AP / July 19, 2000
RUSSIA TO DECIDE CZAR'S SAINTHOOD
By Andrew Kramer
MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian Orthodox Church decided Wednesday to formally raise the question of canonizing Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, and his family this summer.
The Holy Synod, the day-to-day ruling body of the church, voted to recommend that the Archbishops' Council decide on the sainthood issue when it meets in August, church spokesman Viktor Malukin said. "This question will be discussed and decided,'' Malukin said.
The synod recommended sainthood for Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their son and four daughters - all of whom were shot to death by Communist guards July 17, 1918.
Four servants who were also slain that night are not being considered, Malukin said.
The Holy Synod also recommended canonization of about 500 other Russians who died for their faith in the 20th century, including monks and priests executed by Soviet authorities, Malukin said.
Many Orthodox believers already consider the czar a holy figure representing all victims of Communism.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which split from the Moscow-based church in the 1920s, already has canonized Nicholas II.
Some proponents of canonization say the czar and his family deserve sainthood not for their actions in life - historians say Nicholas II was a clumsy, and sometimes cruel, leader - but for their deaths as martyrs at the hands of a Bolshevik firing squad.