In March of this year, at the request of His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem and all Palestine – Theophilus ӀӀӀ, the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), delivered to His Beatitude, two bottles of olive oil harvested from the trees of the monasteries of St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Ascension of the Savior on the Mount of Olives.

The olive oil was used in the preparation and consecration of Holy Myrrh, which the Patriarch performed on March 3rd of this year for the coronation of the King of the United Kingdom, Charles ӀӀӀ. The chrism was then sent to London where, on Saturday May 6, the new King was anointed at the coronation ceremony.

Officials of Buckingham Palace asked for oil from the Mount of Olives, since both the great-aunt and the grandmother of King Charles, the holy martyr the Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna and the Princess of Greece – nun Alice, rest in the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene. Also, the Garden of Gethsemane, being the place where the passion of our Savior began, is a remembrance of the Cross, which is now carried by the new monarch.

On the day of the coronation after the Divine Liturgy, Fr. Roman performed a prayer service at the the relics of the martyr, St. Elisabeth for the health of the new King, and then a memorial litia at the grave of Princess Alice, His Majesty’s grandmother.

 

Tags: , , ,