On this day — 3rd February 2016 — the family-physician of the last Russian emperor and his family, Dr. Eugene Botkin was canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate.
Eugene Sergeyevich Botkin (1865-1918), son of the famous doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin (1832-1889), 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. He also treated the haemophilia-related complications of 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 Imperial 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.
