352. Речь Благочестивейшему Государю Императору Александру Николаевичу по случаю закладки в Московском Знаменском монастыре Романовских палат

(Said on the 31st day of August; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, in the Moscow Vedas of 1858 and in the collection of 1861) Most pious Sovereign! I cannot remain silent at this moment: but it will not be my word, but Yours, that I will say. Now you are teaching us the teaching of the commandment of the Lord: “Honor your father” (Ex. 20:12). And we had a tradition that on this earth from the blessed “root... came a rod” (Is. 11:1), which then grew into a great tree that now overshadows Russia. And once it happened that the thought that arose about closing the Znamenskaya Monastery was rejected with a reminder that this is the creation of Your ever-memorable ancestors. But only Your love for them was given, to open their very home, closed by time and ignorance, and, so to speak, to find the cradle of Your family, and not to allow what was found to fall into oblivion, but to preserve it in a worthy splendor for posterity. At the same time, we remember with reverence that just when we rejoiced, seeing You in the glory of Your Royal crown, You, with a strict and reverent thought before the Providence of God, ascended to the beginning of this glory, respectfully thought about Your pious ancestors, and there in the monastery of the Savior you ordered to protect and renew the monuments of Your deceased ancestors, and here decorate the cradle of Your sovereign Family. May the centuries preserve what the centuries have stolen - may they preserve the monument to Michael, which should henceforth be together with the monument to Alexander the Second. You might be interested in: