Righteous Passion-bearer Eugene Botkin, the Physician

Eugene Sergeyevich Botkin was born on 27 May (8 June) 1865 in Tsarskoye Selo, son of the famous physician Sergei Botkin. A graduate of the Military Medical Academy (1889) with a doctorate in medicine, he volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War as head of the Red Cross medical service in Manchuria, later headed the St George community of sisters of mercy, and in 1908, at the wish of Empress Alexandra, became physician to Emperor Nicholas II and his family, including the haemophiliac Tsarevich Alexis.

After the 1917 revolution he stayed with the Imperial Family under arrest, followed them to Tobolsk, where he treated local people free of charge, and in April 1918 went with them to Yekaterinburg of his own will, saying that he had given the Tsar his word to remain with him as long as he lived. On the night of 17 July 1918 he was shot with the Imperial Family and three servants in the Ipatiev House. Glorified by the Russian Church Abroad in 1981 and by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 3 February 2016 as the righteous passion-bearer Eugene the Physician. Feast: 4 (17) July.