Holy Mount Athos, July 29, 2014
On July 27-28, the Day of Holy Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the Synaxis of All Holy Russian Sovereigns was solemnly celebrated at St. Panteleimon’s Russian Monastery on Mt. Athos, reports the RusskyAfon website.
After the Vigil service two Divine Liturgies were celebrated at the monastery: the earlier at the Church of All Holy Russian Princes and Tsars, the later at the Monastery Cathedral in honor of the three Holy Russian Princes Alexander Nevsky, Vladimir, and Olga of Kiev.
The monastery brethren composed a special service to All the Holy Russian Rulers, which in combination with the service to Holy Prince Vladimir, is celebrated on this day at the Russian Monastery on Athos.
The feast-day of All Holy Russian Sovereigns was established at the monastery in 2013 with the blessing of the abbot of St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhin), in honor of the consecration of the Church of All Canonized Princes and Tsars of Russia: from Prince Vladimir to Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich. So far, this is the only church in the world dedicated to All the Holy Russian Rulers.
The Synaxis of the Holy Russian Sovereigns includes 160 representatives of two dynasties that ruled over Russia: the Rurik and Romanov dynasties. There are two tsars among them: Theodore Ioannovich (+1598; son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible – or “Formidable”) and Nicholas II; 40 Grand Princes and 101 appanage princes; and 17 representatives of the Romanov family. Each of them was officially canonized by one or another Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church or the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
The Synaxis of the Holy Russian Sovereigns is divided into ranks: Equal-to-the-Apostles, Great-Martyrs, Martyrs, Monk-Martyrs, Monastic, and “Righteous” (title for non-monastic saints) Sovereigns. The memory of All the Holy Russian Sovereigns is for the first time brought together within one church – at St. Panteleimon’s Russian Monastery on Mt. Athos.
In the Russian Athonites’ view, veneration of the Synaxis of the Holy Russian Sovereigns is especially important nowadays, as the majority of them were, in fact, members of one family (since the Rurik and the Romanov families are closely intertwined with each other – and the connecting link between them is Righteous Tsar Theodore Ioannovich, who was a Rurikid on his father’s side and a Romanov on his mother’s side). Being relatives, all of them collectively ruled over the Russian Land. They are its guardians and intercessors to this day.
The Russian Athonite brethren believe that their joint veneration is another factor, not only bringing together Holy Rus’, but also spiritually consolidating it. “Since time immemorial there has been a tradition in the Russian Land that in hard times all its saintly rulers come together to rescue their native land on earth. Individually, each of them is an intercessor for the Russian Land, and together they are an invincible array, an army of protectors and defenders of Holy Rus,” the Russian Athonites are convinced.
At the newly-built Church of the Holy Sovereigns on Mount Athos representatives of all princely and royal lines who have not been canonized by the Church are also remembered at the proskomide. At the Litanies of the Departed during the services the names of the rulers who were donors and benefactors of the Russian Monastery on Mt. Athos, are remembered.
Icon of All Holy Russian Sovereigns, kept at St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos
The Russian Athonite monks hope that the consecration on Holy Athos of the first church in history dedicated to All the Holy Russian Sovereigns will become an example to inspire the erection of other such churches in different corners of Holy Rus’.
In addition to the only existing Church of Holy Russian Tsars and Princes, St. Panteleimon’s Monastery on Mt. Athos also has a monastery Cathedral dedicated to three Holy Russian princes: Alexander Nevsky, Vladimir, and Olga of Kiev (their feast-days are celebrated as patronal feasts at this church). It was constructed in 1867 in memory of the deliverance of Emperor Alexander II from death in 1866. There is an icon of the Right-Believing[i] Prince Alexander Nevsky in the local (sovereign) row of this cathedral’s iconostasis. This icon was donated to the monastery by Emperor Alexander III in memory of his father – the murdered Emperor Alexander II. That is why on the feast-day of the Synaxis of All Holy Russian Sovereigns a festal service was celebrated in this Russian church on the Holy Mountain as well.
