Listok

My assistant, Priest Ioann (Savchenko), and I were not privileged to see the beginning of a new miracle that occurred, glorifying the Holy Royal Martyrs. At the very moment that an icon of the Royal Family began to stream myrrh in our church, we chanced to be visiting parishes in St. Petersburg, stopping by at a parish that had been sanctified in honour of the Tsar'-Martyr and all the New Martyrs, and, naturally, upon our arrival, prior to the beginning of the all-night vigil, we spoke much of the Tsar', and I even had to expound upon programmatic views and opinions concerning the future of our striving to inculcate monarchical ideas.

Meanwhile, at home, in the city of Slaviansk-on-the-Kuban', in our Pokrovsko-Tikhonovskaya church, people were preparing for the vesperal services of the feast [of the Holy Royal Martyrs]. When schema-hieromonk Feodosii, preparing to serve, placed the icon of the Royal Martyrs upon an analoi, he did not yet notice anything unusual. However, kissing the icon, one of the lady singers sensed a fragrance [emanating from it] and saw a tiny droplet upon the glass. She immediately informed everyone on the kliros about this. They began to observe further. Nun Ioanna, keeping watch over the candles, would occasionally glance over at the icon, as well, during the divine service. The very first droplet upon the icon itself (a lithograph from abroad, framed under glass) formed upon the breast of Tsarevna Anastasia, apparently in that very selfsame spot where she had been pierced by a bayonet, prior to being clubbed to death during a moment of savage reprisal. Subsequently, huge drops [of myrrh] appeared upon the underside of the glass, and, during the moment of the magnification of the Royal Martyrs, streams of myrrh formed upon the outside of the glass, which flowed down toward the lower edge of the frame and then upon the analoi, itself. [The icon subsequently] had to be encircled with cotton. The streaming of the myrrh did not even cease on the next day, that day upon which the Tsar'-Martyr and His Family were murdered. The cotton had to be changed, inasmuch as it became so soaked that [the myrrh] could be squeezed out of it. The fragrance spread throughout the entire church. During the two festal days -- Saturday and Sunday, [5-6/] 18-19 July -- not only [our] parishioners (no fewer than 100 people), but also believers not of our church, venerated the icon. People also came from Krasnodar, from the church of St. Ilya (MP), to view it and to venerate it. We do not dare, of course, to refuse anyone who would do so, because, as we can see, God Himself is calling them to this through such a miracle.