Correspondence of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, with His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia

From the Head of the Russian Imperial House

Having arrived in Madrid after her official visit to Russia on her nameday, 4 August 2003, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, sent the following letter to His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia: 

Madrid, 4 August 2003

To His Holiness
Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia 

Your Holiness!

Having returned to Madrid from my visit to the Motherland, I want to express to You my feelings of enormous gratitude and spiritual joy in having prayed and conversed with Your Holiness. I very much missed your presence at the consecration of the Cathedral-on-the-Blood in Ekaterinburg, but was all the more happy to see you in better health at the celebrations for St. Seraphim of Sarov.

Being in Ekaterinburg, in Sarov, and in Diveevo only strengthened my conviction that the process of the rebirth of Russia on its ancient spiritual and historical principles, is irrevocable. I firmly believe that in striving to return to its ancestral homeland and to participate fully in the life of the Fatherland, the Imperial House can always count on the prayerful support and backing of Your Holiness.

Asking Your hierarchical prayers and blessings, I send to Your Holiness assurances of my deepest respect and love. 

H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna