Baptized Vladimir the future +Bishop Basil Rodzianko
was the grandson of Michael Rodzianko, President of the Duma of Tsar Nicholas II. Following the Bolshevik
Revolution the Rodzianko Family fled Russia to seek refuge with “our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Serbia…” Ordained a priest of The Serbian Orthodox Church, the young Fr. Vladimir lived through the Nazi occupation of his new homeland. “When the Nazis went out one door the Soviets came in the other…” Bishop Basil told us on one of his several visits to our New Jersey home.
Continuing to speak out against the atheistic Communists,
Fr. Vladimir was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison for the crime of illegal religious propaganda. The future bishop in America entered prison as his beard was shorn, his Cross and cassock were ripped off. “Now you are like all the other comrades…” he was mocked.
While in prison Fr. Vladimir had much to suffer at the hands of the godless. His Matushka Mary and their sons Peter and Vladimir suffered at home. Through the efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Fr. Vladimir was released after two of his eight year sentence. The Rodzianko Family settled in England where in addition to various priestly duties, Fr. Vladimir began a long career of broadcasting he was truly a holy man. He seemed to me to be a person with a foot in two worlds; the first in ours for sure and the other already finding its footing in the world yet to come…
His death (like so much of his life) was not without its own spiritual irony. An associate arrived at his one-room apartment to take him to receive his U.S. citizenship and found the bishop already gone to be a “citizen of paradise....” The irony of his passing is further compounded in the reality that his beloved Matushka Mary also reposed on the day on which she was to become a citizen of Great Britain. While in this world, they were not of this world.
Epilogue
Even in death +Bishop Basil remained a most sought after person. A few years prior to his death he told me that “when the time comes I want to be buried next to my dear Matushka Mary in London.” This was not to be. His brothers and sister who live in Nyack, NY belonged to ROCOR as did his parents who are buried at Novo Diveovo Convent in Spring Valley, NY. “When the time came…” his family had him brought to the NY convent where a Divine Liturgy and funeral service were held. The entire service was televised back to the former Soviet Union. It was in Russia that for years, millions of Orthodox Christians listened to his forbidden broadcasts in Russian with his signature British accent. Before he was returned to Washington, D.C. for burial, one of our priests commented.
“We’re even fighting over his relics…”
The Very Reverend Archpriest Thomas Edwards, Rector
Saint Gregory Palamas Orthodox Church, NJ USA
http://www.stgregoca.org