ROC may recognise authenticity of royal family's remains at Council in May

The Romanov family of royal martyrs. Photo: rvio.histrf.ru

The Russian Orthodox Church may recognise the authenticity of the " Yekaterinburg remains", which experts believe to belong to the Romanov family of royal martyrs, at its next Council of Bishops in May 2022. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations (DECR), said on the ‘Church and the World’ programme," reports Interfax-Religion.

He said he saw no reason to hinder the recognition of the authenticity of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family shot by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg in 1918. "Nothing hinders the recognition of the authenticity of 'the Yekaterinburg remains', but a synodic decision of the Church is needed to recognize their authenticity," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

"I believe the members of the Synod should not have doubts about the authenticity of the remains. But this decision must be made at the level of senior leadership of the church, and the senior leadership is the Bishops' Council," the metropolitan said.

He explained why a synodic decision is important in this case. "If we recognize 'the Yekaterinburg remains' as the remains of the royal family, it means they are holy relics, it means they need to be venerated appropriately," he said.

If the Bishop's Council recognizes the remains, it raises a question of how they would be stored, whether they are displayed to be worshipped by believers or placed under the gravestone, the metropolitan said.

"There are different situations. There are situations where relics are displayed openly and people can bow down and kiss the relics, and there are situations when the relics are guarded under the stone. We will need to make all those decisions at an upcoming Bishops' Council," he said.

TBishops' Council has been postponed due to the epidemiological situation and, according to preliminary information, it is expected to take place in May.

Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in the summer of 2018 that the repeat comprehensive investigation confirmed the authenticity of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his family executed 100 years ago in Yekaterinburg.

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