Speech before the national prayer service on the square in Sergiev Posad

Orthodox Russian people! We did not come here with joy. No, not with joy... A menacing black cloud of people's grief and people's misfortune hangs over our Motherland. Not drops of rain - drops of flammable tears, drops of scarlet priceless blood falling from this terrible cloud onto our native land. Perhaps a whole stream of blood and tears is destined to be shed. The Fatherland is in danger! The Fatherland is in need and situation! The Fatherland demands sacrifice from us. It has already taken away from many of us relatives and friends and – who knows? – took, perhaps, forever. It demands our property and even our very life. In the coming days, we will all have to suffer a lot in our hearts and souls. The terrible hour of judgment has struck over the Russian land. Over the past ten years, we have all sinned a lot 1. We, the Russian people, have allowed unbelief to spread in our native land. We have an unprecedented corruption of morals. We, Russian people, are sinners before our glorious history. We are sinful before the memory and covenants of our ancestors. We are sinners before our native shrines. We began to lose the fear of God. They forgot how to love the Tsar and the Motherland. We are used to blaspheming and blaspheming everything that is ours and dear, and praising and extolling everything that is foreign. The hour has come to atone before God for our people's guilt, our people's sins. How to atone? To redeem through nationwide heroism and suffering, to redeem through nationwide repentance. Our real war can be such a redemptive national feat. This war is a terrible crime for our enemies, who, despising all shame and conscience, wanted to crush and destroy the weak Slavic people, dear to us by faith and blood. This war is a terrible crime for our enemies, because they started it out of pride, out of a desire for primacy and domination. But for us, Russian Orthodox people, this war is a feat and a struggle for desecrated truth, for broken peace, for insulted brotherhood. It was not for the sake of conquest, not for the sake of acquiring new lands, that we entered into war with our neighbors 2 . For this reason, our Russian state has never fought with its enemies before. Entire countries themselves came under the rule of the Orthodox Tsar. And this time Russia stood up to defend the offended and weak, stood up to defend goodness and truth. That is why this war can be an acceptable sacrifice before the Lord! Thunder struck, and the sensitive Russian soul arose. The soot and dirt of the last ten years have been removed from it. Once again the whole world sees how dear the truth is to the Russian soul. Faith in truth and goodness is still alive in the Russian soul! Let us pray now, brothers, that with the power of our army the Lord will punish our criminal enemies and their rulers blinded by pride. These wicked rulers, like the ancient king of Babylon, said in their proud mind: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven! May the prophetic word be fulfilled over them, as it was fulfilled over the king of Babylon: Now you will come down to hell and to the foundations of the earth (Isa. 14:14-15). But, praying now before these ancient icons, before which our pious ancestors prayed, for vengeance and for worthy punishment of the criminal troublemakers of the European world, let us also pray that from the crucible of the disasters and trials that befell us, our native land will emerge renewed and purified, still a royal and God-loving Holy Russia! Let's pray earnestly! This refers to the period from the first Russian revolution of 1905–1907, marked by social upheavals. – Approx. ed. Russia entered the war in response to Germany's declaration of war on it (July 19/August 1), being faithful to its allied obligations to the Entente bloc. – Approx. ed.