Private devotion to uncanonized saints, monarchism and modern Russia, veneration of the passion-bearing Imperial Family
Rejoice in the Lord! It was good to hear from you again. We will be glad to see you on Wednesday, June 9th, or any other day that week if it should turn out to be more convenient for you.
In the Orthodox Church it is by no means discouraged to pray to “uncanonized” saints.’ Actually, canonization only grants official status to what already exists unofficially: people are already praying to a saint before the Church finally declares his public veneration, when the service and icon to him are approved, etc. For that matter, privately one may pray to any departed Orthodox Christian, just as one asks the prayers of living Orthodox Christians for in Christ all are alive; and all the more so someone whose holiness of life or martyrdom have evidently found favor with Christ our Lord, so that he can hear our prayers and intercede for us. Therefore, if you are inspired to do so, by all means pray to Hieromartyr Seraphim. In fact, there is nothing wrong with cutting out his photograph and putting it in your icon corner—not in a central place, but off to one side, at the edge of the icon corner, so to speak. Many people did this with images of Saint John of Kronstadt and Saint Herman long before they were canonized.
Concerning the Catacomb Church and the “cult of members of the Imperial Family” it is difficult to know how seriously to take this, since the Soviets are notorious for finding “monarchist plots” in every corner and also for coming up with the most bizarre “religious practices” based on gross distortions. If, however, this statement is based on fact, it would point to something very interesting, especially taken together with the statement that follows: “assumption of the names of tsars..” which at first puzzled us. It may well be that the Catacomb Church has (officially or unofficially) canonized the Imperial Family as martyrs, and thus both venerates them as saints and takes their names in baptism or monasticism. But that is only speculation. Certainly the Tsar and his family are to be considered as martyrs for the Orthodox Faith, a question that has nothing directly to do with monarchy at all; and it is only unfortunate when people from outside try to brand the Russian faithful who venerate these martyrs as “monarchists,” for that only clouds the issue. The whole question of the Synod’s “monarchism” has already been clouded enough as it is. There are actually a number of strands in that question, which should all be unraveled in order to get a clear picture—I’d be glad to discuss it with you sometime; both of us being Americans, we probably won’t get involved in all kinds of emotional overtones that might afflict Russians!
In brief, it’s doubtless true that many Russian emigrés, especially among the more devout and among the clergy, approved of the old order in Russia and would doubtless prefer it to any other today (for Russia); but in America these same people would have to be considered democrats, since they vote in our elections and give no desire for a restoration [here] of George III! But to call the Synod itself “monarchist” doesn’t really make any sense, and is at best irrelevant, as it in no way (that I can think of) affects the individual believer. It’s not even a “sin” to hope for the establishment of a democracy in Russia, though I personally think that the historical destiny of the Russian nation is pretty well bound up with the Tsars, and anything else has turned out and probably will turn out to be merely a foreign idea imposed by force, to the great misfortune of the Russian people. I suspect that those who speak of the Synod’s “monarchism” are actually just expressing their own distaste for the Synod’s generally traditionalist position, which is of course foremostly an ecclesiastical position. As I said, if all this interests you, we can discuss it sometime, but it’s not terribly central or important!
We look forward to seeing you. Two days ago the county began their annual plowing of our dirt road—and yesterday and today we’ve had rain and the road is already mush, to the discomfort of the fishermen who have already started arriving for the weekend (at the creek)! It should dry off quickly once the rain stops, but the whole work will probably have to be done over again.