The Russian Orthodox Church has no doubts about the authenticity of the remains of the family members of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II found near Yekaterinburg. Nothing prevents the recognition of their authenticity, stressed in the program “Church and Peace” on the TV channel “Russia 24” Metropolitan Hilarion.
The head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church added that this requires a conciliar decision of the Church. The decision should be made at the level of the highest leadership of the Church, and the highest leadership is the Council of Bishops, Vladyka explained. Metropolitan Hilarion stressed that after the report of the representative of the Investigative Committee in June 2021 at a meeting of the Synod, none of the bishops should have had any doubts about the authenticity of the remains after the examinations.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Council of Bishops was postponed. It is currently planned that it could take place in May 2022.
“If the arguments in favor of the authenticity of the found remains prevail, then the final decision will be made,” Metropolitan Hilarion noted. “If we recognize the “Ekaterinburg remains” as the remains of the royal family, then these are holy relicsso they should be given proper worship.”
Metropolitan Hilarion also said that the Council of Bishops will determine the place of storage of the remains: either they will be put up for worship, or they will be placed under a bushel, that is, under a tombstone.
Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg. On the Old Koptyakovskaya road near Yekaterinburg in July 1991, the burial of nine people was opened. The remains belonged, according to the investigation. Nicholas II, his wife, as well as their daughters – Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia, Dr. Evgeny Botkin and servants. These remains were solemnly buried in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1998.
Later, in 2007, the remains of two children of the last Russian emperor, Tsarevich Alexei and his sister Maria, were found. A repeated comprehensive study in the summer of 2018 confirmed the authenticity of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his family.
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