EPISTLE OF HIS EMINENCE METROPOLITAN LAURUS, FIRST HIERARCH OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA, ON THE REBURIAL OF THE REMAINS OF GENERAL ANTON I DENIKIN
AND IVAN A ILYIN

Your Holiness Vladyko!
Eminent Archpastors, Reverend Fathers, Brethren, Sisters and Children!

While making an archpastoral visit to monasteries and parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in Western Europe, I send this greeting to all the participants in the reburial in Moscow of the remains of General Anton I Denikin and Ivan A Ilyin, and join you in the prayers raised today for the repose of the souls of our national heroes who fought for Russia and our people: one who fought with arms, the other with the power of thought. Both later found themselves abroad, but neither forgot his motherland, their thoughts always directed towards Russia, and they lived for her, as did many Russian émigrés.

The reasons for the great exodus of one and a half million Russians after the Civil Warwere spiritual and moral: the desire to confess their faith and their ideals in freedom and openly, and also the desire to think and create freely, without submitting to the diktat of those who struggle against God. Russian Orthodox Christians who fled Russia always saw themselves as bearers of the wealthy Russian culture, which is infused with the spirit of Holy Rus. The preservation of our historical traditions had profound spiritual and moral foundations and aims. Russia Abroad never forgot its faith, its roots, never forgot the Russian language. During their existence apart from their homeland, Russian Orthodox Christians labored much, suffered much and built a great deal.

And now, praying today for the repose of the souls of General Denikin and Ivan Ilyin, I ask all to pray also for those who struggled with them, the builders of Russia Abroad, who fought for the freedom of their homeland while living there, and when scattered throughout the world, tried in every way possible to preserve Russia outside her borders, and pined for her rebirth. I hope that today's event will serve towards the healing of our people, that our common history will be rewritten, in all its truth, that the Soviet monopoly on historical thought would disappear and that we gradually return to the path trodden by our ancestors as they manifested our ideals of Holy Rus.

With love in the Lord, and asking your holy prayers,

+ Metropolitan Laurus,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia