Russian Church Plans to Canonize Tsar Nicholas II and Family

Ending years of impassioned discussions that have at times threatened to split the Russian Orthodox Church, officials said this week that the church will canonize Tsar Nicholas II and his family in August.

The tsar and his family will be canonized at the Jubilee Council of Bishops scheduled for the middle of August, said priest Maxim Maximov, secretary of the Synod's Commission on Canonization, in a telephone interview.

"The final decision will be made by the members of the council, but the commission sees no obstacles to canonization," Maximov said.

The tsar, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters -- Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia -- and their son, Alexis, will be canonized along with hundreds of new martyrs and confessors of Russia -- clergymen and laymen who were killed or died in jail during the Soviet persecution of religion -- in an unprecedented series of canonizations that will help to mark the celebration of 2,000 years since the birth of Christ.

The central event of the Jubilee Council of Bishops will be the consecration of the massive Christ the Savior Cathedral on the Aug. 19 Transfiguration Day celebration.

The tsar and his family have long been a thorny issue for the church, one that was given fresh intensity after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought religion back into the mainstream of society. While the Russian Orthodox Church has been unable to ignore popular veneration of the Romanovs, it also has been unwilling to give its blessing to the political monarchist and straightforward anti-Semitic forces within the church that have championed the Romanovs' sainthood as "royal martyrs."

After five years of deliberations and delays, the church found some middle ground in February of 1997. At that time the Council of Bishops approved the report of the Commission on Canonization, headed by Metropolitan Yuvenaly. The report stated that, while Nicholas II does not deserve sainthood for the way he lived and ruled Russia, the humble Christian way in which the royal family faced imprisonment and death qualified them as strastoterptsy, or passion bearers.

That decision paved the way for the coming decision to canonize Nicholas II as a passion bearer.

Continued on page 2: »