Romanovs and Faith/Orthodox Religion

  Who was religious in Russian imperial family like Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas Alexandrovich
I know that Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander II) was very religious. I read that in her childhood St. Seraphim of Sarov saved her of death. Is there some similar stories?
What do you know about icons that was in possesion of imperial family (like icon of Mother of the God Feodorovskaya)
Can somebody post some photos of imperial icons,  or some photos related with this issue, please

  God bless you! All the best!

I don't have any closeups, but here's a picture of Alexei's room with the icons.

Alexei's Room

All the Romanovs had strong ties with the Orthodox church officially. Many of them had strong ties with it personally as well, especially the Last Romanovs.

  Can somebody help us with this issue

I hava always been interested on what is the difference between the two.  When watching Nicholas and Alexandra, I noticed they make the sign of the cross backwards from Roman Catholics (which I am).  Roman catholics make the cross: up, down, left, right.  In Russian it is: up, down, right, left.  Why is this and what other differences are there?

A major difference too is that Orthodox priests (at least in the Greek version) can be married while this is strictly forbidden in the RC religion. I don't think Orthodox priest can marry once they've taken orders.

Also, they don't have a figure equal to the Pope in the RC religion. From an Orthodox article (written by an Father Michael Azkoul, an Orthodox priest and sanctioned by St. Nectarios American Orthodox Church--and actually gets several parts of the RC side wrong but I'd hope he'd get the Orthodox side correct   ) "The Orthodox Church teaches that all bishops are equal. To be sure, there are different ranks of bishops (patriarch, archbishop, metropolitan, bishop); nevertheless, a bishop is a bishop. Such differences apply to the administration of a church or group of churches, not to the nature of the bishop. The president of a synod of bishops is called archbishop (Greek custom) or metropolitan (Russian custom). "

Roman Catholics speak of "Confirmation" and the Orthodox of "Chrismation." "Confirmation" is separated from the Baptism and is performed by the bishop and not the priest; but "Chrismation" is performed with Baptism by a priest who has received "chrism" from the bishop. The Orthodox Church links Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion, first the threefold immersion into sanctified water whereas they are 3 separate steps to RCs taking place several years apart (First Communion--which my Drew is preparing for in May--takes place around 2nd grade, while Confirmation is generally around age 12).

Also according to the above article, Orthodoxy doesn't recognize Original Sin. Because of this they also don't recognize the Immaculate Conception of Mary--so named because she was born without the stain of Original Sin.

"Icons are more than sacred pictures. Everything about them is theological. For example, they are always flat, flat so that we who inhabit the physical world will understand that the world of the spirit where Christ, His Mother, the angels, the saints, and the departed dwell, is a world of mystery which cannot be penetrated by our five senses. Customarily, Roman Catholicism has historically employed statues in its worship. The statues are life-like and three-dimensional. "

There are other minor differences between the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholicism.

The Orthodox do not fast on Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday. Roman Catholics experience no such restriction.

Orthodox do not kneel on Sunday; Roman Catholics do.

Orthodox have no "Stations of The Cross;" Roman Catholics do.

Orthodox worship towards the East; Roman Catholics, not necessarily.

There are no orders of Orthodox monks (male and female) as there is among Roman Catholics (Jesuits, Dominicans, Benedictines, Cistericans, etc.). More recently, many Roman Catholic monks and nuns have put away their traditional habits.

Orthodox clergy wear beards; RC clergy are can beither either bearded or beardless.

There are also some deeper theological divides much as separates other versions of Christianity.

Welcone jenjen!
The sign of the cross of the two religions is only one of the many differences between the two, Orthodox and Catholic sign of the cross used to be up, down, right, left like the orthodox until there was the splitting of the two. (wait I'm Catholic too ) This has actually also been discuss on other threads of this forum.

It should be noted that making the sign of the Cross is not restricted to the Orthodox or Roman churches.  It is also done in the Lutheran and Anglican/Episcopalian traditions  

A major difference too is that Orthodox priests (at least in the Greek version) can be married while this is strictly forbidden in the RC religion. I don't think Orthodox priest can marry once they've taken orders.

Also, they don't have a figure equal to the Pope in the RC religion. From an Orthodox article (written by an Father Michael Azkoul, an Orthodox priest and sanctioned by St. Nectarios American Orthodox Church--and actually gets several parts of the RC side wrong but I'd hope he'd get the Orthodox side correct   ) "The Orthodox Church teaches that all bishops are equal. To be sure, there are different ranks of bishops (patriarch, archbishop, metropolitan, bishop); nevertheless, a bishop is a bishop. Such differences apply to the administration of a church or group of churches, not to the nature of the bishop. The president of a synod of bishops is called archbishop (Greek custom) or metropolitan (Russian custom). "

Roman Catholics speak of "Confirmation" and the Orthodox of "Chrismation." "Confirmation" is separated from the Baptism and is performed by the bishop and not the priest; but "Chrismation" is performed with Baptism by a priest who has received "chrism" from the bishop. The Orthodox Church links Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Communion, first the threefold immersion into sanctified water whereas they are 3 separate steps to RCs taking place several years apart (First Communion--which my Drew is preparing for in May--takes place around 2nd grade, while Confirmation is generally around age 12).

Also according to the above article, Orthodoxy doesn't recognize Original Sin. Because of this they also don't recognize the Immaculate Conception of Mary--so named because she was born without the stain of Original Sin.

"Icons are more than sacred pictures. Everything about them is theological. For example, they are always flat, flat so that we who inhabit the physical world will understand that the world of the spirit where Christ, His Mother, the angels, the saints, and the departed dwell, is a world of mystery which cannot be penetrated by our five senses. Customarily, Roman Catholicism has historically employed statues in its worship. The statues are life-like and three-dimensional. "

There are other minor differences between the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholicism.

The Orthodox do not fast on Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday. Roman Catholics experience no such restriction.

Orthodox do not kneel on Sunday; Roman Catholics do.

Orthodox have no "Stations of The Cross;" Roman Catholics do.

Orthodox worship towards the East; Roman Catholics, not necessarily.

There are no orders of Orthodox monks (male and female) as there is among Roman Catholics (Jesuits, Dominicans, Benedictines, Cistericans, etc.). More recently, many Roman Catholic monks and nuns have put away their traditional habits.

Orthodox clergy wear beards; RC clergy are can beither either bearded or beardless.

There are also some deeper theological divides much as separates other versions of Christianity.

Interesting stuff.  The icons are like the staues in catholocism.  They are symbolic, but not worshipped.

I find this interesting because I was raised in an Evangelical Christian church & both of my parents were raised Baptist.

There are a couple of long threads about Orthodoxy in the culture section. If you are interested, I would recommend looking at fatheralexander.org as it has a wealth of information about the Orthodox faith. It is very different from Roman Catholicism. An ingteresting aside, the Roman Church also crossed themselves the way the Orthodox Church still does up until about the time of the last Crusade.

In many ways the difference between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic would be like going to the movies with a friend. While you both attend the same shared event, the perspectives afterwards can be entirely different or to some degree similar. Of course since you sat in separate chairs even the view is the same and yet different.

Orthodoxy is slow to change or evolve, if at all. It maintains it's traditions as they always were. Roman Catholicism can be and is different from itself according to which era you are speaking about. Roman priests did not become celibate until 300 years after the Great Schism.

It was pointed out above that the Roman Church separates Baptism from Communion from Confirmation, whereas all 3 are given at the same time to Orthodox infants. I know that 80 years ago or so, the RC gave Pennance, Communion, and Confirmation all at the same time, or at least over the same weekend.

I have a question concerning this topic: Would a marriage between an Orthodox and a Catholic be possible? Wasn´t Maximilian of Leuchtenberg catholic, while his wife Gds Maria Nicholaievna was (of course) Orthodox? :-?

I have a question concerning this topic: Would a marriage between an Orthodox and a Catholic be possible?

According to Conti, there was a sort of secret contract between the Austrian and the Russian Imperial Families, that granted each Austrian (hence catholic)/Russian (hence Orthodox) Princess to keep her religion in the case of an marriage between those two houses. An example might be the marriage between Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia and Palatine Joseph, an Hungarian Habsburg.  
 
So marriages between Catholic and Orthodox Christians might be difficult, but not impossible.

i don't even think it's difficult, at least not today. my parents did it and from what i know, there was no problem. to get married in an orthodox church, 1 of the people has to be orthodox, and it can only be to another christian, and even then, the non-orthodox one would have to be one of the christian religions that believe in the trinity and not all christians believe that.

an interesting website is www.orthodoxphotos.com

it's mostly pictures but it has some articles too.