhev. "He had been deeply moved by their devotion and the enormous comfort they had clearly taken in being allowed to worship together; but he had also been chilled by an eerie sense of doom that had prevailed throughout the singing of the liturgy. "It was almost as though the family had been sharing, knowingly, in their own last rites..." Description of the last days of the Romanovs in 1918, exactly 100 years ago, taken from a new book, The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, by Helen Rappaport, excerpted in a July 2 article by Caroline Hallemann in Town and Country Magazine (link: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a21939615/romanov-family-execution-100th-anniversary-book-excerpt/ (© 2018 by Helen Rappaport and reprinted by permission of St. Martins Press) "Unexpectedly, several of the guards refused point-blank to kill the girls." from the same account, describing the moment of the execution of the Romanovs on July 17, 1918 ====================== On the border of Europe and Asia I have come to Ekaterinburg, Russia, to be present at a commemorative liturgy on the 100th anniversary of the death of the Romanov family on the very site of their execution on July 17, 1918. With me are 14 other pilgrims, all Americans, who have journeyed here with me because they feel it is important to stand in silent witness to the human tragedy of this event, at this time in human history, a mystifying and cruel time when every step forward in our scientific progress seems to bring with it the risk of losing sight of the most important thing about being human that we have souls of eternal dignity. The city is the third largest in Russia, with about 1.2 million inhabitants. It sits in the foothills of the Ural mountains, on the border between Europe and Asia, making it, in a certain sense, a symbolic meeting place between East and West. Flying in yesterday from Rome, massive cumulus clouds, set ablaze by the last rays of the sun, veiled the city... Today, approaching the Church on the Blood, so named because it was built above the very spot where the execution of the Romanovs occurred in the crypt of the church is a chapel on the spot where the basement room of the executions once stood it seemed an ordinary, peaceful church on a pleasant July day... And next to the church, and in other places in the city, there was a large photograph which showed the youngest of the Romanovs, Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia, with his mother, Alexandra, as a baby, and as a young lad. Alexei was shot with the rest of his family on the morning of July 17. On the airplane from Rome, a Russian woman sat down next to me. Her name was Elena. As we spoke, she told me that she was born in Moscow and raised Orthodox, but that she had married an Italian and had converted to Catholicism at the time of her marriage. And she said that her husband had just passed away 30 days ago, and she had been consoled at his death by her faith. I spoke a few words of condolence, and mentioned my own recent struggle, wrestling with the old age and mortality of my parents, in a world so focused on the seemingly endless vitality of the young, and forgetful of the aged and infirm. "Yes," Elena said, nodding. "Clearly our society is taking a wrong path. I have discussed this with my own sons. We are forgetting that our bodies are temporary dwelling places for our souls, which after our deaths will live on in another, mysterious way. This truth should give us a certain necessary humility in the face of our worldly successes, and a certain spiritual consolation when we face the loss of loved ones." The Elena added: "But the only way this Christian faith can reach the whole world in the centuries to come is if the Catholic and Orthodox Churches reunite." I was struck by her words. I told her that this was my own hope as well, because the Church had been united for more than 1,000 years, and only divided in 1054 A.D., and that part of what I wished to do in my writing was to help lay the possible basis for a deeper understanding and friendship between our separated Churches, and that this was the reason for my flight into Russia. "Then," she said, quite solemnly, "it was not at all by chance that our seats were next to each other on this plane, and I am here to tell you quite solemnly that you must keep on with what you are doing..." The city does not seem fixated on this upcoming anniversary. People are going about their ordinary business. At breakfast I asked a young Russian waitress what she felt about the anniversary. She seemed for a moment unwilling to say anything, as if the matter was not relevant to her. And then she said, "Of course, it is something very sad, what happened to that family, those children..." In an age when there seems to be a loss of historical memory, where we seem to be rushing into a brave new future without connection to our past, without regard to what our forefathers lived for and handed down to us as worthy of preservation, there lives in Ekaterinburg a sense in these days of the importance of memory, in order to heal the crimes and sufferings of the past. The story of this family, of their love for one another and of their trust and faith in God, even as the doors closed on their freedom and their lives, lives on. =================== A Glimpse of their Last Days I just received an email from my friend Daniel Schmidt, former Vice-President of the Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, now retired. He is in Ekaterinburg with me on this pilgrimage. His email contains a link to a moving article that I thought so eloquent that it needed to be included in this letter. See the text below. I hope to send other occasional dispatches from Ekaterinburg in coming days. ======================== Inside the Romanov Family's Final Days It's been 100 years since the Tsar and his wife and children were brutally executed, but the story still has the power to shock. by CAROLINE HALLEMANN JULY 2, 2018 A century after the brutal murders of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra, and their five children (Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei), the execution of the Russian imperial family continues to capture the popular imagination. In honor of the 100th anniversary of their deaths, the following excerpt from Helen Rappaport's new book,The Race to Save the Romanovs, details just what happened in the Romanovs' final hours of captivity. For the Romanov family at the Ipatiev House, Tuesday July 16 in Ekaterinburg was much like any other day, punctuated by the same frugal meals, brief periods of recreation in the garden, reading and games of cards. Over the last three months, their lives had become deadened by the extreme constraints placed upon them and by a total lack of contact with the outside world. It was only the fact that they were still together, and in Russia, that kept them going; that and their profound religious faith and absolute trust in God. Since being brought here they had come to cherish the smallest and simplest of pleasures: the sun had shone; Alexey was recovering from his recent bout of illness, and the nuns had been allowed to bring him eggs; they had been granted the luxury of an occasional bath. Such are the few passing, mundane details from the Tsaritsas diary that have come down to us of the family in their final days and hours. Yet, despite their brevity, they give us a clear and unshakeable image of the familys state of calm almost pious acceptance at this time. GRAND DUCHESSES MARIA, TATIANA, ANASTASIA AND OLGA, DAUGHTERS OF TSAR NICHOLAS II ROMANOV OF RUSSIA, CIRCA 1915. GETTY IMAGES We have no way of seeing into the true workings of their hearts and minds, of course, but we do know from everything their guards later said that Alexandra in particular had by now resolutely given herself up to God. She was in almost constant pain her heart, her back, her legs, everything ached and her faith was her only refuge. She seemed content to retreat into a state of religious meditation, spending most of her time being read to from her favorite spiritual works, usually by Tatiana. One of the girls always sat with her, giving up her precious recreation time when the others were allowed out into the garden. But, as always, none of the four sisters ever complained. They accepted their situation with incredible forbearance. Nicholas, too, struggled on as best he could, buoyed up by his faith and the loving support of his daughters, although Olga perhaps, of all the family, consumed by a private sense of despair had become very thin and morose and was more withdrawn than ever. Her brother and sisters, however, all longed for something to relieve their crippling boredom. In the absence of access to the outside world, their only diversions were snatches of conversation with the more sympathetic of their guards, but even these had been severely curtailed by the new commandant, Yakov Yurovsky, at the beginning of July. By the evening of the 16th we do not even have Nicholass few restrained daily comments to go on, for on Sunday the 13th, he had finally given up keeping his diary. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 705, Ultimul acces: 2026-08-16 05:34:36
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