Moscow, March 15, 2017
Photo: wp.com
The miraculous appearance of the icon was taken as a sign that the Mother of God herself would reign over Russia in the absence of a monarch. During Soviet times the icon was kept in the vaults of the Historical Museum, but was returned to the Church in 1990, now being kept in the Kazan Church in which it initially miraculously appeared.
On this day, the patriarch offered up special prayers connected with the centenary of the revolution and also for the repose of the victims of the same bloody revolution and civil war that forced the tsar’s abdication and eventually martyred him, reports RIA-Novosti.
At the Liturgy, His Holiness urged the people to learn the lessons of the previous century, and to never try to build a happy life on “lies and malice,” as the Soviets attempted to do: “You have to be blind not to be able to see the cause and effect relation and not arrive at the simple conclusion that you can never achieve good results through injustice, deception, evil and death.” In his view, this rotten core was the cause of the eventual fall of the Soviet Union, despite its host of secular achievements.
He also emphasized that Divine providence is clearly at work in Russia, changing the people and the country since the fall of the Soviet Union, helping to restore the Orthodox heart of Russian culture and society.
