Crucea.ro

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of
Russia, representing the only free part of the Russian Orthodox
Church, with reverence discussed the exploit of the Martyrdom and
Confession of the innumerable believers in the Russian land who have
suffered from the hands of the godless persecutors of the Faith of
Christ.

From the days of the Great Prince Vladimir, the Russian people with
all its heart has accepted the Holy Orthodox Faith. This Faith
inspired numerous Holy Princes, Hierarchs and Ascetics, sanctifying
the Christian order of Russian culture. These were founded on the
Christian principles set forth in the Sacred Scripture and Tradition
of the Orthodox Church. Being realized in Russian national life in
various degrees in various periods of history, these principles have
continued to exist in all layers of the Russian people, from the Tsar
to the last pauper, for the course of more than 900 years. However,
during the past two centuries, instigated by the enemy of our
salvation, the anti-christian principle of revolutionary atheism has
directed all its strength and means towards the annihilation of these
principles in the Russian people.

From 1917, beginning with the sin of the whole people in violating the
oath, given before the Cross and the Gospel, of loyalty to Faith,
Tsar, and Fatherland there began to be put into practice the uprooting
by the atheists of the whole Orthodox spirit in the government and in
the people’s way of life, both of which had turned away from God. This
evil was attained by means of a cruel persecution of Faith and of the
Orthodox way of life; all layers of the population were made victims
of this process, from the Tsar and the Hierarchy to the simplest
believers.

Right away, from the very beginning of the Revolution, there began a
persecution and mockery of the imprisoned Tsar and his family and,
almost simultaneously, an assault against the representatives of the
Church, Bishops, Pastors, and Believers. In the very first year of the
Revolution our Church was made purple with the blood of the overthrown
Tsar with all his family and the members of royal blood who were
within the boundaries of Russia, as well as of numberless believers.
Later, to them were joined the victims of persecutions from the
renovationist schisms and the confessors who did not agree to any
compromise with the anti-christian authority in the attempt of the
leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate at that time to serve at one and
the same time both Christ and Belial. An innumerable choir of many
millions of Martyrs and Confessors was formed. During the 64 years of
Soviet dominion tens of thousands of Churches and Monasteries were
destroyed and millions of people were martyred because they preserved
their Orthodox Faith and did not bow down to the idol of materialism.

Bowing down in prayer before all of them, the Council of Bishops
decrees that there should be joined to the choir of the Saints all the
Martyrs and Confessors who have suffered from the godless in Russia:
hierarchs, Clergy, Monks, Nuns, and all Orthodox People who have been
tortured and killed for the Orthodox Faith and the principles of Holy
Russia.

The names of these Saints are so numerous that they can be fully known
only to the All-Knowing God, and the Council of Bishops will have to
supplement the list of names with those of other people who have
struggled for the Faith to the Glory of God.

A special place in the choir of holy New Martyrs is occupied by the
Tsar-martyr Nicholas II, as the anointed of God, the bearer of the
idea of the Orthodox state, and his family. Therefore, a special
service is to be dedicated to them on the day of their murder, the day
of sorrow, July 4/17, together with the reading at the Liturgy of the
prayer of repentance established earlier to be read at pannihidas.

To all these Holy Martyrs and Confessors we shall offer praise,
entreating them that by their intercession at the Throne of God they
might obtain for Russia deliverance from the godless and a rebirth of
Orthodox life, and that by their example they might inspire other
children of the Russian Church also to enter on the path of struggle
for Faith and Piety.

The general Feast of the Russian New Martyrs and Confessors is to be
celebrated on the Sunday between the 22nd and 28th day of January,
according to the Orthodox Calendar. The memory of separate Martyrs and
Confessors should be performed on the day of their Blessed Repose,
when it is known, and otherwise on the day of the general Feast of the
New Martyrs.

Chairman of the Council of Bishops
Metropolitan Philaret
and Members of the Council.

Gheorghe Vanau