Olga and I began to pray. We read all the prayers we knew, but the frenzied activity did not cease. There were moments when we thought the bus would fall apart, or one of the old people would have a heart attack, or something unpredictable would happen. In despair we intensified our prayers, and the Lord heard us, sent us the following saving thought: we are travelling from Butovo, where thousands of priests and laymen had suffered from the godless regime; we should pray to the New Martyrs of Russia.

Then I appealed to Tsar Nicholas II with the following words: “Our dear Sovereign, Nikolay Aleksandrovich, forgive us, the children and grandchildren of those who had murdered you so heinously. Even though you are in heaven and we are on earth, we are still your subjects. Look at our children, what has become of them, they are unable to stand in Truth, which they have never been able to learn. This is not their sin. Every day the television, the radio, the aggressive ads, the pornographic publications pour like a turbid stream into their young hearts and poison them with the belief that everything is allowed and that Christian laws should be mocked and trampled upon. I beseech you, our Sovereign, to intercede for them before the Lord, to chase away the evil spirits which torture these unfortunate children.”

And the Tsar helped! Suddenly and unexpectedly the teenagers quieted down, and by the end of the trip we could even talk to them. Afterwards we often traveled on the bus with them and the horror was never repeated; we offered them apples, while they helped us carry our bags onto the bus.

O holy Royal Martyrs, pray to God for us!

I have also been a recipient of a miracle on November 20, 1997. I look after the children of a Vietnamese lady - a 2-year-old girl and a 3-month-old boy. At 8:00 in the morning my lady went to Moscow to buy some necessary items, but a half-hour later she returned home in tears. At one point, as her car turned the corner, the door had opened and her handbag had fallen out. A large sum of money was lost - 500 dollars and 3 million 600 thousand rubles.

I prayed and hung up a “lost” poster, and then traveled to Moscow to the Danilovo cemetery. On the train there and back I read an akathist to Tsar Nicholas, asking him to help the Vietnamese lady for the sake of her small children.

While I was hanging up my poster, people laughed at me - who would ever return so much money! But I said that the money would be returned if a believer found it. For some reason I had hope that the money would be returned. I don’t know why, but I was even sure of it.

I came home in the evening and thought to myself - let me go and find out how things are with my Vietnamese lady. I came to her and she says - the money has been found, the man who found it brought it back himself.

Thus God helps us in difficult moments, and the saints pray for us and produce miracles. And this means that our Russian saints pray for other nations, too. I always pray to Tsar Nicholas and his Family. And the Lord Himself has shown that our prayers are heard.