The Church on the Blood was built on the site of the Ipatiev House, where the family of Emperor Nicholas II spent the last months of their lives and met martyrdom. Within the church is the Tsar's Room, also known as the Execution Room, where the altar stands on the very site where the Royal Passion-Bearers were murdered.
On the wall before which the imperial family and their attendants were brought on the night of 16 - 17 July 1918, there is now a mosaic created by the craftsmen of our monastery. It depicts all eleven of the innocent slain, in the arrangement in which they stood at the moment of their martyrdom.
At the centre of the mosaic is the Prepared Throne with the Cross - a theological image of the throne made ready for the Second Coming of Christ to judge the living and the dead - a symbol used in iconography of the Last Judgement and here representing the Russian Golgotha.
To the left of the Cross are Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarevich Alexei, and the Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Maria. To the right are Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses Olga and Anastasia.
The mosaic also includes Dr Yevgeny Botkin, glorified as a holy passion-bearer, together with the valet Alexei Trupp, the cook Ivan Kharitonov, and the maid Anna Demidova, who were shot along with the Royal Family.
A single image is assembled from countless pieces of mosaic, and the work itself unfolds in much the same way. Dozens of people labour, endure, and ask the saints for help.
Here, the mosaicists from the mural workshop of Saint Elisabeth Convent speak about their work on the Tsar's Room in the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg.
"My strongest wish was not to spoil what others had done, but to fit into the worthy whole of the mosaic. It seems to me that even now we have not fully understood what sort of work we were allowed to take part in...
"At certain moments I understood nothing. The stone seemed alien to the mosaic, and the fresco, to my mind, should not have gone with the gold leaf - yet in the end it all came together into something truly majestic."
"I have long loved the Royal Passion-Bearers dearly, so I asked for a blessing for this work. Glory to God, I was able to take part at different stages.
"The whole Royal Family is dear to me, and most of all Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich and the Grand Duchesses Olga and Maria. I weep, and it is hard for me to speak of this, because it all lies so close to my heart. It seems to me that in Serbia, on the whole, the Royal Family is deeply revered. Yet there, as in your country, nothing was told about them at school. The history was entirely different, remade, and so this bond with the Royal Passion-Bearers comes through faith, through the Church, through the Holy Spirit.
"Their suffering and sacrifice touch the soul so deeply that at times, because of all I felt, it became hard to work. Inwardly it was very heavy, and yet at the same time the work still went on.
There were so many feelings - joyful and bitter alike. I tried to learn as much as I could about those terrible events.
Such a sacrificial path... And yet they are among the saved - they are saints.
What I remember most clearly is our first day of work in Yekaterinburg. Builders were doing finishing work beside us, and there was a great deal of noise. They left when the evening service began. But I stayed at my section and did not move away, and the time passed so quickly. Soon I heard prayer: in the church nearby the night liturgy had begun. Only later did they tell me that on that day Saint Empress Alexandra had been born. It was something wondrous - to work by night during the liturgy on such a day, in the place where the Royal Family met their martyrdom...
"And many people worked on the mosaic, and that is a joy, for even if someone did not at first feel a bond with the saints, it still came, because in their prayers the Royal Passion-Bearers left no one behind."
"The first thing I did was the Tsar's hands - that took a month and a half. The second pair of hands took half a month, and the third pair took two days.
"It seems to me that one's inner state settles layer by layer into one's work. Our work is heavy in itself, but here we were depicting martyrs, and many people said they found it difficult. Much had to be redone. But we turned in prayer to the members of the Royal Family, and to those who were beside them at that moment.
"You know, however hard and frightening it may be, in the end it does come right. The main thing is not to be afraid, and to remember that the Lord sees all and will give us strength for everything."
"It was hard. But with God's help, and with the help of everyone in the workshop, the difficulties were overcome.
"I had heard much about the Royal Passion-Bearers even when I was living in Kiev. I kept meeting people who loved them deeply and spoke of them and of their feat. But I had no personal knowledge of them. Then, when I learned that we were to lay a mosaic in Yekaterinburg, in the place where the Royal Family had been shot, I thought with hope that a meeting with the saints must surely happen.
"And it did happen through our work. Every day I read about Grand Duchess Maria and the Royal Family, looked at examples and photographs, turned to the saints in prayer, and asked for help. I do not know whether one may put it this way, but in the end they became almost like friends to us - very near and dear. Now I notice that when I come to church, I begin to look for their icon so that I may go and pray to them."
"When I learned which saint would be mine, a thought came to me at once for some reason: "I'll make the image - and then I can die..." In this work one felt the nearness of the holy Royal Passion-Bearers. There were moments when I prayed, asked, and understood that I was being heard. It was as if you were speaking directly to them - such moments are rare, but they did come.
"None of this is by chance. My mother came to faith precisely at the time of the glorification of the Royal Family. When their canonisation took place, an icon of the passion-bearers appeared in our home. My mother prayed before it, and later became a sister of mercy at our monastery. So in our family there was always a special love for the Royal Passion-Bearers.
"I would not say that I personally venerated them above all others, but when the offer came to work in the Church on the Blood, everything came back to mind, and I suddenly knew that it would be unlike anything else for me. And the work itself went easily and very quickly - in less than two months.
"We have laid mosaics of many saints, but I do not recall such an inward state as this. At the very beginning, when our first mosaics were being made and I was setting a small section of Grand Duchess Elisabeth, yes, there was such trembling. But that feeling was more like childlike awe, whereas now it was work done in full awareness.
"I felt a bond with the saints whose images I was making - they intercede and help in the work. I have experienced it myself. It is hard to describe, but there was some inexpressible feeling in my heart, and I was given to live through this work."
"The work in the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg cannot be called easy, because a great many people took part in it, and there were different tasks and areas of responsibility - mosaic, painting, stonework. It all had to be coordinated. It seems that, with God's help, everything came right.
"Before this, I felt nothing in particular towards the Royal Family. I thought to myself, "How can that be? I ought to be moved somehow. I mustn't remain with a cold heart." Then, in the church near the Execution Room, I saw a kindly elderly woman walking about with a small collection box. We met and spoke. We learned that her name was Anna, and she wrote down our names too and said, "I pray for everyone who labours in this little room."
"Beside the church there is a large exhibition devoted to the Royal Family, with photographs and many quotations. Grandmother Anna said, "You must read everything written there." I began to read, and I was deeply struck by the words of Elder Nikolai Guryanov: "Russia will not rise until it knows who our Russian Tsar Nicholas was." Then they took us to Ganina Yama, and there it was not dark at all. On the contrary, one sensed an atmosphere of love, goodness, and the astonishing nearness of the Royal Family. I can say that after all this they truly came much nearer to me - a spiritual bond was formed."
"One man, who deeply revered the Royal Family and prayed to them, once said to me, "For the tsar, everything must be done in a way befitting royalty." His words sank into my soul, and so I tried to give all I had, so that everything might be done worthily.
"You know, the saying "Precision is the courtesy of kings" has a second half: "and the duty of common men." If you work for a tsar, that obliges you to be precise and clear in everything - not to slacken, but to labour so that the final result is beautiful."
"When you work in this city, in this place, you do not remain unmoved. The help of the passion-bearers was felt - there was much grace.
"I remember our last trip to Yekaterinburg especially well, because the nuns from the New Tikhvin Monastery showed us all the memorial places - Ganina Yama, Porosyachy Log - and told us about everything in a way that was both clear and deeply engaging.
"During the work in the Execution Room, one could not help thinking again and again about those terrible events. And when I saw the result, I rejoiced that in this way we had been able to glorify the feat of the Royal Passion-Bearers.
"The result is striking. This place is unlike any other. Perhaps there are no places quite like it anywhere. Everything together - fresco, stone, finishing work - shows how reverently everyone treated the task entrusted to them. In this room every detail has cost much labour. Everything has been matched with astonishing care, and each tiny fragment has been made with love."
Video on the work of the mosaicists of Saint Elisabeth Convent in the Tsar's Room is available online:
Prepared by Vasilisa Busalayeva and Vadim Yanchuk
