Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia

Tsar Nicholas II, Tsaritsa Alexandra, the Tsarevich Alexei, and the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were the last imperial family of Russia. After the Tsar's abdication in March 1917 they were held under guard at Tsarskoye Selo, then in Tobolsk in Siberia, and finally in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. Witnesses of their captivity — even some of their guards — recorded the family's patience, mutual love, daily prayer, and freedom from bitterness; Nicholas and Alexandra wrote of forgiving those who had turned against them. In the early hours of 17 July 1918 the whole family was shot in the cellar of the Ipatiev House together with their physician Dr Eugene Botkin and faithful servants. The Russian Church Abroad canonized them in 1981, and in 2000 the Church of Russia glorified them as passion-bearers — those who accept unjust death in Christlike meekness rather than in resistance.