The Transfer of the Holy Relics of Nobleborn Tsarevich Dimitrii

Commemorated on June 3

      The Transfer of the Holy Relics of Nobleborn Tsarevich Dimitrii, murdered on 15 May 1591 (the account is located under 15 May), was made in the year 1606 with the transfer taking place from Uglich to Moscow. The reason for this was the desire, in the expression of tsar Vasilii Shuisky, "to stop lying lips and blind unbelieving eyes from saying, that he (the tsarevich) had escaped alive from the hands of the murderers", – in view of the appearance of the false-pretender, declaring himself to be the true tsarevich Dimitrii. The holy relics were solemnly transferred and placed in the Arkhangelsk cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, "in the side-altar of John the Forerunner, wherein was his father and his brothers". After numerous miracles of healing from the holy relics, in this same year of 1606, "there were made feastdays to the tsarevich Dimitrii thrice within the year – his birthday (19 October), the murder (15 May), and the transfer of relics to Moscow (3 June)".

 

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.