Royal relics help heal church rift

THE remains of the last tsarina’s sister were returned to Russia yesterday in the latest sign of unity between the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and its foreign branch, which broke away after the Bolshevik Revolution.

The remains of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was thrown down a mine shaft by Bolsheviks in 1918 and has been canonised by both the Moscow-based church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, were brought by plane from Jerusalem.

The remains of Elizabeth, an older sister of Tsar Nicholas II’s wife Alexandra, had been spirited out of Russia via China and later brought to the Mary Magdalene cathedral in Jerusalem, which belongs to the foreign-based church.

The relics - part of Elizabeth’s right hand, according to state-run Rossiya television - were transported in a golden ark that was taken to Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, where an opulent ceremony was held. The remains will be in Russia for six months and will travel to churches across the former Soviet Union.

Also returning were the remains of Elizabeth’s helper, a nun named Varvara, who was killed with her.

The temporary return of the remains was being carried out by the Russian Orthodox Church with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. It comes as the two churches take their first steps toward reunification after decades of distrust.

In a message read out at the ceremony at Christ the Saviour, Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexy II said he hoped the return of Elizabeth’s remains would signal "God’s blessing of the process that has started of unification of the Russian Orthodox Church".

The exiled church severed all contact with the Moscow-based church after its leader pledged loyalty to the Communist government in 1927. The Moscow Patriarchate has said that step was taken to save the church from complete ruin under officially atheist Communist rule.

The home church called the transfer of Elizabeth’s remains the "first joint action" of the two churches.

"The rapprochement is visible," Metropolitan Alexander, a Russian Orthodox Church leader, said.

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia visited the country this spring, and both churches have expressed the desire to end their rift. The Russian Orthodox Church has had a major resurgence since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Elizabeth, who married an uncle of Nicholas, Grand Duke Sergei, founded a convent in Moscow. She was one of several royal family members thrown alive down a mine shaft in the Ural Mountains in 1918. Their bodies were found later that summer.