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Yekaterinburg (Russia) (AFP) – Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill led some 100,000 people in a nightime procession Tuesday to mark 100 years since the Bolsheviks murdered tsar Nicholas II and his family, a simmering conflict between the state and the Church over their remains.
The procession began in the early hours of the month of the murder in the city of Yekaterinburg to a monastery commemorating the Tsar Slain, his German-born wife and five children, regional authorities said.
Many of the fervent believers came from across the country and took part in the colorful ceremony during which many carried icons.
Another 20,000 people joined the commemorations when the procession arrived at the Ganina Yama monastery after covering the 21 kilometer distance ( 13 miles), regional authorities said.
The monastery was built at one of the sites where the burnt bodies of the last Russian tsar and his family were taken after their execution in the aftermath of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, they were later moved.
The Bolsheviks shot the abdicated tsar, his wife and their five children along with their servants and doctor on July 16 to 17, 1918 as they were living under guard in the Urals city of Sverdlovsk, now Yekaterinburg.
Addressing the pilgrims, Patriarch Kirill said Russia should draw lessons "from this difficult and bitter experience."
"We should have lasting immunity against any The President and President of the United States, President of the United States, President of the United States Putin.
The Kremlin planned no official commemorations of officials of culture and defense ministries were scheduled to take part in a memorial event in Moscow.
The regional authorities said the popul The growing body of the annual event has grown steadily over the years, adding that just 2,000 people took part in a similar procession in 2002.
– State growing exasperated –
The Russian Orthodox Church is still divided over the authenticity of the In 1965, the bones of Nicholas, his wife and three of their children were interred in St. Petersburg but the Orthodox Church refused to give them a full burial service. 19659014] The remains of the Tsar's only his Alexei and his daughter Maria were found separately in
Their charred remains were kept in the Federal Archives before they were handed over to the Church in 2015.
For the Russian Orthodox Church the issue is extremely sensitive because it has canonized the ex-tsar and his family as martyrs, making their bones holy relics.
Clerics also fear alienating numerous people who believe in multiple l
Ksenia Luchenko, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church, said the Kremlin had little interest in celebrating the centenary because Nicolas' s "unsuccessful reign and meek pbading" could not be used
But she said Moscow authorities were growing exasperated with the persistent refusal of the Church to recognize the remains of the tsar and his family.
rest – to bury all of Nicholas II 's children next to their parents, "she wrote in a column for the liberal daily Vedomosti
On Monday investigators announced that Luchenko said that the authorities' patience with the Church may be running thin.
The tests involved exhuming Nicholas's father Alexander III, proving "they are father and so n, "investigators said.
Tikhon Shevkunov, the senior cleric put in charge of the church investigation and who is reportedly close to Putin, said Monday the results of the DNA tests would be taken into account.
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