St. Petersburg, December 14, 2017
Photo: mgarsky-monastery.org On December 18, at the multi-purpose clinic of the St. Petersburg Military-Medical Academy, the foundation stone and cross at the base of a new church in honor of the holy righteous doctor and passion-bearer Eugene Botkin will be consecrated as part of the celebrations for the 219th anniversary of the founding of the school, reports the academy website.
The initiative for building the church came from colleagues of the academy itself.
St. Eugene Botkin was the court physician for Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and sometimes treated the hemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei while in exile with the family. He remained loyal to the Royal Family to the end and was martyred with them on July 17, 1918.
The righteous doctor was canonized along with the Royal Martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981, though he was not canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate when they glorified the family in 2000. He was eventually glorified by Moscow on February 7, 2016.
Photo: www.vmeda.org To raise funds for the construction of the church, the academy has created a charitable fund named for the holy righteous doctor Eugene Botkin, with Russian Academy of Sciences member and Lieutenant-General of medical services Boris Gaidar as the chairman of the board of trustees.
The rite of consecration of the foundation stone will be celebrated by Metropolitan Barsanuphius of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.
The first church in honor of St. Eugene Botkin in Russia was consecrated on March 25, 2016 at a Moscow clinic.
