Over Ten Million Orthodox Faithful Venerate Holy Relics of the Holy Martyr and Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Sister Barbara

On 28 February 2005, holy relics of the new martyrs Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Sister Barbara left Moscow for Jerusalem after seven-month journey over the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The holy relics traveled by plain, by automobile, by church-train and visited the farthest places of this country from Chukotka to Kaliningrad and dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate in the CIS and Baltic states since July 2004 till February 2005.

The holy right hand of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna and the particle of the holy relics of Sister Barbara visited 140 cities of 61 dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church during seven months.

Over ten million Orthodox citizens of Russian regions, and faithful of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirgizia, Azerbaijan and Baltic states venerated the shrine.

Bringing the relics of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth and Sister Barbara has become the first joint auction of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

The Foundation of Holy Apostle Andrew the First Called assisted to arrange the event.

On 21 February 2005, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russian headed a ceremonial welcome of the holy relics in Moscow before their return to the place of their permanent repose.

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church concelebrating with the hierarchs conducted the All-night Vigil in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Among the participants of the Divine service also were representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches, Moscow clerics, and over three thousand faithful and pilgrims.

Over fifty thousand people came to venerate the holy relics during the week of their stay in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Many-hours’ lines to the shrine were unprecedentedly long. Over ninety thousand people from Moscow and Moscow region managed to venerate the shrine last summer when it has first arrived in Moscow.

On 24 February 2005, a final press conference on completing the program of the holy shrine’s stay in Russia was held in Moscow.

It was announced that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia would convey the reliquary with the particles of Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Sister Barbara relics to Sts Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy after its restoration.

This small reliquary is a shrine itself as it was made from the boards of coffins, in which bodies of the new martyrs were transferred from Beijing to Jerusalem. Capsules with the soil from Gethsemane and Alapaevsk are set into it. There is a medallion with the Image of the Savior-Not-Made-by-Hands on the cover of the reliquary, which was given to Grand Duchess Elizabeth by Emperor Nicolas II on her adopting Orthodoxy.

Founded by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, Sts Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy resumed its God-pleasing work only 12 years ago. At present there are about 100 sisters working in it. The convent runs an orphanage. For the time being the convent itself is accommodated in a small building which needs thorough repairs.

The convent church, commissioned by Elizabeth Fyodorovna to architect Schusev, is still used by the Grabar Art Restoration Workshops. According to the agreement concluded by the Church with the Russian Ministry of Culture and the city authorities, the workshops will be given other facilities within a year.

During the night of February 28, 2005, the holy relics of the two women martyrs were sent off in a solemn ceremony in the Church of Christ the Saviour. The divine services held in the church as well as the Divine Liturgy held in the morning of February 28 were celebrated by Archbishop Arseny of Istra, who was assisted by over 50 clergy in Moscow. About three thousand worshippers gathered for the services in the cathedral church.

Addressing himself to the congregation with a pastoral homily, His Eminence Arseny said in particular, ‘All the worshippers here have prayed at this great Orthodox shrine with pure hearts and everyone has found himself or herself in this prayer’.

Having reminded the congregation that this shrine ‘walked Russia from end to end’, His Eminence Arseny said, ‘However great our spiritual joy may be at the meeting of this shrine in Moscow, the moment of parting comes inevitably’.

Early in the morning on February 28, 2005, a special plane flew out from Vnukovo airport, carrying two reliquaries with the relics of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth and Sister Barbara. Last July, before the shrine was brought to Russia, this plane was blessed and it was on this place that the honorable relics had traveled in the canonical territory of the Russian Church.

Now the reliquaries with the shrine are coming back of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles in Gethsimane.

The national veneration of the holy relics of Russia’s New Martyrs, which took place in the last months in their earthly homeland, will stay in people’s memory as one of the most vivid and impressive pages in the modern history of Russian Orthodoxy.

(From Russian news agencies)