October: Day 17: Teaching 3:
Commemoration of the Miraculous Rescue of the Sovereign Emperor on October 17, 1888
(Lessons From This Event:
a. It is Necessary to Thank God for the Miraculous Salvation of the Life of the Sovereign Emperor, and
b. It is our Duty to Nourish Feelings of the Most Selfless Devotion to the Sovereign)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Commemoration of the Miraculous Rescue of the Sovereign Emperor on October 17, 1888
(Lessons From This Event:
a. It is Necessary to Thank God for the Miraculous Salvation of the Life of the Sovereign Emperor, and
b. It is our Duty to Nourish Feelings of the Most Selfless Devotion to the Sovereign)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. 1888 October 17, all of Russia, as one person, shuddered "with great horror" at the terrible news of that mortal danger from which the support, hope and happiness of the entire Russian land almost perished - the most pious and beloved Sovereign of Russia with his entire august family, but immediately afterwards was filled with feelings of the most ardent gratitude to Divine Providence and boundless joy when she learned that among the wreckage of the railway carriage crushed to pieces, among a thousand dangers from which many who were traveling with the royal train that had suffered a wreck perished and suffered, only the Sovereign Emperor with his royal family, saved by a miracle of the omnipotence and mercy of God, remained unharmed.
This great Tsar-Peacemaker, who reposed in God on October 20, 1894, mourned and lamented not only by Russia, but also by all the friends of peace in all countries, now - we firmly believe - dwells with his righteous soul, as his whole life was righteous, after a truly Christian death, in the heavenly chambers and intercedes before God for his beloved Russia together with his namesake, the holy faithful Prince Alexander Nevsky and other royal and God-glorified leaders of Russia.
II. Following the words of the ecclesiastical prayer composed on the occasion of the miraculous deliverance of the Sovereign and His august family, “Grant to us, O Lord, that the memory of this terrible visitation of Yours may be firm and unceasing from generation to generation, and do not withdraw Your mercy from us,” we will now talk about this miraculous Divine visitation for us, terrible and glorious, merciful and all-good.
Yes, only one miracle of God's omnipotence and mercy saved our hope - our beloved Emperor on that memorable day of October 17, 1888. There can be no doubt about this for a single moment. Indeed, is it possible to explain salvation from inevitable death as by "chance"? The carriage in which the Emperor and His family were located fell apart completely, the floor and ceiling collapsed, the walls were flattened - but from all these fragments, in an incomprehensible way, a cramped and completely safe place was formed for the Emperor and other members of the royal family. Meanwhile, the danger was so great that the servant standing next to the Emperor was killed instantly, but the Tsar, protected by God, remained intact, and the icon of the Savior "Not Made By Hands" was intact. Moreover, the lamp before it did not go out and the glass icon case in which it was placed, according to the custom of the Orthodox Church, did not break – a clear and forever unforgettable sign for all Russians that the Savior of the world, whose face is depicted on the icon, preserved for us the Tsar and His royal house. Russian history knows of only one similar miracle involving a holy icon. During the occupation of Moscow by the French in 1812, according to Napoleon’s plan, the entire Kremlin was to be blown up. From five terrible explosions, the walls of the buildings shook, glass cracked, doors fell – iron, stones, logs of the Nikolskaya Tower, the arsenal and the Kremlin wall flew into the air like feathers. But on the wall of the same Nikolskaya Tower, the icon of Saint Nicholas remained unharmed, even the rope on which the lantern with the candle hung did not break. The fragile glass of the icon case bent, but did not break. It would not be an exaggeration to say that just as in the disastrous time of the invasion of Russia by the French and with them twenty languages, when our fatherland was on the brink of destruction, salvation was granted to it from above, so also on October 17, 1888, when Russia was ready to lose its crowned leader, the cause of its internal prosperity and external well-being, it was saved from the terrible danger that lay ahead of it by the same help of God.
It is evident that in the wise plans of Divine Providence the precious life in God of the now deceased Emperor was very necessary for the good of all Russia, and therefore, despite the obvious danger to which it was exposed, it was preserved for several years. And when the fulfillment of time came, known only to the Creator and Ruler of the World, the pure and immaculate soul of the great Peacemaker Tsar, who labored day and night, not sparing his health to create happiness for Russia, was taken to heaven by the wave of the Source of life and immortality.
In truth, the great mercy of God is shown to us in the miraculous salvation of our Tsar. Our thoughts are afraid even of one question: what would have happened to Russia, what would have happened to all of us, if we had lost our Tsar and all His august house? Who would have guarded justice and truth in our land and supervised the execution of state laws, for historical experience has shown that beautiful laws turn out to be a dead letter if there is no living supreme authority supervising their execution? Who would have repelled Russia's external enemies and suppressed internal ones, who hinder the peaceful development of our native country in the field of science, art, industry, trade, moral life, in a word, in the field of its spiritual and physical development?
So, in view of all this, we must thank the Lord with all our hearts for such a great miracle of His mercy to our King and through him to all of us.
a) The feeling of gratitude to God, expressed both in the words of prayer and in good deeds, living memorials of God's blessings, is a natural need of our heart. Remembrance of God's blessings strongly inspires feats of virtue and disposes a person to cling with all his heart to his heavenly Benefactor and daily express living love for Him. "God," says Saint John Chrysostom , "when He sees someone grateful for the past, sends him even greater gifts." A person's ingratitude to God is a clear evidence of the corruption of his heart - this main organ of a person's moral life. Once, in the Old Testament, the Lord, through the Prophet Isaiah, reproaching His people for their ingratitude to Himself, said: "The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know Me, and My people do not understand." Indeed, people who have lost the feeling of gratitude to God are more rude than the speechless, who always try to express their gratitude in one way or another to those who have done them some good. The lion, whom the Venerable Gerasimos, having met in the desert, saved from painful suffering by removing a splinter from his wound, felt such affection for his benefactor that he obediently served him, like the most obedient domestic animal, for the rest of his life, and after his death, from grief for him, he died on his grave. But to our great sorrow, we meet Christians who act much worse than the speechless in relation to God. Long-term prosperity, health, success and untroubled carelessness are enough to lead us to forget that all these blessings are given to us by God. We act as if God is obliged to bestow upon us what He bestows upon us. The very habit of His numerous and varied blessings takes away, in the eyes of most people, all their immeasurably great value. We must be deprived of this, even for a short time, and only then will we understand and appreciate all the mercies of the Divine Providence, which cares for us daily, and even much more - every minute. Just as if a serious illness befell us, we would know the full value of health, so then, when instead of peaceful development and prosperity of state life, war, disorder, turmoil or anarchy set in, when no one would be sure for a single hour either of his life or of his property, we would understand and appreciate all the benefits of a peaceful life, protected by law and people of order under the supreme authority of our Autocratic Sovereign, strong and formidable to enemies external and internal, merciful and meek to all those who wish well-being and happiness for our fatherland and who by their very deeds contribute to this. "Bless" (then), "my soul, the Lord and do not forget all His benefits."
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| The second Cathedral of Christ the Savior built over the site of the train crash. |
b) But gratitude to the King of kings for the mercy sent down to us, shown to us in the miraculous salvation of the precious life of our Sovereign, now departed to God, is only one half of the good deed. In order to fulfill our entire moral duty in relation to the miraculous event of October 17, we must always nourish in ourselves and show in our activities feelings of the most selfless devotion to the Sovereign, as the Anointed of God protected by heaven itself and as the sovereign Leader of Russia. And the legitimacy of this holy feeling finds the most solid justification for itself both in the word of God and in human science.
1) The word of God teaches: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13:1–2). But the word of God speaks not only of the divine origin of royal power and the consequent submission to it, but also of the fact that through the king, appointed by God, the righteousness of God, the necessary foundation of true human life, is realized on earth. “By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice,” says divine wisdom itself (Prov. 8:15). The heart of the king is the organ through which the king receives inspirations from God. "The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes" (Prov. 21:1). Having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacred anointing, upon ascending the throne, the king appears as the chosen one of God in all the splendor and power of his authority, overshadowed and imbued with sanctification from above, ready to serve as an instrument of truth, mercy and God's justice on earth among his people. "I have exalted one chosen from among my people," says the Lord through the royal prophet David, "I have anointed him with holy oil; My truth and My mercy are with him" (Ps. 89:20-21, 25). Having such an exalted, revealing teaching about royal power, the Holy Fathers of the Church persistently taught all Christian peoples unconditional obedience to the royal power. "Even if you were an apostle," says Saint John Chrysostom, be he an evangelist, be he a prophet, be he anyone else, obey... Destroy the courts and you destroy all order in our life; remove the helmsman from the ship and you sink the vessel; take away the leader from the army and you give the soldiers into captivity to the enemy... So, we must send up great thanks to God for the fact that there are kings, and for the fact that there are judges. Having concern for the well-being of people, so that many of them would not live more senselessly than animals, God established the power of leaders and kings, like reins for steering a chariot and a rudder for steering a ship."
2) Turning then to the evidence of human science on obedience to royal authority, we find that it confirms in everything the teaching of the word of God on the same subject. And first of all, the history of both our fatherland and the world, not in words and vague assumptions, but in events that are menacingly convincing for every thinking person, says that in every country where there was for a time a strong autocratic power absent or where it was weakened, apart from turmoil, lawlessness, oppression of the weak by the strong, wild tyranny, incessant and disastrous for the country change of government officials elected and overthrown by the passion of self-interest and personal favor, stagnation of the intellectual, industrial and decline of the fundamental all-creating religious and moral life and its state significance among other peoples, nothing ever happened and could not happen. And this is understandable. The state is a great family. Just as a family perishes and disintegrates where its natural head, the father, does not display his legitimate authority over the other members of the family, or because of hostile resistance to him from some members, or because of weakness, or for other reasons, or where the family is deprived of him early: so the life of a state disintegrates and tends to decline without its natural head, the sovereign, or even under him, in the case when his power is weakened by the incomplete or inadequate obedience of his subjects, who have lost under their feet the firm ground for obedience to any authority established by God - the fear of God and obedience to the holy mother the Church, this wonderful and great educator of Christian souls for both temporal and eternal life.
Turning our gaze to the numerous and beneficial measures and methods emanating from the Supreme Authority for the development and prosperity of our dear fatherland, we see that our most pious and autocratic Sovereign, who recently reposed in God, was the true father of the Russian state, tirelessly caring for the happiness and well-being of his subjects, working day and night for its good and thereby completely frustrating all the forces of his organism, using and seeking all measures to ensure that precious peace - this basic condition for the development and prosperity of every human and Christian life - was not violated during his reign, was our true support and hope. To obey the Tsar to the point of being ready, if necessary, to lay down our lives for him, is our direct duty, which we must fulfill not only because civil laws require it, because it is proof of true Christian love, but also because a person’s conscience requires it, because his reason prescribes and approves of it.
III. Let us offer our prayers of thanksgiving to the King of Kings for the immeasurably great blessings that we receive from the royal power established by God among us, and let us pray with all our souls and with all our thoughts for the preservation for many, many years of the precious life of the now happily reigning Sovereign Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich. Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
1) The word of God teaches: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13:1–2). But the word of God speaks not only of the divine origin of royal power and the consequent submission to it, but also of the fact that through the king, appointed by God, the righteousness of God, the necessary foundation of true human life, is realized on earth. “By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice,” says divine wisdom itself (Prov. 8:15). The heart of the king is the organ through which the king receives inspirations from God. "The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes" (Prov. 21:1). Having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacred anointing, upon ascending the throne, the king appears as the chosen one of God in all the splendor and power of his authority, overshadowed and imbued with sanctification from above, ready to serve as an instrument of truth, mercy and God's justice on earth among his people. "I have exalted one chosen from among my people," says the Lord through the royal prophet David, "I have anointed him with holy oil; My truth and My mercy are with him" (Ps. 89:20-21, 25). Having such an exalted, revealing teaching about royal power, the Holy Fathers of the Church persistently taught all Christian peoples unconditional obedience to the royal power. "Even if you were an apostle," says Saint John Chrysostom, be he an evangelist, be he a prophet, be he anyone else, obey... Destroy the courts and you destroy all order in our life; remove the helmsman from the ship and you sink the vessel; take away the leader from the army and you give the soldiers into captivity to the enemy... So, we must send up great thanks to God for the fact that there are kings, and for the fact that there are judges. Having concern for the well-being of people, so that many of them would not live more senselessly than animals, God established the power of leaders and kings, like reins for steering a chariot and a rudder for steering a ship."
2) Turning then to the evidence of human science on obedience to royal authority, we find that it confirms in everything the teaching of the word of God on the same subject. And first of all, the history of both our fatherland and the world, not in words and vague assumptions, but in events that are menacingly convincing for every thinking person, says that in every country where there was for a time a strong autocratic power absent or where it was weakened, apart from turmoil, lawlessness, oppression of the weak by the strong, wild tyranny, incessant and disastrous for the country change of government officials elected and overthrown by the passion of self-interest and personal favor, stagnation of the intellectual, industrial and decline of the fundamental all-creating religious and moral life and its state significance among other peoples, nothing ever happened and could not happen. And this is understandable. The state is a great family. Just as a family perishes and disintegrates where its natural head, the father, does not display his legitimate authority over the other members of the family, or because of hostile resistance to him from some members, or because of weakness, or for other reasons, or where the family is deprived of him early: so the life of a state disintegrates and tends to decline without its natural head, the sovereign, or even under him, in the case when his power is weakened by the incomplete or inadequate obedience of his subjects, who have lost under their feet the firm ground for obedience to any authority established by God - the fear of God and obedience to the holy mother the Church, this wonderful and great educator of Christian souls for both temporal and eternal life.
Turning our gaze to the numerous and beneficial measures and methods emanating from the Supreme Authority for the development and prosperity of our dear fatherland, we see that our most pious and autocratic Sovereign, who recently reposed in God, was the true father of the Russian state, tirelessly caring for the happiness and well-being of his subjects, working day and night for its good and thereby completely frustrating all the forces of his organism, using and seeking all measures to ensure that precious peace - this basic condition for the development and prosperity of every human and Christian life - was not violated during his reign, was our true support and hope. To obey the Tsar to the point of being ready, if necessary, to lay down our lives for him, is our direct duty, which we must fulfill not only because civil laws require it, because it is proof of true Christian love, but also because a person’s conscience requires it, because his reason prescribes and approves of it.
III. Let us offer our prayers of thanksgiving to the King of Kings for the immeasurably great blessings that we receive from the royal power established by God among us, and let us pray with all our souls and with all our thoughts for the preservation for many, many years of the precious life of the now happily reigning Sovereign Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich. Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
