Romanov enkolpion with relics of 40 saints, given in 2002 to a church in Yekaterinburg
In 2002 this golden enkolpion of the House of Romanov, containing particles of the relics of 40 saints, was transferred to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord at Uktus in Yekaterinburg. The cross had been kept for decades in a priestly family. The relic was presented to the House of Romanov by the Princes Shakhovskoy, and at different times it belonged to Paul I and Nicholas II. After the arrest of the imperial family, the Empress's elder sister Elizabeth Feodorovna secretly gave the enkolpion to the nun Serafima, who managed to preserve it through the turbulent years and to hand it on to its next keepers. Today the precious reliquary is one of the chief holy objects of the Monastery of the Royal Passion-Bearers at Ganina Yama, where the remains of the imperial family were found. Kept in the same casket as the cross is a ring belonging to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, which in 2000 was received from the heirs of a man who had obtained it by barter from a guard of the Ipatiev House. I try to imagine how many more such treasures are scattered across the world, having left the imperial family by various routes…
