On 17th July 2023, a series of events marking the 105th anniversary of the murder of the Imperial Family and their faithful servants and the 25th anniversary of the burial of the remains of the Imperial Family, were held at the SS Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

The events were attended by Archimandrite Tikhon (Zatekin), the abbot of the Pechersky Ascension Monastery, and deputy head of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS). It was during his visit to the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral, that Tikhon laid a bouquet of white roses at the tomb the Imperial Family and their faithful servants, which is located in St. Catherine’s Chapel, a side chapel of the cathedral.

At 12 o’clock, a cannon shot sounded on the Naryshkin Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in memory of these two historic dates. The shot was fired by the Chairman of the Heraldic Council under the President of the Russian Federation – State Herald Master, Deputy Director General of the State Hermitage for Scientific Work G.V. Vilinbakhov.

At 14:00 p.m., a Divine Liturgy to the Holy Royal Martyrs was held in the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral, after which wreaths and flowers were laid near the tomb with the remains of the Imperial Family.

At 15:00 p.m., a round table was held in the conference hall of the St. John’s Ravelin, at which statesmen, historians, architects and journalists who directly participated in the burial ceremony of the Imperial Family in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998 spoke. They presented the facts related to the history of the murder of Emperor Nicholas II and his family, the discovery and subsequent burial of their remains in the Catherine Chapel of the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral.

During the event, documentary newsreels of the burial ceremony in July 1998 were shown; recordings of interviews with participants of mourning events – including Romanov descendants, historians, authors, artists and cultural figures.

At the end of the round table, Archimandrite Tikhon (Zatyokin) made a brief summary of his book ‘Романовы: убийство, поиск, обретение’ [Romanovs: murder, search, acquisition].

FURTHER READING:

‘On this day – 17th July 1998 – Nicholas II was buried in St Petersburg‘ + PHOTOS and VIDEO

© Paul Gilbert. 24 July 2023

PHOTO: view of St. Catherine’s Chapel, the final resting place for Emperor Nicholas II and his family

The 18th century Chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine (aka St. Catherine’s Chapel or Catherine Chapel) is situated in the southwestern part of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. On 17th July 1998, it became the final burial place for Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, three of their five children and four faithful retainers.

PHOTO: the iconostasis of St. Catherine’s Chapel in 1890

History

The Chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine was arranged in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral at the end of the 18th century. During the restoration of the cathedral after the fire of 1756, an additional wall was erected inside the church hall, separating a small space in its western part. As a result, two new rooms were formed to the right and left of the main entrance. An iconostasis was installed, and on 24th November 1779, the altar was consecrated, in honour of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine – the patron saint of Empress Catherine II (1729-1796).

The chapel has a length of 8.1 meters (27 ft.), and a width of 6.3 meters (21 ft.), with one window and two doors facing directly into the cathedral. It was here in St. Catherine Chapel, that officials of the St. Petersburg Mint were sworn in. During Great Lent soldiers and officers of the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress and their families went for confession and took communion. On several occasions, funeral services were held here for the deceased minor grand-ducal children. The chapel operated as a church until the closure of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral by the Bolsheviks in 1919.

PHOTO: the eastern entrance to St. Catherine’s Chapel in 1890

The first burial in the chapel was that of Tsarina Marfa Matveevna (1664-1716), the widow of Tsar Feodor III Alekseevich (1661-1682). The funeral took place on 7th January 1716 in the presence of Tsar Peter I, the royal family, and members of the clergy. During the ceremony of transferring the body, a platform on the ice of the Neva was used for the first time. Since the funeral procession took place in the evening, torchbearers were placed on both sides of the path, adding solemnity to the mourning procession. A completely new element of the mourning ritual was the prohibition of mourners and ritual weeping, which had previously been an indispensable element in Russian funerary culture.

The burial of Marfa Matveevna was one of the first to be held in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. Her tomb is located at the western wall under the bell tower in the south-western part of the current St. Catherine Chapel. In 1732 the tombstone over her grave was removed and the grave was partially closed, to make room for the foundations of the furnaces which heated the Catherine Chapel.

In the 1860s a copper plaque with an epitaph was installed on the western wall above the grave, and restored in 1908. During the opening of the floor in the St. Catherine’s Chapel during the restoration in 1993, the crypt of Marfa Matveevna was discovered and examined by scientists, who confirmed that her grave had remained untouched.

PHOTO: the Head of the Russian Imperial House Prince Nicholas Romanovich (1922-2014) throws a handful of earth into the grave

Burial of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his family

On 17th July 1998, the remains, according to the conclusion of the state commission, belonging to Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia Nikolaevna were buried in St. Catherine’s Chapel. Together with them were buried the family-physician Dr. Eugene. Botkin, the footman Alouis Troup, the cook I. M. Kharitonov, and the maid Anna Demidova. These remains were not recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate.

• Please refer to the ‘Exhumation of the remains’ section below for information on the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Before the burial, a complete reconstruction of the chapel was carried out. In 1997, specialists from the Restorer and Olko firms carried out the work, which included painting the walls and plafond of the chapel. A two-tiered crypt (depth 1 m 66 cm, length 2 m 70 cm, width 1 m 70 cm) was built near the only window in the southern part of the chapel. The seal-tight crypt was waterproofed, thus providing ideal conditions for the preservation of the remains.

On the lower tier are the coffins of the family’s four faithful retainers, and on the upper tier are the coffins of the Emperor, Empress and their three daughters. An openwork lattice divides the crypt into two parts. The coffins were made of Caucasian oak, their surface is covered with a wax-turpentine mixture. Inside, the coffins are upholstered with copper sheet, and on top – a cover of white velour on silk white cords. On the lid of the coffin of Emperor Nicholas II there is a cypress cross (grown in the garden of the Livadia Palace in Crimea) and a model of a sword based on a 1909 model. The rest of the coffins of members of the Imperial Family have lids decorated with bronze, gilded, crosses. The coffins of the servants are decorated with silver-plated eight-point Orthodox crosses. As the valet Aloysius Trupp was a Catholic, a four-point cross decorates his coffin. The side decoration of the coffins consisted of: a brass board engraved (on which the names, title, place of birth and place of death (according to the Julian calendar) and the date of burial are embossed), as well as double-headed eagles for the seven coffins of members of the Imperial Family. Each coffin was secured with brass (non-oxidizing) screws. Lead plates were laid in the lid and in the coffin itself along the perimeter at the place of their connection, making them airtight after closing the coffin.

PHOTO: Russian president Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) bows his head in front of the grave of the last Russian Emperor

The coffins were made in strict accordance with the historical traditions of the burial rites of Russian monarchs. After burial, the crypt was covered with reinforced concrete slabs, through the rings of which a steel chain closed on the lock was threaded. A temporary wooden tombstone was erected over the grave, and later replaced by a marble one. Memorial plaques with epitaphs were placed on the walls of the chapel. Later, the historical coating of the aisle, Mettlach tiles – was also restored.

At the present time, there are two crypts in the Catherine Chapel holding a total of 10 coffins:

1. Tsaritsa Marfa Matveevna (buried on 7th January 1716)

1. Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich (burial of remains on 17th July 1998)
2. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (burial of the remains on 17th July 1998)
3. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (burial of the remains on 17th July 1998)
4. Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (burial of the remains on 17th July 1998)
5. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (burial of the remains on 17th July 1998)
6. family-physician Dr. Eugene Botkin (burial of remains on 17th July 1998)
7. maid Anna Demidova (burial of remains on 17th July 1998)
8. valet Aloysius Trupp (burial of remains on 17th July 1998)
9. cook Ivan Kharitonov (burial of remains on 17th July 1998)

PHOTO: Members of the new ROC investigation inspect the Ekaterinburg remains

Exhumation of remains

In 2015 the Russian Orthodox Church announced that the investigation into the Ekaterinburg remains had been reopened. The investigation would include a new series of genetic studies, and a comprehensive review of the evidence accumulated since 1918 into the murders of the last Russian Imperial family. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and at his request to the Investigative Committee a new team of experts was formed. A complex examination would be carried out for the first time – a historical, anthropological and genetic one – one in which the ROC would be involved in all aspects of the investigation.

As part of the resumption of the criminal case on the investigation of the death of the Imperial Family, the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were exhumed on 23rd September 2015, in the Catherine Chapel at the request of the Russian Orthodox Church. About 20 people were present at the exhumation, which included representatives of the Investigative Committee, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Russian Orthodox Church, and members of the government commission. Taking into account the position of the church, the investigative bodies allowed geneticists and anthropologists to work. After the removal of two concrete slabs from the crypt, the coffins of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were raised for prayer. During the procedure, samples were taken from their skulls and vertebrae. Upon completion, the remains were returned to their coffins, sealed and lowered back into the crypt.

PHOTO: arks containing the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna are carried to the Lower Church of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow in December 2015

In February 2016, a second exhumation took place, but this time all the remains. After taking samples, the remains were returned to their coffins, sealed and lowered back into the crypt and re-covered with slabs.

According to media reports at the time, the investigation should have been completed by the summer of 2017, after which the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna would be buried with the rest of their family in the Catherine Chapel.

For years, the boxes containing 44 bone fragments of Alexei and Maria remained on dusty shelves in the Russian State Archives. On 24th December 2015, their remains were transferred to the Lower Church of the Transfiguration Cathedral at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow, where they remain to this day.

In 2021, one unconfirmed report claimed that the remains of the last Imperial Family were no longer entombed in the Catherine Chapel of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. According to the report when their remains were exhumed for further testing by the new ROC commission in 2016, they were never returned to the crypt, however, there is no evidence to support this claim.

The question of when Alexei and Maria’s remains will be buried with that of their family currently rests with the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Council were set to meet in 2021, and then 2022 to discuss the Ekaterinburg Remains, however, this was delayed . . . indefinitely.

“Since the international situation continues to make it difficult for many members of the Bishops’ Council to arrive in Moscow [from foreign countries], a decision has been made to postpone the meeting indefinitely . . . ” the Synod’s resolution stated (Journal No. 66) dated 25th August 2022.

PHOTO: Queen Sirikit of Thailand’s Wreath

Offerings in St. Catherine’s chapel

In 2005, an icon of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers was presented to the Catherine Chapel, made by the nuns of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery in Ekaterinburg. In 2007, Queen Sirikit of Thailand paid an official visit to Russia on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Thailand. The official offering was a wreath, which can be seen today in the Catherine Chapel. On the tombstone there is also a charoite box with earth taken from the grave of Anna Vyrubova, who buried in the Orthodox cemetery in Helsinki.

© Paul Gilbert. 6 March 2023