News
Russian Church Receives Relics In Celebration Of Faith
By John Burton
RED BANK - St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, is housed in a small, unassuming structure on Pearl Street, and its congregation is comprised of an equally small number of about 75 people who regularly attend services there.
But this little church had a large honor last Sunday as it received some prized historic relics.
St. Nicholas, according to the Rev. Serge Lukianov, is now the recipient of the partial remains of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov, the last czar and czarina of imperial Russia, and their five children, who were murdered 90 years ago during the Russian Revolution. They are seen as martyrs for the Russian Orthodox Church.
The church also received the mummified severed hand of Elizabeth Feodorovna, Alexandra's sister, who was murdered by Russian revolutionaries on July 18, 1918. Elizabeth is considered a martyr, as well as being named a saint by the church. Along with those items the church had the chance to have a piece of the actual true Holy Cross, from Jerusalem, Israel, and a piece of Jesus' garment and a piece of the Holy Sepulchre, a piece of, "The stone His (Jesus') body laid upon," Lukianov explained.
The historic and religious artifacts were used by the church's congregation and about another 300 for a procession in Red Bank on Sunday and part of the weekend-long celebration, commemorating the death of the Romanov family which caused many Russians to flee their homeland.
"This is pretty much the first church to greet these relics," Peter Lukianov, the rector's son, and a member of the church's clergy, noted on Sunday. "It's really a big boost for our little church."
The bits of bones of what is now known to be the remains of the Romanov family, were discovered in Russia last year, explained the elder Lukianov and Peter Sarandiinaki, for the SEARCH Foundation. SEARCH is an acronym for the Science Expedition to Account for the Romanov Children.
Upon the discovery, Sarandinaki and others helped retrieve the remains and with the assistance of the Russian government, Sarandinaki said he and others transported them to the United States for DNA testing.
In testing conducted by the U.S. Army laboratory in Washington, D.C. the remains were compared with the DNA of Nicholas' brother George. The lab was able to conclusively determine the authenticity of the relics last March.
Serge Lukianov said through his associations with members of the Russian mission in Jerusalem, he was able to secure the other religious artifacts the church received on Sunday.
The Russian mission, Lukianov said, received a piece of the Cross that church members believe is from the one on which Christ was crucified and the other items through the Greek Orthodox Church there.
The relic of the Cross was scheduled to move on the next day to the Russian cathedral in Washington, D.C.; St. Elizabeth's hand would go back to church headquarters in New York City, Lukianov said.
The other relics, "The icon of the royal martyrs," the rector said, "will remain in our parish."
Lukianov said that it is quite an honor for the small church to be charged with preserving these icons of their faith. "You think about something as grandiose as what we are talking about," he said, referring to the entire collection of artifacts the church possessed for even that brief time. "You think they should be in a huge cathedral."
But, the priest followed that thought, and contemplated the modest beginnings of Jesus. "From that point, from that humble environment, of course, Christ's word went all over the world."
The Romanovs, while royalty, "were still humble in the eyes of the Lord," he said. "And I think God wanted it that way."
The Pearl Street building that is home to St. Nicholas was built in 1910, and first served as a Baptist church, according to Lukianov. In 1950, the building was purchased for the Russian Orthodox congregation.
The core congregation includes people from as far away as Trenton, East Brunswick, and Howell, Lukianov said.
