Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/94

78 The objections and jealousy of the clergy were overruled by Tsar Alexander III, who worshipped Ivan, and on his death-bed sent for him to receive the blessings and to kiss the hands of the wonder-worker in pious ecstasy.

When, after the Tsar's death, Gulayeva tried to enlarge her business by raising the rank of her client and spread abroad that Ivan was the "Messiah," who for the second time had descended upon the earth, the clergy rose against such blasphemy, and it was only the protection of the Dowager-Empress that saved him from any other punishment than being relegated to Kronstadt, and enjoined to mind the business of the cathedral, not to work miracles, and not to claim kinship with God.

Soon afterwards he died, and the untiring Gulayeva began to advertise the miracles wrought upon the grave of the saint. This new enterprise was carried on until October 1917, when the Bolsheviks put an end to her trade by destroying his grave and casting his remains into the sea.

Numbers of the nobility had considered it a great honour to receive the "holy father" in their palaces. For this privilege they paid Gulayeva a fee of five hundred roubles, and waited sometimes months for their turn to enjoy the blessing of his presence.

Such was the Russian fashion of "Christian mysticism," while at the same time close by was celebrated the "feast of the fiends."