Evgeny Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoe Selo, in the family of an outstanding Russian scientist and doctor, the founder of the experimental direction in medicine, Sergei Petrovich Botkin. His father was a court physician to the emperors Alexander II and Alexander III.

As a child, he received an excellent education and was immediately admitted to the fifth grade of the St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, but after the first year he decided to become a doctor and entered the preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy.

Evgeny Botkin's medical career began in January 1890 as an assistant doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. A year later, he went abroad for scientific purposes, studied with leading European scientists, got acquainted with the organization of Berlin hospitals. In May 1892, Evgeny Sergeevich became a doctor at the Court Chapel, and from January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky Hospital. However, he continued scientific activity: studied immunology, studied the essence of the process of leukocytosis and the protective properties of blood cells.

In 1893 he brilliantly defended his dissertation. The official opponent on the defense was a physiologist and the first Nobel laureate Ivan Pavlov.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), Evgeny Botkin volunteered for the active army and became head of the medical unit. Russian Society Red Cross in the Manchurian army. According to eyewitnesses, despite his administrative position, he spent a lot of time on the front lines. For distinction in work he was awarded many orders, including military officer orders.

In the autumn of 1905, Evgeny Sergeevich returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George in the capital. In 1907, after the death of Gustav Hirsch, the royal family was left without a medical doctor. The candidacy of the new life physician was named by the empress herself, who, when asked who she would like to see in this position, answered: “Botkin”. When she was told that now two Botkins are equally known in St. Petersburg, she said: “The one that was in the war!”.

Botkin was three years older than his august patient, Nicholas II. The duty of the life physician included the treatment of all members of the royal family, which he carefully and scrupulously performed. It was necessary to examine and treat the emperor, who had good health, the grand duchesses, who suffered from various childhood infections. But the main object of Yevgeny Sergeevich's efforts was Tsarevich Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia.

After the February coup in 1917, the imperial family was imprisoned in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. All servants and assistants were asked to leave the prisoners at will. But Dr. Botkin stayed with the patients. He did not want to leave them and when royal family it was decided to send to Tobolsk. In Tobolsk, he opened a free medical practice for local residents. In April 1918, together with the royal couple and their daughter Maria, Dr. Botkin was transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. At that moment there was still an opportunity to leave the royal family, but the doctor did not leave them.

Johann Meyer, an Austrian soldier who fell into Russian captivity during the First World War and defected to the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, wrote his memoirs “How the Imperial Family Perished”. In the book, he reports on the proposal made by the Bolsheviks to Dr. Botkin to leave the royal family and choose a place of work, for example, somewhere in a Moscow clinic. Thus, one of all the prisoners of the special purpose house knew exactly about the imminent execution. He knew and, having the opportunity to choose, he preferred to salvation loyalty to the oath given once to the king. This is how Meyer describes it: “You see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives. It is impossible for a man of my position not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all need to understand this."

Dr. Botkin was killed along with the rest imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918.

In 1981, together with others shot in the Ipatiev House, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

PASSION BEARER EVGENY VRACH (BOTKIN) - life and icon

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin was born on May 27, 1865 in Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg province, in the family of a famous Russian general practitioner, professor of the Medical and Surgical Academy, Sergei Petrovich Botkin. He came from the merchant dynasty of the Botkins, whose representatives were distinguished by deep Orthodox faith and charity, helped the Orthodox Church kwi not only with their own means, but also with their labors. Thanks to a reasonably organized system of upbringing in the family and the wise guardianship of parents, many virtues were laid in the heart of Eugene from childhood, including generosity, modesty and rejection of violence. His brother Pyotr Sergeevich recalled: “He was infinitely kind. One could say that he came into the world for the sake of people and in order to sacrifice himself.

Eugene received a thorough home education, which in 1878 allowed him to immediately enter the fifth grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. In 1882, Evgeny graduated from the gymnasium and became a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at St. Petersburg University. However, the very next year, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Imperial Military Medical Academy. From the very beginning, his choice of the medical profession was conscious and purposeful. Pyotr Botkin wrote about Evgeny: “He chose medicine as his profession. This corresponded to his vocation: to help, support in a difficult moment, relieve pain, heal without end. In 1889, Eugene successfully graduated from the academy, receiving the title of doctor with honors, and from January 1890 began his career at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

At the age of 25, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin married the daughter of a hereditary nobleman, Olga Vladimirovna Manuylova. Four children grew up in the Botkin family: Dmitry (1894–1914), Georgy (1895–1941), Tatyana (1898–1986), Gleb (1900–1969).

Simultaneously with his work in the hospital, E. S. Botkin was engaged in science, he was interested in questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis. In 1893, E. S. Botkin brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After 2 years, Evgeny Sergeevich was sent abroad, where he did an internship in medical institutions Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1897, E. S. Botkin was awarded the title of Privatdozent in Internal Medicine with a clinic. At his first lecture, he told students about the most important thing in the work of a doctor: "Let's all go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him." Evgeny Sergeevich considered the service of a physician to be a truly Christian deed, he had a religious view of illnesses, saw their connection with the state of mind of a person. In one of his letters to his son George, he expressed his attitude to the medical profession as a means of knowing God's wisdom: “The main delight that you experience in our work ... is that for this we must penetrate deeper and deeper into the details and the secrets of God's creations, and it is impossible not to enjoy their expediency and harmony and His highest wisdom.
Since 1897, E. S. Botkin began his medical practice in the communities of sisters of mercy of the Russian Red Cross Society. On November 19, 1897, he became a doctor in the Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy, and from January 1, 1899, he also became the chief physician of the St. Petersburg Community of Sisters of Mercy in honor of St. George. The main patients of the community of St. George were people from the poorest strata of society, but doctors and attendants were selected in it with particular care. Some women of the upper class worked there as simple nurses on a general basis and considered this occupation an honor for themselves. Such enthusiasm reigned among the employees, such a desire to help suffering people that the people of St. George were sometimes compared with the early Christian community. The fact that Yevgeny Sergeevich was accepted to work in this “exemplary institution” testified not only to his increased authority as a doctor, but also to his Christian virtues and respectable life. The position of the chief physician of the community could only be entrusted to a highly moral and believing person.

In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began, and Evgeny Sergeevich, leaving his wife and four small children (the eldest was ten years old at that time, the youngest four years old), volunteered to go to Far East. On February 2, 1904, by a decree of the Main Directorate of the Russian Red Cross Society, he was appointed assistant to the Commissioner-in-Chief for the active armies for the medical unit. Occupying this rather high administrative position, Dr. Botkin was often at the forefront. During the war, Evgeny Sergeevich not only showed himself to be an excellent doctor, but also showed personal courage and courage. He wrote many letters from the front, from which a whole book was compiled - “Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.” This book was soon published, and many, having read it, discovered new sides of the St. Petersburg doctor: his Christian, loving , an infinitely compassionate heart and an unshakable faith in God. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, after reading Botkin's book, wished that Evgeny Sergeevich became the personal doctor of the Royal Family. On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1908, Emperor Nicholas II signed a decree appointing Dr. Botkin as a medical officer of the Imperial Court.

Now, after the new appointment, Evgeny Sergeevich had to constantly be with the emperor and members of his family, his service at the royal court proceeded without days off and holidays. The high position and closeness to the Royal family did not change the character of E. S. Botkin. He remained as kind and considerate to others as he had been before.

When did the first World War, Evgeny Sergeevich asked the sovereign to send him to the front to reorganize the sanitary service. However, the emperor instructed him to stay with the empress and the children in Tsarskoe Selo, where infirmaries began to open through their efforts. At his home in Tsarskoye Selo, Evgeny Sergeevich also set up an infirmary for the slightly wounded, which the Empress and her daughters visited.

In February 1917, a revolution took place in Russia. On March 2, the sovereign signed the Manifesto on abdication. The royal family was arrested and taken into custody in the Alexander Palace. Yevgeny Sergeevich did not leave his royal patients: he voluntarily decided to stay with them, despite the fact that his position was abolished and his salary was stopped. At this time, Botkin became more than a friend for the royal prisoners: he took upon himself the duty of mediating between the imperial family and the commissars, interceding for all their needs.

When it was decided to move the royal family to Tobolsk, Dr. Botkin was among the few close associates who voluntarily followed the sovereign into exile. Dr. Botkin's letters from Tobolsk amaze with their truly Christian mood: not a word of grumbling, condemnation, discontent or resentment, but complacency and even joy. The source of this complacency was a firm faith in the all-good Providence of God: “Only prayer and ardent boundless hope in the mercy of God, unfailingly poured out on us by our Heavenly Father, support us.” At this time, he continued to fulfill his duties: he treated not only members of the Royal family, but also ordinary citizens. A scientist who for many years communicated with the scientific, medical, administrative elite of Russia, he humbly served, like a zemstvo or city doctor, ordinary peasants, soldiers, and workers.

In April 1918, Dr. Botkin volunteered to accompany the royal couple to Yekaterinburg, leaving his own children in Tobolsk, whom he loved passionately and tenderly. In Yekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks again invited the servants to leave the arrested, but everyone refused. Chekist I. Rodzinsky reported: “In general, at one time after the transfer to Yekaterinburg, there was an idea to separate them all from them, in particular, even the daughters were offered to leave. But everyone refused. Botkin was offered. He stated that he wanted to share the fate of the family. And he refused."

On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the royal family, their entourage, including Dr. Botkin, were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev house.
A few years before his death, Evgeny Sergeevich received the title of hereditary nobleman. For his coat of arms, he chose the motto: "By faith, fidelity, work." In these words, as it were, all the life ideals and aspirations of Dr. Botkin were concentrated. Deep inner piety, most importantly - sacrificial service to one's neighbor, unshakable devotion to the Royal family and fidelity to God and His commandments in all circumstances, fidelity to death. The Lord accepts such fidelity as a pure sacrifice and gives for it the highest, heavenly reward: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev. 2:10).

Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin

The Botkin family is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable Russian families which gave the country, and the world, many outstanding people in a wide variety of fields. Some of its representatives remained industrialists and merchants before the revolution, but others completely went into science, art, diplomacy and achieved not only all-Russian, but also European fame. The Botkin family is very correctly characterized by the biographer of one of its most prominent representatives, the famous clinician, medical doctor Sergei Petrovich: “S.P. Botkin came from a purebred Great Russian family, without the slightest admixture of foreign blood, and thus serves as brilliant proof that if extensive and solid knowledge is added to the talent of the Slavic tribe, along with a love for persistent work, then this tribe is capable of exhibiting the most advanced figures in the field of pan-European science. and thoughts." For doctors, the surname Botkin primarily evokes associations with Botkin's disease (acute viral parenchymal hepatitis), the disease is named after Sergei Petrovich Botkin, who studied jaundice and was the first to suggest their infectious nature. Someone may recall the cells (bodies, shadows) of Botkin-Gumprecht - the remains of destroyed cells of the lymphoid series (lymphocytes, etc.), detected by microscopy of blood smears, their number reflects the intensity of the process of destruction of lymphocytes. Back in 1892, Sergei Petrovich Botkin drew attention to leukolysis as a factor "playing a leading role in the self-defense of the body", even greater than phagocytosis. Leukocytosis in Botkin's experiments, both with the injection of tuberculin and with the immunization of horses against tetanus toxin, was later replaced by leukolysis, and this moment coincided with a critical drop. The same was noted by Botkin in fibrinous pneumonia. Later, the son of Sergei Petrovich, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, became interested in this phenomenon, to whom the term leukolysis itself belongs. Evgeny Sergeevich later described lysed cells in the blood during typhoid fever but not in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But how well Botkin, the elder doctor, is remembered, so undeservedly forgotten is Botkin, the younger doctor... Alexander II and Alexander III. He was the 4th child of Sergei Petrovich from his 1st marriage to Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova. The atmosphere in the family, home education played a big role in shaping the personality of Evgeny Sergeevich. The financial well-being of the Botkin family was laid down by the entrepreneurial activities of the grandfather of Evgeny Sergeevich Pyotr Kononovich, a well-known supplier of tea. The percentage of the trade turnover, intended for each of the heirs, allowed them to choose a business they liked, engage in self-education and lead a life not very burdened with financial worries. There were many in the Botkin family creative people (artists, writers, etc.). The Botkins were related to Afanasy Fet and Pavel Tretyakov. Sergei Petrovich was a fan of music, calling music lessons "a refreshing bath", he played the cello to the accompaniment of his wife and under the guidance of Professor I.I. Seifert. Evgeny Sergeevich received a thorough musical education and acquired a delicate musical taste. Professors of the Military Medical Academy, writers and musicians, collectors and artists came to the famous Botkin Saturdays. Among them - I.M. Sechenov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Borodin, V.V. Stasov, N.M. Yakubovich, M.A. Balakirev. Nikolai Andreevich Belogolovy, friend and biographer of S.P. Botkina, a public figure and a doctor, noted: “Surrounded by his 12 children aged from 30 years to a one-year-old child ... he seemed to be a true biblical patriarch; his children adored him, despite the fact that he was able to maintain great discipline and blind obedience to himself in the family. About the mother of Evgeny Sergeevich Anastasia Alexandrovna: “What made her better than any beauty was the subtle grace and amazing tact that spilled over her whole being and were the result of that solid school of noble education through which she passed. And she was brought up wonderfully versatile and thoroughly ... On top of this, she was very smart, witty, sensitive to everything good and kind ... And she was the most exemplary mother in the sense that, passionately loving her children, she knew how to save the necessary pedagogical self-control, attentively and intelligently followed their upbringing, timely eradicated the shortcomings arising in them. Already in childhood, in the character of Evgeny Sergeevich, such qualities as modesty, kindness towards others and rejection of violence were manifested. In the book of Pyotr Sergeevich Botkin “My Brother” there are such lines: “From the most tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was full of perfection ... Always sensitive, out of delicacy, inwardly kind, with an extraordinary soul, he experienced horror from any fight or fight ... He, as usual, did not participate in our fights, but when the fistfight took on a dangerous character, he, at the risk of injury, stopped the fights. He was very diligent and smart in his studies. Primary home education allowed Yevgeny Sergeevich in 1878 to enter the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg classical gymnasium, where the young man's brilliant abilities in the natural sciences were manifested. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. However, the example of his father, a doctor, and the worship of medicine turned out to be stronger, and in 1883, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he entered the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy (VMA). In the year of his father's death (1889), Evgeny Sergeevich successfully graduated from the academy third in graduation, was awarded the title of doctor with honors and the personalized Paltsev Prize, which was awarded "to the third highest score in his course ...". The medical path of E.S. Botkin began in January 1890 as an assistant doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. In December 1890, at his own expense, he was sent abroad for scientific purposes. He studied with leading European scientists, got acquainted with the organization of Berlin hospitals. At the end of a business trip abroad in May 1892, Evgeny Sergeyevich began to work as a doctor in the court chapel, and from January 1894 he returned to his medical duties at the Mariinsky Hospital as a supernumerary intern. Simultaneously with clinical practice, E.S. Botkin was engaged scientific research, the main directions of which were questions of immunology, the essence of the process of leukocytosis, the protective properties of blood cells. On May 8, 1893, he brilliantly defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine “On the question of the effect of albumose and peptones on some functions of the animal body”, dedicated to his father, at the Military Medical Academy on May 8, 1893. I.P. Pavlov. In the spring of 1895 E.S. Botkin is sent abroad and spends two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listens to lectures and practices with leading German doctors - professors G. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. Scientific papers and reports of foreign business trips were published in the Botkin Hospital Newspaper and in the Proceedings of the Society of Russian Doctors. In May 1897 E.S. Botkin was elected Privatdozent of the VMA. Here are a few words from the introductory lecture delivered to the students of the VMA on October 18, 1897: “Once the trust of the patients you have acquired turns into sincere affection for you when they are convinced of your invariably cordial attitude towards them. When you enter the ward, you are greeted with a joyful and friendly mood - a precious and powerful medicine, which you will often help much more than potions and powders ... Only the heart is needed for this, only sincere cordial participation in a sick person. So do not be stingy, learn to give it with a wide hand to those who need it. So, let's go with love to a sick person, so that we can learn together how to be useful to him. In 1898, the work of Evgeny Sergeevich “Sicks in the Hospital” was published, and in 1903 - “What does it mean to “spoil” the sick?” With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904), Evgeny Sergeevich left for the active army as a volunteer and was appointed head of the medical unit of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK) in the Manchurian army. Occupying a fairly high administrative position, he nevertheless preferred most spend time at the forefront. Eyewitnesses said that once a wounded company paramedic was brought in for dressing. Having done everything that was supposed to be done, Botkin took the paramedic's bag and went to the front line. The mournful thoughts that this shameful war aroused in the ardent patriot testified to his deep religiosity: “I am more and more depressed by the course of our war, and therefore it hurts ... that a whole mass of our troubles is only the result of people’s lack of spirituality, a sense of duty, that small calculations become higher than the concepts of the Fatherland, higher than God. Evgeny Sergeevich showed his attitude to this war and his mission in it in the book “Light and Shadows of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905: From Letters to His Wife” published in 1908. Here are some of his observations and thoughts. “I was not afraid for myself: never before have I felt the power of my faith to such an extent. I was fully convinced that no matter how great the risk I was exposed to, I would not be killed unless God wanted it. I didn’t tease fate, I didn’t stand by the guns so as not to interfere with the shooters, but I realized that I was needed, and this consciousness made my situation pleasant. “I have now read all the latest telegrams about the fall of Mukden and about our terrible retreat to Telpin. I can't tell you my feelings... Despair and hopelessness seizes the soul. Will we have something in Russia? Poor, poor motherland" (Chita, March 1, 1905). "For the distinction rendered in cases against the Japanese", Evgeny Sergeevich was awarded the Orders of St. Vladimir III and II degree with swords. Outwardly very calm and strong-willed, Dr. E.S. Botkin was a sentimental man, with a fine mental organization. Let us turn again to the book by P.S. Botkin “My brother”: “... I came to my father’s grave and suddenly I heard sobs in a deserted cemetery. Coming closer, I saw my brother (Eugene) lying in the snow. “Oh, it’s you, Petya, you came to talk with dad,” and again sobs. And an hour later, during the reception of patients, it could not have occurred to anyone that this calm, self-confident and domineering person could sob like a child. On May 6, 1905, Dr. Botkin was appointed an honorary physician of the imperial family. In the autumn of 1905, Evgeny Sergeevich returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George in the capital. In 1907, after the death of Gustav Hirsch, the royal family was left without a medical doctor. The candidacy of the new life doctor was named by the empress herself, who, when asked who she would like to see as a life doctor, answered: “Botkin”. When she was told that now two Botkins are equally known in St. Petersburg, she said: “The one that was in the war!” (Although brother Sergei Sergeevich was also a participant in the Russo-Japanese War.) Thus, on April 13, 1908, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin became a life doctor for the family of the latter Russian emperor, repeating the career path of his father, a former life physician of two Russian tsars (Alexander II and Alexander III). E.S. Botkin was three years older than his august patient, Tsar Nicholas II. The tsar's family was served by a large staff of doctors (among whom there were a variety of specialists: surgeons, oculists, obstetricians, dentists), doctors who were more titled than the modest Privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy. But Dr. Botkin was distinguished by an infrequent talent clinical thinking and even more rarely found a feeling of sincere love for their patients. The duty of the life physician included the treatment of all members of the royal family, which he carefully and scrupulously performed. I had to examine and treat the emperor, who had surprisingly good health, the grand duchesses, who seemed to have been ill with all known childhood infections. Nicholas II treated his doctor with great sympathy and trust. He patiently withstood all the medical and diagnostic procedures prescribed by Dr. Botkin. But the most difficult patients were Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei. As a little girl, the future empress suffered from diphtheria, the complication of which was bouts of pain in the joints, swelling of the legs, palpitations, and arrhythmia. Edema forced Alexandra Fedorovna to wear special shoes, give up long walks, and heart attacks and headaches did not allow her to get out of bed for weeks. However, the main object of Yevgeny Sergeevich's efforts was Tsarevich Alexei, who was born with a dangerous and fatal disease - hemophilia. It was with the Tsarevich that E.S. spent most of his time. Botkin, sometimes in life-threatening conditions for days and nights, without leaving the bed of the sick Alexei, surrounding him with human care and participation, giving him all the warmth of his generous heart. This attitude resonated with the little patient, who would write to his doctor: "I love you with all my little heart." Evgeny Sergeevich himself also sincerely attached himself to the members royal family, more than once saying to the household: "With their kindness they made me a slave until the end of my days."

As a doctor and as a moral person, Evgeny Sergeevich never touched upon the health issues of his eminent patients in private conversations. Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, General A.A. Mosolov noted: “Botkin was known for his restraint. None of the retinue managed to find out from him what the empress was sick with and what treatment the queen and heir followed. He was certainly a devoted servant to Their Majesties." With all the ups and downs in relations with royalty, Dr. Botkin was an influential person in the royal environment. The lady-in-waiting, friend and confidant of the Empress Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva) stated: "The faithful Botkin, appointed by the Empress herself, was very influential." Yevgeny Sergeevich himself was far from politics, however, as a person who is not indifferent, as a patriot of his country, he could not help but see the perniciousness of public sentiments in it, which he considered the main reason for Russia's defeat in the war of 1904-1905. He understood very well that hatred for the tsar, for the imperial family, kindled by radical revolutionary circles, is beneficial only to the enemies of Russia, the Russia that his ancestors served, for which he himself fought on the fields of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia, which entered into the most cruel and bloody global battle. He despised people who used dirty methods to achieve their goals, who composed courtly absurdities about the royal family and its morals. He spoke of such people as follows: “I don’t understand how people who consider themselves monarchists and talk about the adoration of His Majesty can so easily believe all the gossip spread, can spread them themselves, raising all sorts of fables against the Empress, and do not understand that, insulting her, they thereby insult her august husband, whom they supposedly adore. The family life of Yevgeny Sergeevich was not smooth either. Carried away by revolutionary ideas and a young (20 years younger) student of the Riga Polytechnic College, in 1910 his wife Olga Vladimirovna left him. Three younger children remain in the care of Dr. Botkin: Dmitry, Tatyana and Gleb (the eldest, Yuri, already lived separately). But the children who selflessly loved and adored their father, who always looked forward to his arrival, were anxious from his long absence, saved from despair. Evgeny Sergeevich answered them in the same way, but he never took advantage of his special position to create any special conditions for them. Inner convictions did not allow him to say a word for his son Dmitry, a cornet of the Life Guards of the Cossack regiment, who, with the outbreak of the war in 1914, went to the front and died heroically on December 3, 1914, covering the retreat of the reconnaissance Cossack patrol. The death of his son, who was posthumously awarded for heroism with the St. George Cross of the IV degree, became an unhealed spiritual wound of his father until the end of his days. And soon an event took place in Russia on a scale more fatal and destructive than a personal drama ... After the February coup, the new authorities imprisoned the empress and children in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, a little later the former autocrat joined them. All of the entourage of the former rulers were offered the choice by the commissars of the Provisional Government to either stay with the prisoners or leave them. And many who only yesterday swore eternal allegiance to the emperor and his family left them at this difficult time. Many, but not like the life physician Botkin. For the shortest possible time, he would leave the Romanovs in order to help the widow of his son Dmitry, who was sick with typhus, and who lived here in Tsarskoye Selo, opposite the large Catherine Palace, in the doctor’s own apartment at 6 Sadovaya Street. When her condition ceased to inspire fear, he returned to the recluses of the Alexander Palace without requests or coercion. The king and queen were accused of high treason, and this case was under investigation. The accusation of the former tsar and his wife was not confirmed, but the Provisional Government felt fear of them and did not agree to their release. Four key ministers of the Provisional Government (G.E. Lvov, M.I. Tereshchenko, N.V. Nekrasov, A.F. Kerensky) decided to send the royal family to Tobolsk. On the night of July 31 to August 1, 1917, the family went by train to Tyumen. And this time the retinue was asked to leave the family of the former emperor, and again there were those who did it. But few considered it a duty to share the fate of the former reigning persons. Among them is Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. When asked by the king how he would leave the children (Tatiana and Gleb), the doctor replied that for him there was nothing higher than caring for Their Majesties. On August 3, the exiles arrived in Tyumen, from there on August 4 they left for Tobolsk by steamer. In Tobolsk, I had to live for about two weeks on the ship "Rus", then on August 13 the royal family was accommodated in the former governor's house, and the retinue, including doctors E.S. Botkin and V.N. Derevenko, in the house of the fishmonger Kornilov nearby. In Tobolsk, it was ordered to observe the Tsarskoe Selo regime, that is, no one was allowed outside the allotted premises, except for Dr. Botkin and Dr. Derevenko, who were allowed to provide medical assistance to the population. In Tobolsk, Botkin had two rooms in which he could receive patients. Evgeny Sergeevich will write about the provision of medical assistance to the residents of Tobolsk and the soldiers of the guard in his last letter in his life: “Their trust especially touched me, and I was pleased with their confidence, which never deceived them, that I would receive them with the same attention and affection as any other patient, and not only as an equal to himself, but also as a patient who has all the rights to all my cares and services. On September 14, 1917, daughter Tatyana and son Gleb arrived in Tobolsk. Tatyana left memories of how they lived in this city. She was brought up at court and was friends with one of the daughters of the king - Anastasia. Following her, a former patient of Dr. Botkin, Lieutenant Melnik, arrived in the city. Konstantin Melnik was wounded in Galicia, and Dr. Botkin treated him at the Tsarskoye Selo hospital. Later, the lieutenant lived at his house: a young officer, the son of a peasant, was secretly in love with Tatyana Botkina. He came to Siberia in order to protect his savior and his daughter. To Botkin, he elusively resembled the deceased beloved son Dmitry. Melnik recalled that in Tobolsk Botkin treated both the townspeople and peasants from the surrounding villages, but he did not take money, and they shoved it into the cabbies who brought the doctor. This was very helpful - Dr. Botkin could not always pay them. Lieutenant Konstantin Melnik and Tatyana Botkina got married in Tobolsk, shortly before the whites occupied the city. They lived there for about a year, then through Vladivostok they reached Europe and, in the end, settled in France. The descendants of Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin still live in this country. In April 1918, a close friend of Ya.M. Sverdlov, Commissioner V. Yakovlev, arrived in Tobolsk, who immediately declared the doctors also arrested. However, due to confusion, only Dr. Botkin was limited in freedom of movement. On the night of April 25-26, 1918, the sovereign with his wife and daughter Maria, Anna Demidova and Dr. Botkin, under the escort of a special detachment of a new composition under the leadership of Yakovlev, were sent to Yekaterinburg. A typical example: suffering from cold and kidney colic, the doctor gave his fur coat to Princess Mary, who did not have warm clothes. After certain ordeals, the prisoners reached Yekaterinburg. On May 20, the rest of the members of the royal family and some of the retinue arrived here. The children of Evgeny Sergeevich remained in Tobolsk. Botkin's daughter recalled her father's departure from Tobolsk: “There were no orders about the doctors, but even at the very beginning, having heard that Their Majesties were going, my father announced that he would go with them. "But what about your children?" Her Majesty asked, knowing our relationship and the terrible anxieties that my father always experienced in separation from us. To this, my father replied that the interests of Their Majesties are in the first place for him. Her Majesty was moved to tears and especially thanked. The regime of detention in the house of special purpose (the mansion of engineer N.K. Ipatiev), where the royal family and its devoted servants were placed, was strikingly different from the regime in Tobolsk. But here, too, E.S. Botkin enjoyed the trust of the soldiers of the guard, to whom he provided medical assistance. Through him, the crowned prisoners communicated with the commandant of the house, which Yakov Yurovsky becomes from July 4, and members of the Ural Council. The doctor petitioned for walks for the prisoners, for admission to Alexei of his teacher S.I. Gibbs and educator Pierre Gilliard, tried in every possible way to facilitate the regime of detention. Therefore, his name is increasingly found in the last diary entries of Nicholas II. Johann Meyer, an Austrian soldier who fell into Russian captivity during the First World War and defected to the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, wrote his memoirs “How the Imperial Family Perished”. In the book, he reports on the proposal made by the Bolsheviks to Dr. Botkin to leave the royal family and choose a place of work, for example, somewhere in a Moscow clinic. Thus, Dr. Botkin knew for sure about the imminent execution. He knew and, having the opportunity to choose, he preferred to salvation loyalty to the oath given once to the king. Here is how I. Meyer describes it: “You see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he is alive. It is impossible for a man of my position not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You all need to understand this." This fact is consonant with the content of the document stored in the State Archives Russian Federation . This document is the last, unfinished letter of Evgeny Sergeevich, dated July 9, 1918. Many researchers believe that the letter was addressed to the younger brother of A.S. Botkin. However, this seems to be indisputable, since in the letter the author often refers to the "principles of graduation in 1889", to which Alexander Sergeevich had nothing to do. Most likely, it was addressed to an unknown fellow student. “My voluntary confinement here is as unlimited in time as my earthly existence is limited ... In essence, I died, I died for my children, for friends, for business. I am dead, but not yet buried or buried alive... I don’t indulge myself with hope, I don’t lull myself into illusions and look unvarnished reality straight in the eye... I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved”, and the consciousness that I remain true to the principles of the issue of 1889 ... In general, if "faith without works is dead," then "works" without faith can exist, and if one of us joins the works and faith, then this is only special to him Grace of God... This also justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as complete orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at the request of God to sacrifice his only son to him. All those killed in the house of N. Ipatiev were ready for death and met it with dignity, even the killers noted this in their memoirs. At half past two in the night of July 17, 1918, commandant Yurovsky woke up the inhabitants of the house and, under the pretext of transferring them to a safe place, ordered everyone to go down to the basement. Here he announced the decision of the Ural Council on the execution of the royal family. With two bullets that flew past the Sovereign, Dr. Botkin was wounded in the stomach (one bullet reached the lumbar spine, the other got stuck in the soft tissues of the pelvic region). The third bullet damaged both knee joints of the doctor, who stepped towards the king and prince. He fell. After the first volleys, the killers finished off their victims. According to Yurovsky, Dr. Botkin was still alive and lay quietly on his side, as if asleep. “I finished him off with a shot in the head,” Yurovsky later wrote. Kolchak's intelligence investigator N. Sokolov, who conducted the investigation into the murder case in the Ipatiev house, among other material evidence in a pit in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki near Yekaterinburg, also discovered a pince-nez that belonged to Dr. Botkin. The last life physician of the last Russian emperor, Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981, along with others shot in the Ipatiev House.

The consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (February 2-3, 2016) canonized Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin in

Anna Vlasova

(According to the works of Anninsky L.A., Solovyov V.N., Botkina S.D., King G., Wilson P., Krylova A.N.)

Together with the royal family.

Biography

Childhood and studies

He was the fourth child in the family of the famous Russian doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin (life physician of Alexander II and Alexander III) and Anastasia Alexandrovna Krylova.

In 1878, on the basis of the education received at home, he was immediately admitted to the 5th grade of the 2nd St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1882, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, however, having passed the exams for the first year of the university, he left for the junior department of the opened preparatory course of the Military Medical Academy.

In 1889 he graduated from the academy third in graduation, having received the title of doctor with honors.

Work and career

From January 1890 he worked as an assistant doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. In December 1890, at his own expense, he was sent abroad for scientific purposes. He studied with leading European scientists, got acquainted with the organization of Berlin hospitals.

At the end of the business trip in May 1892, Evgeny Sergeevich became a doctor in the court choir, and from January 1894 he returned to the Mariinsky hospital as a supernumerary intern.

On May 8, 1893, he defended his dissertation at the Academy for the degree of Doctor of Medicine “On the question of the effect of albumose and peptones on some functions of the animal body”, dedicated to his father. I. P. Pavlov was the official opponent on defense.

In the spring of 1895, he was sent abroad and spent two years in medical institutions in Heidelberg and Berlin, where he listened to lectures and practiced with leading German doctors - professors G. Munch, B. Frenkel, P. Ernst and others. In May 1897 he was elected Privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy.

In the autumn of 1905, Evgeny Botkin returned to St. Petersburg and began teaching at the academy. Since 1905 - honorary physician. In 1907 he was appointed chief physician of the community of St. George.

Link and death

He was killed along with the entire imperial family in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House on the night of July 16-17, 1918. According to the memoirs of the organizer of the murder of the royal family, Ya. M. Yurovsky, Botkin did not die immediately - he had to be "shooted".

“I am making one last attempt to write a real letter - at least from here ... My voluntary imprisonment here is as unlimited in time as my earthly existence is limited. In essence, I died, I died for my children, for friends, for a cause ... I died, but not yet buried, or buried alive - anyway, the consequences are almost the same ...

I don’t indulge myself with hope, I don’t lull myself into illusions, and I look straight into the eyes of unvarnished reality… I am supported by the conviction that “he who endures to the end will be saved” and the consciousness that I remain true to the principles of the 1889 graduation. If faith without deeds is dead, then deeds without faith can exist, and if any of us joins deeds with faith, then this is only by the special grace of God to him ...

This also justifies my last decision, when I did not hesitate to leave my children as complete orphans in order to fulfill my medical duty to the end, just as Abraham did not hesitate at the request of God to sacrifice his only son to him.

Canonization and rehabilitation, memory

On February 3, 2016, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a decision on the general church glorification Passion-bearer righteous Evgeny the doctor. At the same time, other servants of the royal family were not canonized. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) of Volokolamsk, commenting on this canonization, said:

The Council of Bishops issued a decision to glorify Dr. Evgeny Botkin. I think this is a long-awaited decision, because this is one of the saints who is revered not only in the Russian Church Abroad, but also in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, including in the medical community.

On March 25, 2016, on the territory of the Moscow City Clinical Hospital No. 57, Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuevsky consecrated the first church in Russia in honor of the righteous Evgeny Botkin.

In July 2018, in the Akademichesky microdistrict of Yekaterinburg, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the death of the Romanov Tsar's Days, the boulevard adjacent to the buildings of the Ural State Medical University and the plant for the production of pacemakers was named after Yevgeny Botkin.

A family

Since 1891 he was married to Olga Vladimirovna Manuylova (1872-1946), whom he divorced in 1910. Their kids:

Proceedings

• "On the question of the influence of albumose and peptones on some functions of the animal organism"
• "Light and shadows of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905: From letters to his wife" 1908.

Notes

1. German National Library, Berlin State Library, Bavarian State Library, etc. Record #121807916 // General Regulatory Control (GND) - 2012-2016.
2. Melnik (Botkina) T. E. Memories of the Royal Family and its life before and after the revolution. - M .: Ankor, 1993. (error.) (Foreword to this edition)
3. Kovalevskaya O. T. With the Tsar and For the Tsar. Martyr's crown of the Tsar's servants.-M .: "Russian Chronograph 1991", 2008. ISBN 5-85134-121-1
4. Ioffe G. Z. Endured to the end // New magazine: magazine. - 2008. - T. 251.
5. “He who endures to the end will be saved”: the medical and moral duty of Dr. Botkin
6. Grounds for the canonization of the royal family. From the report of Mr. Yuvenaly, Chairman of the Synodal Commission for Canonization
7. The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation satisfied the application of the Head of the Russian Imperial House on the rehabilitation of repressed faithful servants of the Royal Family and other members of the House of Romanov (indefinite) . Official website of the Russian Imperial House (October 30, 2009). Retrieved May 9, 2013. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013.

Yevgeny Botkin is revered as a holy doctor who fulfilled the highest destiny in relation to his patients, giving them all his strength and life itself ...

IN LINK

In 1917, the inhabitants of Tobolsk were extremely lucky. They got their own doctor: not only from the capital's education and upbringing, but always, at any moment, ready to help the sick, and free of charge. Siberians sent sleighs, horse teams, and even a complete departure for the doctor: it's no joke, the personal doctor of the emperor himself and his family! It happened, however, that the patients did not have transport: then the doctor in a general's overcoat with torn insignia would cross the street, bogged down to the waist in the snow, and still find himself at the bedside of the afflicted.

He treated better than local doctors, and did not charge for treatment. But compassionate peasant women thrust him a tueska with testicles, then a layer of bacon, then a bag of pine nuts or a jar of honey. With gifts, the doctor returned to the governor's house. There new government kept in custody the abdicated sovereign with his family. The doctor's two children were also languishing in prison and were as pale and transparent as the four Grand Duchesses and the little Tsarevich Alexei. Passing by the house where the royal family was kept, many peasants knelt down, bowed to the ground, mournfully baptized themselves, as if on an icon.

CHOICE OF THE EMPRESS

Among the children of the famous Sergei Petrovich Botkin, the founder of several major areas in medicine, the life physician of two Russian autocrats, the youngest son Evgeny did not seem to shine with anything special. He had little contact with his illustrious father, but followed in his footsteps, like his older brother, who became a professor at the Medico-Surgical Academy. Eugene graduated with dignity from the medical faculty, defended his doctoral dissertation on the properties of blood, got married and volunteered for Russo-Japanese War. It was his first experience of field therapy, his first encounter with harsh reality. Shocked by what he saw, he wrote detailed letters to his wife, which were later published as Notes on the Russo-Japanese War.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna drew attention to this work. Botkin was granted an audience. No one knows what the august person was talking about in private, suffering not only from the fragility of her health, but most of all from the carefully concealed incurable illness of her son, heir to the Russian throne.

After the meeting, Yevgeny Sergeevich was offered to take the post of tsar's life physician. Perhaps his work on the study of blood played a role, but, most likely, the empress guessed in him a knowledgeable, responsible and selfless person.

In the center from right to left E. S. Botkin, V. I. Gedroits, S. N. Vilchikovsky. In the foreground, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with Grand Duchesses Tatyana and Olga

FOR YOURSELF - NOTHING

This is how Yevgeny Botkin explained to his children the changes in their lives: despite the fact that the doctor's family moved to a beautiful cottage, entered state support, could participate in palace events, he no longer belonged to himself. Despite the fact that his wife soon left the family, all the children expressed their desire to stay with their father. But he rarely saw them, accompanying the royal family for treatment, rest, and diplomatic trips. Yevgeny Botkin's daughter Tatiana at the age of 14 became the mistress of the house and managed expenses, giving funds to buy uniforms and shoes for her older brothers. But no absences, no hardships of a new way of life could destroy those warm and trusting relationships that connected children and father. Tatyana called him "invaluable daddy" and subsequently voluntarily followed him into exile, believing that she had only one duty - to be near her father and do what he needed. The tsar's children treated Yevgeny Sergeevich just as tenderly, almost in a kindred way. The memoirs of Tatyana Botkina contain a story about how the Grand Duchesses poured water from a jug to him when he was lying with a sore leg and could not get up to wash his hands before examining the patient.

Many classmates and relatives envied Botkin, not realizing how difficult his life in this high position was. It is known that Botkin had a sharply negative attitude towards the personality of Rasputin and even refused to accept his patient at home (but he himself went to help him). Tatyana Botkina believed that the improvement in the health of the heir when visiting the "old man" occurred just when Evgeny Sergeevich had already carried out medical measures that strengthened the boy's health, and Rasputin attributed this result to himself.

Life physician E.S. Botkin with daughter Tatyana and son Gleb. Tobolsk. 1918

LAST WORDS

When the emperor was asked to choose a small retinue for himself to accompany him into exile, only one of the generals indicated by him agreed. Fortunately, there were faithful servants among others, and they followed the royal family to Siberia, and some were martyred along with the last Romanovs. Among them was Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin. For this life doctor there was no question of choosing his fate - he made it a long time ago. In the dead months under arrest, Botkin not only treated, strengthened, spiritually supported his patients, but also served as a home teacher - the royal spouses decided that the education of children should not be interrupted, and all the prisoners studied with them in some subject.

His own younger children, Tatyana and Gleb, lived nearby in a rented house. The Grand Duchesses and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna sent postcards, notes, small handmade gifts to brighten up hard life these guys who, of their own free will, followed their father into exile. With "daddy" children could see only a few hours a day. But even from the time when he was released from custody, Botkin found an opportunity to visit sick Siberians and rejoiced at the suddenly opened opportunity for a wide practice.

Tatyana and Gleb were not allowed into Yekaterinburg, where the execution took place, they remained in Tobolsk. For a long time they did not hear anything about their father, but when they found out, they could not believe it.

Ekaterina Kalikinskaya

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Today's Gospel reading (Luke 21:8-19) is addressed to the memory of the New Martyrs, to the memory of those whose cathedral today is remembered by our church as one of the most important pages in our history of holiness. The troparion and kontakion have already been sounded, testifying very expressively to us how the church tradition remembers them.

The gospel reading that was given is quite familiar to all of us. And one cannot fail to see how much its content turns out to be consonant with the persecution of the first Christians, and with those persecutions that took place in our country in the recent past, and with those persecutions that will probably still be visible, for the same reason that the gospel warns us. I will not say what I have said many times in different churches on various occasions about the new martyrs.

First of all, I can only say one thing. In my opinion, the veneration of the new martyrs in our church did not work out. In fact, we are only now beginning to realize this as a very complex and contradictory aspect of church life. Yes, we paid and are paying, unfortunately, a tribute to the usual stereotypes, including those of the Soviet consciousness: we need heroes. New martyrs do not fit into this habitual stereotype. How did they not die heroically! I can definitely say this, having in mind great amount materials that we studied at the Synodal Commission for Canonization. I mean period civil war, and the period of repressions of the early 1920s, and the period of collectivization and the bloodiest repressions of 1937.

But we, constantly listing their names, seem to say: “Here it is, the best part of our people, which gives us the right not to repent of the sin committed by the same believing people of ours in relation to them. Here is that part of our people, whose successors we are, the best Christians who remember. We are their successors, which means that if we were in their place, we would do as they did. This is a big temptation. None of us should even dare to think that he would have done the right thing in this situation. We don't know this.

During the process of canonization, it was surprising for me that, in particular, at the jubilee council of 2000, the true face of the church was revealed. By this moment, we, the members of the Synodal Commission for Canonization, have managed to achieve a very important, in my opinion, result in our work: thanks to a large extent to the position of Metropolitan Yuvenaly, who defended the views of our commission in the Synod, we have achieved the canonization of some of the prominent opponents of Metropolitan Sergius, those who really did not lose spiritual sobriety and showed genuine courage. I mean, first of all, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitans Kirill, Agafangel and Peter.

And for me it was a miracle of the appearance of the church, when the jubilee council, which included people who were absolutely alien to this topic, nevertheless glorified the new martyrs.

And today I would like to outline one more page of the holiness of the New Martyrs. Fortunately, something happened that really makes us think in many ways about the mystery of the martyrs of the twentieth century.

You all know that the other day the medical doctor Yevgeny Botkin was glorified as a martyr. Strictly speaking, the feat of the servants of the royal family was no less, if not more remarkable, than its members themselves. For, unlike members of the imperial family, they had a choice that repeatedly confronted them in captivity: to stay with the royal family and die or not. And they chose death.

And now a decision has been made to canonize Yevgeny Botkin - not all the servants of the royal family, but only him alone. Yes, indeed, he stands out against the general background: not a footman, not a cook, not a maid, but a doctor. And this gives us reason to ponder over the mystery of human holiness, over the mystery of human virtue. Indeed, strictly speaking, against the background of the maid Demidova, the cook Kharitonov, Botkin seems to be the person least suitable for stereotypical ideas about churchliness.

Before us, first of all, one hundred percent Russian doctor at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He did not come from a family of a priest, like many doctors. His father was a no less famous doctor - Sergei Petrovich Botkin, also a life doctor, who was even much more famous than his son. The atmosphere in which the future martyr was formed cannot be called ecclesiastical. He grew up in the home of his father, the son of a merchant, a successful doctor. In order not to talk much about this family, I will give a textbook example. When the dying Saltykov-Shchedrin was persuaded by his relatives to still call Father John of Kronstadt - maybe he will still help (you see how everything is recognizable, nothing changes), and the great wit agreed - he only asked for one thing: that in no case Sergey Petrovich Botkin (who treated him) did not recognize the case. Because after that he will not be able to look into his eyes. Naturally, everything turned out in our Russian style. When the prayer service was already over, Father John of Kronstadt drank tea. And I must say that after the prayer service, Father John kissed Mikhail Evgrafovich on the mouth. This meant that he already understood everything. He always did this after prayer for those who were doomed. Many, however, on the contrary, saw this as an encouraging moment. And now, the softened Mikhail Evgrafovich is sitting, Father John, tired after the prayer service, is drinking tea, a crowd of Joannites, the spiritual children of Father John, is standing at the entrance of this house. And Botkin, as luck would have it, drives by, sees the crowd, and is horrified and decides that Saltykov-Shchedrin is dead and that it is the admirers of his talent. He breaks into Saltykov-Shchedrin's apartment and sees a "disgusting picture": the writer, his patient, is sitting with a priest-healer! That was the Botkin family.

Evgeny Botkin was clearly looking for himself - he graduated almost full course Faculty of Physics and Mathematics before moving to the Medico-Surgical Academy. And then we have a typical Russian doctor. He worked in a hospital for the poor, then underwent an internship abroad, and then there was a successful career that led him in 1910 to the life doctors at the request of the empress. Of course, we have before us a man for whom his duty as a doctor was not associated with some kind of church blessings. Moreover, one can imagine that the neophyte enthusiasm, which inescapably accompanied the empress in her spiritual life, irritated him. But for Dr. Botkin, these were his patients who entrusted their lives to him, and one of them was doomed from childhood to terrible torment and a quick death.

And what happens is what happens. He stays with them to the end. Of course, he believed in God, but he was hardly a deeply churched person.

But he, I think, is better than everyone else, before the emperor realized that they would all be shot. And so he accepts death. And now it is he who is glorified as a passion-bearer. And here an interesting question arises about many other new martyrs who have not yet been glorified. In the activities of our commission, of course, there was quite a definite bias, look at the Cathedral of the New Martyrs - it is dominated by clergy. Then we began to think about the laity. And oddly enough, we found purely statistically that mothers gave confessions much less frequently than priests. Then we switched to mothers, then to the laity in general, and so on.

And now the question before us is: should we further expand the circle of those who can still be glorified? Who died not in connection with some church affairs, about whom we do not know the measure of their churchness, and who, at the same time, behaved worthily, in a Christian way?

And the last thing I would like to say. I have already told you about this many times. The essence of Christianity is freedom and love. And having created a person free, the Lord endowed everyone with a special secret of his inner life, which is impossible to know. Yes, we can still evaluate his actions, but it is very difficult to understand his internal motives. That's what any hagiography, as a rule, and stumbled. Trying to reproduce inner world the saint has always led to some kind of profanity.

Who then is holy before the Lord? It remains for us to be as less categorical as possible in this regard. And not only not to divide the dead into saints and ordinary ones, but above all, in relation to our neighbors around us, to be more restrained, leaving for each of us the right given to us by God to be free in choosing our actions, our internal decisions. Then indeed we will perceive everything in this world and in this life more like a Christian. And let the passion-bearer Eugene be an example of the fact that in Russia there has always been a category of people who could be Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, but who, more than others, set an example of Christian service in life.