Ilya Tatishchev

Saint Ilya (Ilya Leonidovich Tatishchev, 1859-1918), martyr, was a count, adjutant general to Tsar Nicholas II and one of the few close companions who stayed beside the imperial family in captivity. He was killed by the Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg in July 1918 and was glorified in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia as holy martyr and warrior.

Family and career

He was born on 11 (24) December 1859 in Saint Petersburg, the son of General Leonid Tatishchev and Ekaterina Ilyinichna, born Bibikova, a lady-⁠in-⁠waiting to the empress. He graduated from the Page Corps in 1879 and entered the army as a cornet in a hussar regiment of the Imperial Guard. He served as adjutant to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and was raised to colonel in 1895. In 1905 he became major general in the emperor's suite, and in 1910 adjutant general. From 1910 to 1914 he was the tsar's personal representative at the court of Emperor Wilhelm II. During the First World War he worked with the medical service of the Red Cross, and in 1916 he was made lieutenant general. He remained, until his death, a member of the Brotherhood of Saint Prince Vladimir.

Loyalty to the Tsar

After the abdication of Nicholas II he did not abandon him, but remained with him voluntarily under arrest at Tsarskoe Selo. On 1 August 1917 he went with the imperial family into exile at Tobolsk. When the emperor and empress were taken to Yekaterinburg, he stayed at Tobolsk with the children, as the empress wished, and in May 1918 he too was taken to Yekaterinburg, where he was imprisoned with Prince Vasily Dolgorukov.

Death

He was killed by the Bolsheviks on 10 July 1918 at Yekaterinburg, on the grounds of the Ivanovsky cemetery, together with Prince Dolgorukov, ten days before the imperial family. Their remains were found by the White army when it took the city in the autumn of that year and were buried at the place of the crime. Dolgorukov was identified by a receipt for 80,000 roubles and Tatishchev by an English overcoat. Sisters of the Novo-⁠Tikhvin Convent buried them, most likely in the convent cemetery, but in Soviet times the place was lost.

Veneration

At the end of October (old style) 1981 the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia canonized him as "holy martyr and warrior Ilya". According to the sources available, this is his only canonization: the Moscow Patriarchate has not glorified him, and in 2009 he was only civilly rehabilitated. On 16 October 2009 the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate 52 members of the tsar's circle who had been repressed, among them Tatishchev.