Wondrous appearances of the murdered holy Royal FamilyWitnessed by the handmaiden Nina

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the matter of the glorification of the murdered Emperor Nikolai II and his Family

_*God's servant Nina (the entirety of her particulars will be provided to the Commission For the Canonization Of Saints) was accounted worthy by the Lord to be a witness to the wondrous appearances of the murdered holy Royal Family. They appeared to her when she was awake, by the way. Throughout her entire life, Nina more than once saw the murdered holy Tsar' Nikolai the Second, but in dream-visions. All these unusual events were recorded in detail by her in several notebooks. At first, she showed them to a certain fashionable protopriest in Moscow, among the parishioners of whose church are members of her family. But _batiushka_, a man of little faith, did not believe her and she ceased to bear witness to that wondrous aid which she had been found worthy to receive from God through the Royal Family. Yet, some time later, the servant of God Nina met other people, who did believe her. We very much implored her to record once more all that she had seen and heard, and she wrote it down, but not in such detail as before.

*These notes of hers she entrusted to us to spread abroad to all the Orthodox folk of Russia. Bless, O Lord!*_

I used to be extremely sickly in childhood. Once, I was even on the verge of death. That was in 1963. I was then six years old. My parents wept and prayed to God. I got down on the floor and felt an intense dizziness brought on by weakness. At that time a man came to see us who was unknown to me and he began to tell my parents to pray for my recovery to the murdered Royal Family. He said: "Only the Royal Martyrs can help your young lady!" I understood that they were speaking about me. Even more insistently did he repeat to my parents: "Pray; she's dying, don't you know!" At that moment I began to lose consciousness and started to fall. He caught me up in his arms and said: "Don't die!" Then he lay me upon the bed and started to leave. Mama asked him whether I was alive? He replied: "Pray to them; all things are possible to God!" My parents began to weep once more and started to ask him to remain and pray together with them. But he said firmly: "Don't be of little faith!" -- and departed.

Immediately upon my parents' turning in prayer to the Royal Family, I saw that some people were coming into our home. A man came in first, followed by a woman and a young boy with girls. They were all attired in long, gleaming white garments, with golden royal crowns, adorned with [precious] stones, upon their heads. The man had a square piece of linen cloth in his right hand. He laid it upon my face and began to pray to God. Then he removed the coverlet from me, took me by the hand, and helped me to rise from the bed. I felt free and light. The man asked me: "Do you know who I am?" I answered: "The doctor..." And he said: "I am not an earthly doctor, but a heavenly one. God sent me to you. Otherwise -- you would never have gotten up again. You will not die, but will live to the very day of my glorification. I am Emperor Nikolai and this is my entire Holy Family. They came to God by way of martyrdom!" And he called them all by name.

I approached Tsarevich Aleksii and began to examine his crown. Suddenly, my Mama began to scream: "My little girl is ablaze!" And my parents began to look for water. I asked: "Mama, who's burning?" She shouted to me: "Get away from the fire, you'll burn up!" I said: "There are only people here; there's no fire." And papa said: "Really, it's an extremely huge flame! The flame is going about the room, but nothing is catching afire! What miracle is this?!" I said to my parents: "Don't worry, these are the doctors who have come to heal me."

And when they -- the Royal Family -- were departing, I asked _Gosudar'_ [ Sovereign ] Nikolai: "How did they come to God by way of martyrdom?" And I also asked: "Can't one just come to God as one is?" Tsaritsa Aleksandra said: "Don't,... don't frighten the little girl." But the _Gosudar'_, his voice filled with profound sadness, said: "Everyone should know this! What they did with us is too terrible even to speak about!... They poured us into goblets... and they drank with pleasure and evil glee, rejoicing that they had destroyed us thus!..." I asked: "How was it that they poured you into goblets and drank you?" "Yes. They treated us in that fashion," answered Tsar' Nikolai. "I don't want to frighten you, but the time will come when all will be revealed. When you grow up, tell people straightforwardly: let them not seek for our remains, they do not exist!"

Later, people from the neighboring houses asked: "Who was it that came to see you? What relatives were visiting you, and dressed so?!" I again said: "They were heavenly doctors. They came to heal me!" I was then yet very small, a pre-schooler. And _Gosudar'_ Nikolai himself had appeared to me and healed me.

The second instance of the Royal Family's appearance took place in 1972. I was then studying in the eighth grade. This manifestation took place in our school during lessons. We had many anti-religious lecturers in Moldavia, because almost everyone in the villages was a believer. A certain lady came to our classroom, and was astonished by the fact that all the girls were wearing scarves. She explained to us that our enemies are the tsars, and that we should not be afraid, since they no longer exist! "Tsars," the lady said, "should be overthrown; you should do the work of Lenin and serve him..." Our kids said to her: "If they no longer exist, then they should not be cursed, but should be remembered... We should pray for those who have been killed!"

Then, suddenly, from somewhere up above, Emperor Nikolai descends with his entire Family and says to the visiting lady: "Who here is it that is cursing and reviling tsars?" Whereupon she screams: "I'm burning up!" and falls. But _Gosudar'_ Nikolai takes her by the arm, saying: "Get up; I have come not to destroy, but to save."

The lady rose up and said: "I saw a huge conflagration, and people -- there!" And the Tsar' replied: "It was not a conflagration that you saw, but the torments of hell." She thereupon asked: "How can it be in hell?! We've destroyed hell and made up a song about that." And he replied to her: "It was not hell that you destroyed, but works of holiness: you overthrew the Tsar', you destroyed churches, you trampled down sacred places!" The lady then asked: "And who are you?" To which _Gosudar'_ Nikolai answered: "I am he whom you reviled, whose name you cursed." She then said: "How is that? You are not among the living! You were all ground into powder!" And Emperor Nikolai stated: "With God we are all alive." Adding: "See, I was killed, but I do not kill... Go and repent!" And she literally went flying out of the classroom. The _Gosudar'_ approached us and blessed us all. To me, he said: "And you will live to see the day of my glorification. Write down all that you have seen." Tsaritsa Aleksandra remarked to the _Gosudar'_: "Here you're not even glorified yet, and already you are blessing them." But he turned to her, smiled, and said: "Not _you_, but _we_! We all, together, are blessing them!" Then Emperor Nikolai blessed everyone once again, and they withdrew.

On this occasion the Royal Family had been dressed in ordinary clothes: the _Gosudar'_ -- in a short military uniform, girt about with a belt; Tsarevich Aleksii -- exactly the same way; and the Tsaritsa and Tsarevnas -- in long-sleeved dresses that reached down to their heels.

Our teacher had been present in the classroom all that time. After his fright had passed, he enquired: "What kind of flame was that, without smoke?" And again he asked us: "Is everyone all right? Has no one been burnt?" We answered him: "They were people; there was no fire." He kept asking us, and we kept telling him, that Emperor Nikolai had been here with his Family. He was dumbfounded and kept repeating: "But there are no emperors now!..."

Today I have five children and we live in Moscow. In the course of the last few years, I saw Tsar' Nikolai several times in my dreams. Once the _Gosudar'_ told me: "They don't believe you, but soon they will believe." He repeated this several times and pointed to the wall-calendar, where he was depicted with his entire Family, saying: "Hang it in your holy corner and pray!"

On another occasion I saw Emperor Nikolai seated upon a high-place in a huge meadow; to his left, there was a well-spring of intense light. The _Gosudar'_ said to me: "Go, return, it's too early for you to be coming here!" I had such visions on more than one occasion.

Once, Tsar' Nikolai appeared to me in a dream and said: "Come, let's go with me, there is very little time left!" We found ourselves inside a huge building, where there were a lot of people gathered. At the front stood a long table, seated behind which were the authorities. Everyone was dismal and somber. In the center gleamed the clergy, while at the sides were doctors in white robes. Behind them all could be seen the simple folk, some of whom were praying: "O Lord, do not allow this." The doctors were speaking amongst themselves, saying: "Whatever are we doing?!" The _Gosudar'_ approached them and prayed for them to come to their senses. I asked him: "But what are they doing?" Tsar' Nikolai answered: "They are arguing about me... Tell the clergy not to believe the authorities: these are _not_ my bones! Let them say to the authorities: 'We will not recognize counterfeit relics, you keep them, but as for us, we will leave the holy name of the _Gosudar'_ and what the holy God-pleasers had foretold concerning him!' Tell the clergy to have icons painted and to pray. By means of these icons will I plead for wondrous aid, for I have the authority to help many... I will also receive the authority to help all the people when I am glorified upon the earth, as well! And then say to them: Russia will blossom for a little time!... Don't let them separate us upon the icons. They burnt us to powder and drank us!... And let them not seek our remains. If the clergy should not believe you and call you mad, them convey to everyone that which I will tell you! If these false relics are interred in my family crypt, then the wrath of God will fall upon this place! A terrible thing will happen, not only with the church, but with the city, as well! And if they begin to pass off these counterfeit relics for holy ones, then will I implore the Lord to consume them with fire... All the liars will fall down in a dead faint! And a demon will enter into those who will venerate the false relics, and they will begin to go mad -- and even die. There will be a war, then! The demons will come out of the bottomless pit, chasing you out of your homes and preventing you from going into the churches.... Tell everyone that if we glorify _Gosudar'_ Nikolai, he will arrange everything!... and there will be no war!... Write it down and tell the clergy. But, at first, you will convey my words to the wrong people. Among the clergy there are those who are not real, but false, those who are counterfeit... They will conceal from the people much of what I have said. Others, however, will believe you and help. As soon as you exert a little labor for the glory of God, you will reap the fruits thereof!"

The last time that I saw Emperor Nikolai in a waking state was last winter. We had come to the Svyato-Danilovskii Monastery. Everyone had gone off to do what they had to do, but I remained behind with the little children in order to guard the others' purses. A man came up to me and said: "Why have you forgotten about the _Gosudar'_?" I looked at him with astonishment and remained silent. He then asked: "Why, Nina, are you silent?" I answered: "Pardon me, but I don't know you." And he said to me: "You do know me!" I shrugged my shoulders, and uttered a silent prayer: "O Lord, help me; what does he want from me?" He then began to say words that astonished me: "It was not in vain that I lifted you up from your death-bed! Remember how I came to you with my entire Family and you touched our crowns with your hands. They call me Tsar' Nikolai!"

Then, suddenly, he asked me: "Why do you remain silent and inactive?!" "But, I don't know what to say, or how to act," I replied. Whereupon he said to me: "You do know, and you know even more than that!" Then did I confess to him: "Even if I _do_ know something, yet _batiushka_ Fr. Dmitrii commanded me to keep silent, and to burn my notebook... They, together with my husband, consider me crazy because of it!" Then did Emperor Nikolai say: "BEWARE OF ALL THOSE WHO WOULD LEAD YOU AWAY FROM A HOLY CAUSE! THEY ARE GOING AGAINST THE WILL OF GOD AND OF THE TSAR', BUT SOON THEY WILL BE MADE TO GIVE ANSWER FOR THAT!"

(The foregoing words of the _Gosudar'_ are also set off in the text of theanthology _"Krymskii Afon"_ ["The Crimean Athos"] -- V. M.)

"Today you will come home and record everything that happened with you in childhood and everything that I have revealed to you! Fold your hands, and I will bless you." I said to him: "But, you're not a priest...." And he said: "Why do you look at my attire? we can come in various ways." He blessed me and, immediately thereupon, he vanished. His words conveyed peace and warmth, and I immediately began to weep. The people from our group began to approach me and to ask: "What happened? Why are you crying?" I said: "A man came up to me; a man who had healed me once upon a time." Our lady-guide said: "Don't listen to anyone! All sorts of people go about here and upset everyone. Forget everything and quiet down..." I said to her: "He blessed me and vanished." She shuddered: "How is it that he vanished?" And then she asked me: "What is he, a priest?!" "No," said I.

"Did you find out his name?" she asked. "He told me that he is Emperor Nikolai," I said to her. She then up and tells me that we do not have emperors now, and herself for some reason goes to that very spot where the _Gosudar'_ had appeared and begins to scream: "Who here is Emperor Nikolai? We want to speak with You!"

Two people immediately approached us: "Why are you wailing so?! There is no Emperor here; this is a monastery, after all! You would do better to pray..." And they departed.

Then we began to pray: "O Lord, send _Gosudar'_ Nikolai to us!" Whereupon a priest approached us and asked her: "Whom are you seeking?" She answered: "The Tsar'." He asked again: "Nikolai?" She says: "Yes-yes," and he asked: "And what is it that you want?" She replied: "Well, there was some man who approached her and said something to her... and now she's crying. So I wanted to have a few words with him." Then he said to her: "Well, then, speak; I'm listening. Ask, and I'll answer..." Whereupon she addressed him: "Tell us, _batiushka_, is Emperor Nikolai here?" He replied: "He is. Only not on earth, but in Heaven. Ask, if you have yet another question, I will answer. And I have already told her (gesturing in my direction) everything that must be done today!..." She then asked me: "What has he already told you?" And I answered her, saying: "That other man was not in vestments..." He smiled and said to me: "But I am that man who came to you." And she, having seen that the _Gosudar'_ had begun to withdraw from us, seized the edge of his robe with her hands and said: "_Batiushka_, bless us..." His response to her was: "There is much pride in you; repent of your lack of faith!" And Emperor Nikolai began to vanish before our eyes, as if he were withdrawing upwards, until he had dissolved in the air....

Pray for me, the unworthy and sinful one!

(reported [in Russian] by S. G. Trubitsyn)

Translated into English by G. Spruksts from the Russian text of the essay entitled _"Vsye' dolzhny eto znat'"_, which originally appeared in the Russian magazine _"Krymskii Afon"_ (6/1998 - 1/1999), an anthology of spiritual and moral enlightenment, published by the Sviato-Uspenskii [Holy Dormition] men's monastery, _ul._ Basenko, 57-A, Bakhchisarai, The Crimea. Head Editor: _igumen_ Siluan; the Editor of this issue: G. Vasiliev. English-language text copyright (c) 2000 by The St. Stefan Of Perm' Guild, The Russian Cultural Heritage Society, and the Translator. All rights reserved.