Koptyaki, Russia, September 24, 2020
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
On September 23, 2000, a month after the Moscow Patriarchate canonized Tsar Nicholas II and his family as Royal Passion-bearers, His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II visited the mine where their holy bodies were disposed of near the village of Koptyaki and blessed the construction of a monastery in their honor.
Yesterday, the 20th anniversary of this patriarchal blessing was celebrated with the consecration of the monastery’s Church of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers and a festive Divine Liturgy served by His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Ekaterinburg, reports the Diocese of Ekaterinburg.
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
The church, the monastery’s first, was recently restored after it was seriously damaged by arson in October 2018. In March 2019, a new cross was blessed and erected on the dome of the church. The restoration of the church culminated in yesterday’s rite of consecration.
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
A procession was held during the consecration, with relics being carried around the church and then placed in the newly-consecrated altar.
In his archpastoral address following the Divine Liturgy, Met. Kirill wished all those present to ever enjoy the prayerful help of the Royal Passion-bearers. Though their bodies were disposed of at the site where the monastery now stands, in order to cover up the crime of their murders and to erase their memories from the earth, they are nevertheless remembered, His Eminence emphasized.
“Here they tried to destroy all memory, and any trace. But a hundred years have passed, and we remember. And these people, who come here in an endless stream, always remember the podvig of the Royal Family,” Vladyka Kirill preached.
Photo: ekaterinburg-eparhia.ru
“So let us pray to our Lord God today in this newly-consecrated church that He might bless our Russian land with peace and prosperity and grant us a proper and pious life, and that there might always be people who pray to God with all their hearts and souls, and that this prayer would protect the entire human race from various calamities and misfortunes,” His Eminence entreated.
After the service, “Many years” was sung for His Eminence Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent who previously served as the Archbishop of Ekaterinburg and the first abbot of the monastery, providing it with spiritual guidance.
On Sunday, the 20th anniversary of the Moscow Patriarchate’s canonization of the Royal Passion-bearers and the 20th anniversary of the construction of the Church on the Blood, on the site where the Royal Martyrs were brutally murdered in Ekaterinburg, were also celebrated.
