On July 17, 1918, the Royal Martyrs, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family, were martyred. They were shot by order of the Bolsheviks. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered them among the saints.
At some point, the publishing house of Sretensky Monastery released a book by Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, Tsar: A Book about the Holy Royal Passion-bearers. In the recollections published there—once used as materials towards canonization—there are almost no miracles in the usual sense of the word, but there’s something different. They convey to us a very important truth that the Tsar’s appearance wasn’t deceptive. The image of the Tsar and all the Royal Passion-bearers emerges here just as we knew it from photographs and portraits. I remember how impressed I was with photos of the Tsar the first time I saw them. I realized he’s a man of the highest order. There’s something so good about him, as if natural, like air, like water, gracefully calm precisely because he’s tsar, because he’s given by God, because he’s like an elemental force. He's as if independent from us by the gift given to him by God, and at the same time close, dear, as if I’d always known him.
Later, I realized that’s how we perceive Christ Himself and all His saints. He’s a man, marked by God, and there’s an amazing naturalness in him. This is how a tsar should be. A tsar is as if brought near to God; he’s between his subjects and God. He has the face of a man who knows what’s most important and is therefore filled with peace. There’s such peace in him that we can rely on him, and we’re like children before him. Many of our intuitive thoughts are confirmed, starting with the description of little everyday things and ending with major events. Holiness takes on flesh.
July 17
There’s a day, like a grave,
And we mustn’t let it pass.
It’s in the stone heart of Russia,
At the end of a sorrowful path.
She gazes from the wormwood,
Through the years that flow by fast
At the day when she laid
Her final monument to herself at last.
K.C.
***
Jan Michael Wester, a Dane who became Orthodox through the prayers of the holy Tsar on July 17, 1999, on the day of the martyric death of the holy Royal Passion-bearers, taking the name Nicholas in their honor, relates:
This happened in 1995. I’ll tell you about it because I feel it’s important that people knew about it. From 1979 to 1995, I was an alcoholic and drug addict. I never had a life in the usual sense: My life was already messed up by the time I was sixteen. At that time, I was always mysteriously drawn by Russian history, Russian religion, and the Russian people. This attraction grew into a long-term serious “obsession” with all things Russian. And in parallel to that, I was possessed by alcohol and drugs. I kept studying the history of the Russian Imperial House, the Russian political system, and so on—and at the same time I was always drunk or high.
I was deteriorating spiritually and physically. It’s hard for a non-alcoholic to imagine the degree of such human degradation, the constant torments that you have to live with. Year after year passes and there’s no hope—only this slow, terrible death from intoxication. Nothing—neither education nor dignity nor faith. Nothing except suffering for sixteen years. In 1995, I met some nice people who advised me to look at alcoholism from a spiritual point of view, to treat it as a spiritual illness.
At that time, I went on a pilgrimage to Tsarskoe Selo and other Russian historical places. I abstained from alcohol for three months at that time. Throughout the entire pilgrimage in Russia, the terrible desire to drink never left me. It felt like there was a piece of ice in my stomach that would never melt. One fine day, my friend and I, whom I’d known for seventeen years by then, went to Liturgy in a small house church at the Alexander Palace. There were many elderly people at the service. There, in that old church, I was touched by the spirit of those times when the Tsar and Tsarina went there to pray. The Divine Liturgy seemed like an unbelievable fantasy to us. I went up to the iconostasis, to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and started praying. I wanted to pray to the holy Tsar Passion-bearer Nicholas, but there were no icons of him, so I addressed all my prayers to the icon of St. Nicholas. I prayed for Russia; I prayed for the old lady asking for alms outside and who looked so much like my grandmother; I prayed for our return home, for my mother, my grandmother, and grandfather. In my heart, I turned specifically to Tsar Nicholas, who used to go to that very church and pray together with his family.
My prayer intensified like a snowball; I spent two hours before the icons. It’s hard to describe and convey in words what happened to me during this time—it was my first spiritual experience! It suddenly became clear to me that the Lord loves me, and loves me limitlessly, and that the stones would cry out if I started drinking again. The Lord would deliver me from my passion if I decided to live a spiritual life. He would save me from self-destruction, because He created me and I am His creation. The way I had treated myself until now was a grave sin... And I suddenly understood that the holy angels weep every time a drunkard dies from his demonic passion. At that moment something changed within me. When I went outside, my friend looked at me with concern and asked me what happened. I said, “I don’t know, but something extraordinarily good, unearthly.”
When I returned to Denmark, I was ready to pour out words of gratitude to the Lord God and His holy saint every day. But I didn’t have the opportunity to join the Russian Orthodox Church then. Four years passed. I no longer felt the urge to drink. Not even once! Since March 27, 1995, I haven’t had a drop of alcohol and haven’t touched drugs once. I didn’t feel the need anymore. I stopped struggling with my passion—God delivered me from it by the intercession of the holy Royal Passion-bearer Nicholas. I’d never been religious before in my thoughts or actions; I was raised outside the Church. My last hope was the intercession of the holy God-pleaser for me. I was searching then, and my heart was open to hear the voice of God in my soul—the only time in my life.
That day in Tsarskoe Selo changed everything. It’s clear now why I felt such love for the holy Royal Family. Years passed. I prayed and waited, and finally I met my spiritual father. This Orthodox priest appeared quite unexpectedly: He was passing through our city. He’s a very good batiushka; he helps me in many ways by talking and sharing his Orthodox spiritual experience with me. Through the intercession of holy Tsar Nicholas, the Lord restored my health. Moreover, my former mental and everyday skills and abilities that I had completely lost were returned to me. I was able to continue my education. Thank God!
Some people tell me that I got over alcoholism on my own. But then why couldn’t I get rid of it by praying at home? And if it’s as they say, couldn’t I have thought that I have no problems at all and there’s no need for me to pray? But I know what happened—I was there! And none other than the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas interceded for me. This is a brief account of my story. It’s a miracle through prayers to the holy Tsar Nicholas—after all, everyone had long considered me dead!
The holy Royal Passion-bearer still helps me in my earthly affairs, and I’m extremely grateful to him. I pray only to be worthy to bear his holy and honorable name. For the past four and a half years, I’ve had to suffer trauma, I’ve been sick, and I had an operation. But I never felt the urge to drink. I’ve found something much more serious and powerful than alcohol. It became clear to me that I must always be spiritually collected. It’s precisely prayer that helps me endure all trials. That’s why I love the Orthodox Church so much. I don’t have the slightest doubt that what happened to me can happen to anyone, if only he sincerely asks the saints of God to intercede for him before our Lord Jesus Christ. It can happen to anyone who’s ready to embark on the path of virtue and turn away from the sin that corrupts everything.
Prayer saved my life. This year, I finally entered into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which I’d never been able to do before. Apparently, after four years of waiting and prayer, the Lord found that I was finally ready for it. The Orthodox church in Copenhagen is the only Orthodox church in Denmark.1 It was built by the Russian Imperial Family to pray there when they visited Denmark. I spend my life in prayer and reading, and I’m quite happy with it. But most of all, I’m happy with my new, better outlook on life that was given to me—for free! I’m so grateful to the holy Tsar for his intercession! It’s also a great honor and spiritual joy for me to have a chapel dedicated to the holy Royal Passion-bearer Nicholas in my humble home.
Few of the things I do now remind me of my past life. My life now consists of reading—both Orthodox and secular, working out, prayer, and work on building a new life. I’m deeply grateful to those people who advised me then to find spiritual healing for my illness. I pray to God to never forget the filth that I rose out of and that my healing wasn’t something to be taken for granted. Without these people, I would’ve died a terrible death. Not everyone’s as lucky as me, and therefore my heart always bleeds for those who suffer without any hope.
My conversion to Orthodoxy is scheduled for the day of the martyrdom of holy Tsar Nicholas. It’s a great honor for me, and I pray to God that I might be worthy of it.
Denmark, July 3, 1999, Nicholas (Jan Michael) Wester
***
Honorable Fr. Alexander! I would like to tell you about a miracle from an icon of Royal Passion-bearer Nicholas. It happened on November 30, 1998. I gave the icon to our former parish warden, the servant of God Viktor. When I took it to his house, he and his wife Galina were very happy, as they revere the holy Royal Passion-bearers. After venerating the icon, they placed it in their icon corner with the others. After that, Viktor and I went to visit some local prisoners, and Galina started praying before the icon of the Tsar for her only son Evgeny, who was serving a sentence in a disciplinary battalion in Novosibirsk for a military offense (it’s 45 miles from Novosibirsk to our village). She prayed like this: “Tsar, I believe that you’re a saint and help many people. Help me too; return me my son!” Evgeny’s sentence was short—one year. They promised an early amnesty, but time passed and it didn’t come.
As Evgeny himself testifies, probation hearings were held on Tuesdays and Fridays (without exception), then suddenly he was summoned on Monday, November 30 (the very day his mother prayed in front of the Tsar’s icon), for a hearing (he knew nothing about it in advance, that is, it all happened suddenly). They read the amnesty order, gave him fifty rubles for the trip, and that same evening he was standing on the threshold of his own home. Galina joyfully and gratefully led her son to the Tsar’s icon, pointed to it, and said: “This is who you should thank for your deliverance!” Viktor told me about this miracle on the evening of December 3 at the All-Night Vigil for the feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos Into the Temple. I was joyfully surprised by how quickly the petition was fulfilled and how great Tsar Nicholas’ intercession is for us before God.
Tsar Nicholas II with his daughters Sts. Olga, Anastasia, and Tatiana
Later, my wife and I were convinced of the speedy help of the holy Royal Passion-bearers. When we decided to exchange our one-room apartment for a two-room apartment (with an additional payment), nothing worked out. The thing is, the apartment was poor: located on the first floor, and so low that passersby could look into the windows. Therefore, people either didn’t want to exchange for it, or demanded a huge sum that we didn’t have. We began to pray to the holy Royal Passion-bearers, reading the canon published in the book, A Tsar Glorified by God. And we soon found someone to exchange with (within a week), in the same building, on the second floor, with a reasonable additional payment. I see a clear miracle of God through the prayers of the holy Royal Passion-bearers in this.
March 26, 2000, Fr. Jacob Konkin, rector of the Church
of the Nativity of Christ in Gorny, Novosibirsk Province
***
Dear Fr. Alexander! This is the handmaiden of God Irina writing to you. I’d also like to offer my widow’s mite to the work of glorifying the holy Royal Passion-bearers and tell you about the part they played in my life. A year ago, I was very depressed because I was very insecure about myself: I had no family, no work; I was living basically as a dependent on my retired parents and friends. This situation couldn’t last for long, but I couldn’t seem to find a suitable job. I read all the previous publications describing the miracles of the holy Royal Martyrs with great interest. Then I got the third edition, A Tsar Glorified by God.
I was struck by how the holy Passion-bearer Tsar Nicholas doesn’t disdain to help us sinners in our seemingly small needs, to help arrange the life of everyone who appeals to his fatherly aid. I read the canon to Tsar St. Nicholas at the end of the book and prayed to him, asking him to order my life too: If it be the will of God, to send me a Christian spouse and a job at a church. When I said these prayers with hope and tears, I felt complete assurance in my heart that the holy Royal Passion-bearers heard me and that I would receive what I asked for.
Two months later, I got married, quite unexpectedly for me and especially for my family and friends. Now my husband serves as a deacon in a church in Moscow. And another month later, through the prayers of the holy Tsar, I got a job in an Orthodox store at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra.
September 24, 1999, Irina Vorobyova, Moscow
***
I’d like to tell you how the Royal Family, especially Tsarevich Alexei, healed my son. Our family venerates Tsar Nicholas and the Royal Family. We pray to all the members of the Royal Family. My son was seriously ill with pneumonia. After the sickness, as he was recovering, by the will of God, still weak and not fully recovered, he found himself in the forest without a hat in the cold early spring. When he got home, he had a temperature of 100.5 and was coughing. I was on the verge of despair and had the thought that he wouldn’t make it; antibiotics again, sleepless nights, a fever of 104. I put him to bed without taking any other measures for his treatment. I knelt and prayed fervently to the Royal Family. I prayed for a long time and wept, then I especially turned to Tsarevich Alexei, as he suffered so much in his short earthly life.
My son didn’t disturb me. He fell asleep, and I also fell asleep from exhaustion, tears, and mental stress. I woke up in the morning and immediately went to my son’s room. He was sleeping calmly, his forehead was calm, and his fever was gone. He wasn’t sick anymore—he recovered. Thus the Royal Family and Tsarevich Alexei miraculously healed my son of his recurring sickness of pneumonia.
Tatiana and Vasily Menshikova, Krymsk, Krasnodar Krai
