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« on: April 07, 2004, 11:27:51 AM »
Letter from Metropolitan Vitaly
to the Vice-President of the Russian Federation
Concerning the Murder of the Russian Royal Family
In 1996 Yury Feodorovitch Yarov, Vice-President of the government of the Russian Federation, asked Metropolitan Vitaly a number of questions, mostly concerning the murder of the Russian Royal Family. The following is the Metropolitan's reply to Mr. Yarov, which gives a clear view of the events currently taking place in Russia.
Dear Yury Feodorovitch,
The consul of the Russian Federal government in New York has delivered your letter to me. It covers three points to which I consider it my duty to reply as Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
You write of your government's concern to clarify who was historically responsible for this terrible tragedy - the murder of the Royal Family, and you correctly evaluate this evil deed as a criminal act. Now there is definitely a responsibility, not just towards the Russian people, but towards people all over the world, to resolve this. To this end it is necessary to go back to the chronology of events in 1917 and 1918, and consider on what new laws the new Soviet Bolshevik government was based after the fall of the monarchy and what laws formed the basis of its activities. It is immediately obvious to any unbiased historian that Lenin himself was beyond any doubt the one who issued the orders, provided the inspiration and had complete control of all its activities. It is utterly inconceivable that in that evil and terrible time anyone could dare to do anything at variance with the hypnotic will of Lenin, who had unofficially become the dictator of the whole Bolshevik party. Consequently Lenin was the real murderer of the whole Royal Family and of those who voluntarily shared their fate.
This should be declared throughout the land of Russia, and his unfortunate remains should be buried in the place where he himself asked his terrible henchmen to bury him in his will (Editor's note:next to his mother!) . His corpse has been kept quite long enough as a disgrace to the whole of Russia in the Red Square of our ancient capital.
The second question is concerning our view of the "supposed" remains of the Royal Family. More than forty years ago we held a very solemn funeral in absentia for all the Royal Martyrs in the church built as a memorial to them in Brussels. Later we glorified them as saints together with all the New Martyrs of Russia. So for us, historically speaking, one more very terrible page in the history of our country has irrevocably been turned. Spiritually, the Royal Martyrs are always alive for us, and we ask for their holy prayers before the throne of God both for us, who are still living in this vale of tears, and for our harrowed, defiled and unhappy country. Only from the Lord do we await, if it should be His holy will, that He will miraculously reveal to us their holy relics, or whatever is left of them. We do not expect anything at all from anyone else.
Finally, the small reliquary containing a few fragments of the Royal relics, which were given to us by Sokoloff's commission of investigation, is kept in the Memorial Church in Brussels as a sacred object and so we cannot, and would not dare to, hand it over to any commission.
Please be assured, Yury Feodorovitch, of our very best wishes for the historical investigation which you have undertaken.
[Signed]
Metropolitan Vitaly
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Interview with Metropolitan Vitaly
Concerning the Relics of the Russian Royal Family
Interview first appeared in the Moscow journal "Radonezh" (1998 No. 1) and was reprinted in "Pravoslavnaya Rus" ("Orthodox Russia") 1998 No.3.
Vladika, we would like to ask you about the holy objects in the church of St. Job the Much Suffering in Belgium. It is said that they include a fragment of relics of the Holy Royal Martyrs, which was brought out of Russia in the past by N.A. Sokoloff, who conducted the investigation into their deaths. Is this correct?
"As I recall, there was a little finger which was attributed to the Empress. Then there were a few more small fragments, but everything was sealed into the walls of the church. So they are not on the altar table and you cannot venerate them. They were all sealed in when the foundation of the church was laid. There are icons and other things that belonged to the Tsar, but the relics themselves, such as they were (there were extremely small amounts) were all embedded into the walls. We cannot demolish the walls and start looking for them. That would be out of the question! I was present at the consecration of the church. At first these relics were kept in Brussels, in a small house church, but we kept them secretly, because there were still relatives of the Romanoff family alive who could have laid claim to them. But when they had all died and there was no direct lawful heir to the throne left, then we embedded these relics in the wall of the church."
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I found this on the web and am posting it here.
Bob
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