09 August 2024

2024-08-09 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

9 August (27 July according to the Julian Calendar; 8 August according to the Gregorian Calendar at the time of her birth) is the Feast Day of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer St. Panteleimon, and, this year, the 200th birthday of Empress Maria Alexandrovna (née Princess of Hesse and the Rhein), the wife of Emperor Alexander II the Tsar-Liberator.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna (née Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie of Hesse and the Rhine) (b. Darmstadt, July 27/August (8) 9, 1824; d. St. Petersburg, May 22/June 4, 1880).

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Empress Maria Alexandrovna was the daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and the Rhine and his wife, Princess Wilhelmine of Baden. She married Emperor Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, on April 16/29, 1841.

The couple had eight children: Grand Duchess Alexandra; Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Nicholas; Emperor Alexander III; Grand Duke Vladimir; Grand Duke Aleksei; Grand Duchess Maria, Duchess of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; the Royal Martyr Grand Duke Sergei; and the Royal Martyr Grand Duke Paul.

She was an ardent supporter of charities and education, and she sponsored activities and groups promoting the development of the medical and pharmaceutical professions in Russia.

She died in St. Petersburg after a protracted illness, and is buried in the Imperial mausoleum of the Romanoff dynasty—the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Ss. Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

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Grant, O Lord, blessed and eternal repose to Thy servant Empress Maria Alexandrovna, and make her memory be eternal!

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The Holy and Righteous St. John of Kronstadt

Sermon on the Birthday of Her Imperial Majesty, the Most Pious Empress Maria Alexandrovna:

Thou, O Lord, brought us from nonexistence into being (from the priest’s prayer at Divine Liturgy before Holy Communion)

Today our Church gratefully celebrates the birth of our Most Pious Empress Maria Alexandrovna and prays to the Lord that He may grant her many years of health and blessings.

The gift of life, dear brothers and sisters, is truly a great gift for each and every person—the gift of a rational and free life and, as we are promised, an eternal life; and it is a gift multiplied by other innumerable sweet gifts from our Creator over the course of our lives, especially the lives of Christians.

But the gift of the life of the Empress, the Mother of the Russian people, who lightens the heavy burden borne by our Sovereign—a gift which is precious to her—is a gift that is also precious to all her people, because her life has brought and continues to bring many blessings to the whole nation.

It would be a sad mark of cruel ingratitude on our part before God and before our sacred Empress not to celebrate this day with hymns of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord, gushing from the glad and grateful hearts of the great Russian people.

However, the gift of being, the gift of life, is so great that, in addition to gratitude and praise to the Lord—a sacrifice of words to God from those with the gift of speech—it requires a greater, higher sacrifice: a sacrifice of good deeds, without which our praise and thanksgiving to God are unacceptable: for “praise is unseemly on the lips of a sinner,” according to the wise one [i.e., Solomon; Sirach 15:9—trans.).

Man was created for good deeds, i.e. for deeds of holiness, fidelity, truth, love, and mercy; he was created for deeds of sacrifice, courage, and self-control; he was created for the study of diverse and complex subjects, and for serving the various needs of the Church and the nation. Man was created not for himself alone, but to serve society, just as society, in turn, serves him. Each of us is a member, on the one hand, of the Church and of the grace-filled kingdom of God on earth, whose members must continually grow in faith, truth and piety; and each of us, on the other hand, is also a member of civil society, of the greater civil society called the state.

Each of us is obliged to serve faithfully both societies, both the Church and the state, and to obey their respective leaders in everything within the limits of the Truth and Law; to prefer the public good to our own private good; and where there is the need to do so, not to spare even our health, strength, peace, property, and our lives in service to them.

“We that are strong,” writes the Holy Apostle Paul, “ought to bear the infirmities of the weak… for even Christ pleased not himself” (Romans 15:1-3).

In another place, he writes, speaking of the multitude of believers as the single body of Christ: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit…. but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

To use the gift of life for the benefit of others is wholly in accordance with the will of God, and is the best sacrifice to give to God for that gift of life, the best expression of gratitude to Him, shown not only in words, but in deeds.

And who among the sons of Russia does not know that our Most Pious Empress uses this greatest gift of life, given to her by the Lord, in precisely this way—in acts of charity for her people?

We do not refer only to the fact that she is the Patroness of many charitable and women’s educational institutions in Russia; but also to her great exploits during the last war for the liberation of the Slavs from the brutal Turkish yoke.

Although herself not in the best of health, she, as the Patron of the Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers, took an active and unfailing interest in the condition of soldiers throughout the war: she visited many of them herself upon their return to the Capital; talked to many as would a mother caring for her own, understanding their suffering; and took all possible steps to alleviate the hardships that had befallen them.

Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the best possible example of an Empress for us, of how we ourselves should use the gift of life—for the glory of God—and how to bear the struggles of those struggling, and not to put ourselves first.

Let us, then, follow this example, each in our own way and to the best of our ability, and raise a prayerful voice unto the Lord, that He may grant her, for the sake of His people, good health and salvation, success in all her good endeavours, and many years in this life and in the life to come, which is not measured in hours, days, months, or years, but is one endless day of endless bliss. Amen.

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Sermon on the Feast Day of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, and on the birthday of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Maria Alexandrovna

But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13)

In celebrating the memory of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer St. Panteleimon and the birthday of the Most Pious Empress, what could be more appropriate and edifying than to offer a few words from the church pulpit about the mercy for which the Holy Great Martyr became famous during his lifetime, and which he miraculously showers to this day upon all who turn to him with faith and zeal.

A sermon about mercy is all the more appropriate now, since we see this Christian virtue embodied in the Empress, the true mother of the Russian people.

So, a few words now about mercy: What virtue is more characteristic of a Christian and constitutes more his most important obligation? Mercy. The Only-Begotten Son of God, who came down from Heaven to earth out of His ineffable compassion for sinners who were perishing, and who poured out His blood for them in the atoning sufferings of the cross—He Himself exhorts us to be merciful to one another: “Be ye therefore merciful,” He says, “as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

“But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” You know that the entire life of Jesus Christ was an unbroken chain of great acts of mercy for suffering mankind: He healed all kinds of illnesses, cast out evil spirits, gave sight to the blind, restored hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, walking to the lame, and relief from pain and contortions from those with twisted spines. He resurrected the dead and brought inexpressible joy to those who wept inconsolably for those they had lost. He taught the people every day, enlightening their minds and hearts with saving truths. He healed the souls of sinners weighted down by their transgressions. He forgave sins. He appealed to all sinners: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

And upon His disciples and apostles He gave the grace to perform these same works of mercy: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8). And they did all these works before the eyes of many witnesses. After the time of the Apostles, many believers in the Lord Jesus Christ likewise received this same gift in fulfillment of His promise: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils….They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18). Or: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). Thus the saints performed many miraculous works of mercy.

The Holy Great Martyr, the Unmercenary Healer St. Panteleimon, whom we commemorate today, was instructed in the Christian faith from childhood by his mother; but after her death, his pagan father raised him in the paganism of his age. His father sent him to study with the famed physician Euphrosynus, who took him often to the royal palace. St. Panteleimon became the personification of mercy from the time he received holy baptism; and he has remained so to this day.

His first act of mercy was the miraculous resurrection of a child who had been bitten by a poisonous snake. Saint Panteleimon resurrected him through prayer. This miracle took place even before his baptism and hastened his Christian conversion, as this miracle made him believe in the Lord with all his soul.

Soon St. Panteleimon became a famous doctor, and many turned to him for healing. One day a blind man was brought to him, whom he healed with the touch of his hand and the words: “In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, receive your sight,” and at that very moment the blind man’s eyes opened, and he began to see. This miracle convinced many to convert, including Panteleimon’s father, Eustorgius (the blind man who had regained his sight), and many others who were all amazed by this sign of God’s power and grace.

Every day, St. Panteleimon visited prisoners, the sick, and the downtrodden, and he showed each and every one mercy. The Lord gave him the power to heal any illness by His name, and the sick flocked to him in great numbers. Everyone praised the skillful and unmercenary holy physician Panteleimon.

But you will say: these are wonderful works of mercy, but we are not given the power to perform miracles. And I will say to you: we do not need miracles; the gift of miracles is given according to special needs and only to a few chosen ones. But to be kind, compassionate, merciful, patient, forgiving, forbearing, and sincerely loving—this is in our power and ability. And sincere love and truly good deeds are more important than miracles, and often more pleasing to God than miracles, because the goal and purpose of such acts is the fulfillment of the law of love, and whosoever loves his neighbor as himself has fulfilled the very essence of the law, and that itself is a true miracle.

The obligation and necessity of mercy are obvious to each of us also from the fact that there are many different calamities that befall this earth, which is struck by the curse of God for the sins of man, rooted in human passions; and we, as human beings, by our very nature, feel compassion for the suffering of our brothers. And who can say how much human suffering has been invisibly eased by brotherly, Christian compassion for our brothers and sisters?

Let us take the last war as an example. It was hard and bloody. Let us recall the great marches of our soldiers across the Balkan Mountains in the winter, in frozen conditions, and the multitude that were frostbitten en route; let us recall the multitude that were wounded in bloody battles: What eased the suffering of these heroes? Was it not Christian mercy, and especially the maternal mercy of the Empress, the Patron of the Society for the Care of Sick and Wounded Soldiers? Was it not the fraternal compassion of the Russian people and their material sacrifices? And what touching love, what care—what selfless care—was shown by our Mother-Empress, and also our enlightened, benevolent Russian doctors and nurses, who attended upon our sick and wounded soldiers!

Eternal gratitude we offer to the Empress-Mother of Russia’s warriors, who throughout the war never ceased to inspire the Society that dedicated itself to the cause of charity! Eternal gratitude we offer to the noble and benevolent doctors and nurses and to all Russians and non-Russians who, in one way or another, showed compassion toward our suffering soldiers!

Or let us take another terrible disaster as an example: fires. Our cities and villages are burning. The devastation is terrible: people are left homeless and without food. What would have happened to these victims if Christian mercy had not rushed to their aid; if brotherly love had not brought donations of money and other aid for the benefit of the victims of these fires? They would have died of hunger and cold. But Christian mercy would not permit it. Russia’s other cities rushed with aid to the city or village that had been hit by ravaging fires. And leading this entire effort were the Emperor and Empress, who generously donated for the benefit of the distressed. And now, our deep gratitude ascends to heaven: the disaster is eased; tears are dried; the hungry are fed; the naked are clothed; the homeless are given shelter. What a comforting display of compassion! Who would not be moved by it? Who would not be encouraged to do likewise? Good examples invite imitation.

Finally, an incentive to show mercy to our neighbours is also provided by our own weaknesses, illnesses, misfortunes, sorrows, and unhappiness; and the desire, so deep in our natures, that our neighbours should not act callously and coldly toward us during our times of troubles and misfortunes, but should treat us with compassion. If we ourselves show compassion and help people in their times of misfortune, then, in accord with the laws of God and Man, people will show compassion toward us and help us in our grief, in our illness, in our misfortune, in our sorrow, and in our persecution. “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again,” says the Lord. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:38 and 31).

I conclude my sermon with the Apostolic saying: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”: (Galatians 6:10). O Lord, preserve for many years the Emperor and Mother-Empress of the Russian people for the sake of their health and happiness! Amen.