Russian Orthodox Church might canonize Latvian servant of Tsar Nicholas II

The Russian Orthodox Church could possibly canonize the servants of Russia's last Tsar Nicholas II who were killed at the Ipatiev house at Yekaterinburg. If the initiative by the Yekaterinburg eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church is adopted, Latvian footman Aloizs Lauris Trūps would rank among the newly canonized orthodox saints, reported Rus.lsm.lv.

Aloizs Lauris Trūps - also known as Aloise (Alexei) Yegorovich Trupp - was born in Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire (now Madona Municipality, Latvia). He was reportedly picked as a servant by empress Maria Feodorovna who spotted Trūps while he was doing military service.

The decision on the canonization will be made by an Orthodox Church body. The body was handed materials collected by nuns at one of Russia's convents, concerning the canonization of three servants of Tsar Nicholas II - Ivan Haritonov, Aloizs Trūps, and Anna Demidova.

"A lot of material has been collected about [the servants'] lives and their endings. The materials testify not only about a high quality of these people's lives, but also that they lived good, righteous christian lives," said Archimandrite Yegveni, the bishop of the Yekaterinburg eparchy.

According to Archimandrite Yevgeni, as Nicholas II was forced to abdicate as Tsar and go to exile in Tobolsk after the Bolshevik uprising, these three servants were the ones that followed him.

While testimony by Bolshevik guards says that family members of Nicholas II had on several occasions opened the door and told them that they're free to go. However there had been no treachery, and they paid for it with their lives, said the archimandrite.

Comment