[obegeLype]

The Royal Family was canonised by the Church precisely due to their martyric Christian attitude towards the suffering which God allowed in their lives. And this suffering was not just personal but also represented the turmoil which already was engulfing Russia and was about to cause her to plunge into the abyss of revolution.
In recent editions of Orthodox Life for example there are excerpts from the diary of the priest who served the Royal Family before they were finally removed from Tsarskoe Selo. This diary presents vividly the suffering the whole family went through those many months when they were basically incarcerated in the palace. It also reveals that the Royal Family had some sort of awareness of what ultimately awaited them. In face of all of this the priest (who heard the continuous confessions of the whole family) was extremely moved by their patience & lack of animosity. Tsar Nicholas also took upon himself responsability for what Russia was enduring.
In all of this one is struck by the amazing way in which the Family faced their ordeal in a truly Christian way. Although it is not stated specifically it is unimaginable that they could have preserved their inner stability to the extent they did without continuous prayer and deepening their lives in Christ. In like conditions of parents with children many of us would have compromised ourselves or suffered something like a nervous breakdown.
In Christ- Fr Raphael