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.