In fact, the Russian Orthodox Church DID declare them Martyrs and Saints.
I do not understand why, as their deaths had absolutely nothing to do with their religion. It was ordered to prevent them from being a “rallying point” for non-communist" forces that were fighting against the Communist government of Russia.
There was no indication that Nicholas, or any of his children, were particularly religious at all. The Empress was, but once again that had nothing to do with the fact that she was murdered.
But, the Russian Orthodox Church, once their remains were found, declared them martyrs and saints.
In fact, their official saintly status is that of “Passion-Bearers” and not Martyrs.
Passion-Bearer is a title not known in the Roman Catholic West and is specific to the Eastern Church.
It refers to a saint’s fatal suffering that was not necessarily related to religion. Saints Boris and Hlib, the sons of St Vladimir the Great, are Passion-Bearers because they were killed by their brother “Svyatopolk the Damned” in his drive to secure the throne for himself. They died, however, without resisting him as they refused to fight him in fear of killing him and therefore being guilty of fraticide. St Hlib was killed by his brother’s men in church as he sang the Psalms.
The relics of St Edward the Martyr are now in Orthodox hands in Surrey in England (their finder wanted to release the relics to that Church that would observe St Edward’s four annual feast-days and since both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches refused this, he surrendered them to the Orthodox Church that happily agreed to this condition).
The Orthodox gave St Edward his proper title of “Passion-Bearer” since he too was not killed for religious reasons.
In the case of Tsar St Nicholas Romanov, there can be no doubt that he was murdered by the Bolsheviks primarily because he was a Christian monarch. The Russians, especially those in the vast rural areas of Russia, were deeply attached to him and this made the Bolsheviks, and Lenin especially, extremely jealous. (The Russian revolution was an urban phenomenon and was led by the brute military power of the stronger Bolshevik party.)
The Tsar was martyred at a time when the Bolshevik military strength was at its zenith and there was no chance that any sort of counter-revolution could have arisen to oppose the Bolsheviks, least of all the spent White Army of Denikin and the confused stance of the West. The Bolsheviks would have dealt with any such in a most brutal manner and for years afterwards, literally millions of people would die on the charge of “counter-revolution” - a ridiculous charge to begin with!
The Russian Orthodox Church decided to use the title “Passion-Bearers” for the Tsar and his family, also to try and put an end to the anti-semitism among the Russians that stemmed from a popular (but false) belief that the Tsar was killed by “Jewish Bolsheviks.”
At the same time, Tsar Nicholas II was VERY personally pious, together with his entire family. He was completely devoted to the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church, prayed the Jesus Prayer constantly, kept literally dozens upon dozens of icons for his own devotional use, even in his military railway car.
There was a tradition of Tsarist piety in Russia that outstripped that of any other European monarchy. Tsar Alexis, the father of Peter I, was a case in point, and this despite his political chicanery as a leader. Tsar Alexis would not only hear the entire Daily Office of the Orthodox Church and attend Divine Liturgy with Communion, he made 1,000 full prostrations to the floor with the Jesus Prayer daily.
Tsar Nicholas II was born on the feast day of St Job the Much-Suffering and he alway had a great veneration for this Old Testament saint, uniting his personal suffering to this model of bearing of unjust wrongs.
Tsar St Nicholas loved going on religious pilgrimages and he took the unusual step of asking to help carry the coffin of St Seraphim of Sarov when this great Russian saint was canonized (at the Tsar’s persisten urging) in 1903.
St Seraphim of Sarov, who lived in the 18th century, gave a hand-written letter to his friends and told them to make sure that it be put in the hands of the “Fourth Emperor of Russia to visit Sarov.”
That happened to be . . . Tsar Nicholas II. When the Tsar read the letter, it is said that he turned white as St Seraphim prophesied in it that he would suffer death for Orthodox Russia at the hands of godless men but that Holy Russia would arise again.
Many miracles are reported through the icons of Tsar St Nicholas and there are even weeeping icons of him. He is extremely popular throughout Russia and posters of him are sold and even given away free at subway stops!
Alex
