Moscow Patriarchate to Canonize Dr. Eugene Botkin

February 2016

The family-physician of the last Russian emperor and his family Dr. Eugene Botkin is to be canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate. The announcement was made today at a press conference in Moscow by the Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.

“The Council of Bishops has decided to celebrate among the saints Dr. Eugene Botkin” – the Metropolitan said.

Eugene Botkin, son of the famous doctor Sergei Botkin, who had been a court physician under Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III, served as court physician for Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and, while in exile with the family, sometimes treated the haemophilia-related complications of the Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

Botkin accompanied the emperor and his family into exile to Tobolsk and later Ekaterinburg. The faithful doctor, aged 53 years, was shot along with the Russian royal family and three other retainers in the early morning hours of July 17th, 1918 in Ekaterinburg.

In 1981, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) canonized the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, five children, and four faithful retainers – including Botkin – as new martyrs.

In 2000, the Moscow Patriarchate canonized the family of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, including his wife and five children as passion bearers.

For more information on the canonization of Dr. Botkin, please refer to the following article:

Nicholas II’s Doctor, Servants May be Canonized