Some information that may shed light on this thread:
https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2021/04/memorial-church-of-saint-job-in-brussels-a-candle-for-the-holy-royal-martyrs-of-russiaDiscovered in 1920, the relics of the Royal Family were entrusted to Metropolitan Seraphim, Archpriest of the Western European Episcopate in the memorial church, which was then in the process of construction. The relics of the Holy Martyrs were sealed in a lead container and immured in a church wall. During the major works of restoration in 2012, the container with the relics was rediscovered, together with a hand-written document describing the identity of the relics. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad declined to subject the discovery to further examination, leaving the relics unsealed but open for the worshippers to revere.In 2010:
Legend had it that Sokolovs evidence ended up hidden inside a wall at the New Martyrs Russian Orthodox Church in Brussels. But Vladimir Solovyev, a criminal investigator in the Moscow prosecutors office who has worked on the Romanov case since 1991, searched the church and turned up nothing. The evidence, he said, vanished during the Second World War.From:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/resurrecting-the-czar-64545030/April 27th 2021:
Memorial Church of Saint Job in Brussels a Candle for the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia
https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2021/04/memorial-church-of-saint-job-in-brussels-a-candle-for-the-holy-royal-martyrs-of-russiaDiscovered in 1920, the relics of the Royal Family were entrusted to Metropolitan Seraphim, Archpriest of the Western European Episcopate in the memorial church, which was then in the process of construction. The relics of the Holy Martyrs were sealed in a lead container and immured in a church wall. During the major works of restoration in 2012, the container with the relics was rediscovered,
together with a hand-written document describing the identity of the relics. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad declined to subject the discovery to further examination, leaving the relics unsealed but open for the worshippers to revere.
In 2022:
https://orthochristian.com/147245.htmlSee below for information found in the link above.
About the Imperial Family
Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)
The Sretensky Мonastery publishing house published a book of memoirs by Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) called My Fate and compiled video transcriptions from 1997 1999. The majority of them is being published for the first time.
Vladyka Basil speaks about his family, childhood, and the tragic events of the last century in Russia and the fates of the people deprived of their Motherland. From the Vladykas memoirs, one can study the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century and the history of the Russian Church Abroad. Bishop Basil met with practically every well-known hierarch of the time, the devout servants of God and the leaders of the Church. One of the chapters of the book is devoted to the memories of Fr. Nicholas (Gibbes) who converted to Orthodoxy and was tonsured a monk with the name of Nicholas, in memory of His Majesty the Emperor.
I learned from Fr. Nicholas (Gibbes) about the secrets of the Imperial children?s room and his attitude toward this family.
He became a tutor to His Majesty's children purely by accident. Someone recommended him, they liked him, and his candidacy was approved. He unintentionally became a member of their family.
He was so attracted to Orthodoxy, which he learned about while tutoring the children of the Emperor and the Empress, that after the revolution, when the Imperial family had to travel to Tobolsk deep in Siberia, he went there with them and shared the hardships that befell the family. Later on, he followed them to Ekaterinburg. But, since those who transported the family knew the fate that awaited them, as a foreign citizen he was separated from them. He lived to see the tragic day made known to the world and took it very hard. All of this led him to become a monk. Together with the Kolchak army retreating by way of Siberia, he ended up in Harbin, a quintessential Russian town in Manchuria. This was because of its location on the Chinese Eastern Railway, which employed many Russian nationals, which helped to Russianize the town even before the revolution. It was where he met Vladyka Nestor (Anisimov), a missionary to Kamchatka, and later to China. Vladyka Nestor founded the Russian Orthodox House of Mercy in Harbin. That?s where Sidney Gibbes was received into the Orthodox Church and tonsured a monk, adopting the name Nicholas in memory of His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas II. He served there as a priest right up to the beginning of the Second World War. For a number of reasons, he had to return to his homeland, and was back in London in 1938. He served in a Russian Orthodox church there conducting services in English, for the English speakers. He was later assigned to an Anglican Church building right in the middle of London.
I became closely acquainted with Fr. Nicholas and learned from him a lot of details unknown to others. He told me what happened after he had found out about the tragic death of the Imperial family. No one knew how they died or were the bodies of the slain where buried. This only became known after the investigator Sokolov arrived to Ekaterinburg. Colonel Pavel Pavlovich Rodzianko, my uncle and my fathers cousin, also arrived there with the Kolchak army. He, along with Sokolov and Sidney Gibbes (the future Fr. Nicholas) who joined them, launched an investigation. They descended into the mine that they assumed was the burial place of the members of the Imperial family. They inspected Ganina Yama, but found nothing but a few things.
Thats where, Fr. Nicholas told me, he found nails, the large ones, at the bottom of the mine. He immediately identified these nails. They were kept in the heirs pocket. When he, the tutor, and his charge would play a game of skittles or something like that, they'd usually set these nails out and then throw a ball. Once he discovered these nails, it became clear to him that the boy was killed and his body lay here.
They collected the nails and other items they had found in a special suitcase. Pieces of burnt bones were already stored inside it. They also discovered the traces of two large fires and obvious attempts to burn the human remains. As we know, the investigator Sokolov held that all bodies were burned there, but they had no sufficient evidence to prove it. Fr. Nicholas never learned about the final results of the investigation.
...more in next post...
