Sermon on the Birthday of the Heir to the All-Russian Throne, the Pious Sovereign Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow, for her hour has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the sorrow, for the joy that a human being has come into the world. (Jn 16:21).

The birth into the world of a human being, God’s rational creature made in the image of God, is a wondrous work of the omnipotence, goodness, and wisdom of God; a new creature comes into the world out of non-being into being—a creature that, however insignificant and feeble it may seem at its beginning, in time often comes to have an important influence on the fate of its own people, of a whole nation, and sometimes even on the fate of the world.

But this creature’s entrance into the world—the creature called man (which means ‘the rational one’)—is for the most part accompanied by great sorrow for the mother who bears him, on account of the sinfulness of conception and birth. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow, for her hour has come, that is, the hour of birth. This all who are born of women should remember, and repay their mothers’ birth-pangs with love and gratitude. Yet once the mother has given birth to her infant, she soon forgets her sorrow, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So the feeling of sorrow gives way to, and is swallowed up by, the feeling of joy. And how could a mother not rejoice! She has become the mother of a child, a being most dear and precious to her, who lived her own life within her womb and will now go on living, for a good while yet, by her care as well. How could a mother not rejoice! She has given birth to a human being, a future member of the Church of God, a Christian, an heir of the Kingdom of God and a citizen—and if the mother is the SOVEREIGN’s consort, then she has given birth to an heir to the throne as well, or to a great statesman for the fatherland. In this last case, the joy of the father and mother becomes the joy of the whole state, of the whole fatherland.

Such is our present joy on the occasion of the festal celebration of the birthday of the Pious SOVEREIGN TSESAREVICH and Grand Duke ALEXANDER ALEXANDROVICH!

The joy over the birth of the Pious SOVEREIGN TSESAREVICH is the joy of the whole kingdom, and the celebration of his birth is the celebration of the whole kingdom: for the heir is the hope of the whole kingdom, its support, the pledge of its might and its well-being. This is why the Holy Church of God, on this day, solemnly offers thanksgiving to the Author of our life and the King of kings for his being given to us, preserved, and brought to maturity, and prays the Lord to continue to keep him in every prosperity for many years.

Let us too, then, brothers, join our own heartfelt thanksgiving and glorification to the Lord to the prayers of the Church, for the gift to the Russian realm of an Heir good and wise, dear to the hearts of the Russian people, for the preservation, increase, and flourishing of his house, and let us pray with all our souls that the Most High Lord grant him to be a worthy heir of his great Father, a continuer of his plans and designs, and that He preserve him for many years together with his blessed family. Lord! Save and preserve the Tsar’s son for many, many years, to the glory of Russia and of the Orthodox Church. Amen.