The servants of Russia's last tsar could be made saints

The Yekaterinburg diocese has finished gathering all the necessary documents for the canonization of the servants of Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II, who were shot alongside the royal family in the basement of Ipatiev House on the night of July 17, 1918. Among the servants were the family’s doctor Yevgeny Botkin, the cook Ivan Kharitonov, the servant Trupp Aloysius, and the maid Anna Demidova. Of them, only Dr. Botkin was canonized in February 2016.

Information on the tsar’s servants was collected from both archives and the memoires of the family’s contemporaries and transferred to the Synodal Canonization Commission for assessment. The search for new evidence continues, however.

“They proved their loyalty to the royal family by following them to Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, realizing that they could die, but still choosing to fulfill Christ’s commandment of love and loyalty,” said the priest Alexei Kulberg.

In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nikolai II, his wife, and their five children.