“Archpriest Sychkin,” Yelagin finished.
Gray kept his features flat, but this confirmed what he had overheard from Valya, who had named the priest back at the church.
Monk had his own query. “You recognize these two men? How? Does everyone in your church know each other?”
“While the patriarchate is growing rapidly, we are still relatively small in number,” Yelagin confirmed. “But Archpriest Sychkin is well known by all. He oversees all our Tikhvin churches.”
Gray stared over at the monitors that still ran with footage of the burning monastery. “Including the Theotokos of Tikhvin Church?”
The bishop glanced to the same row of screens. “Yes. In fact, Sychkin was the one who had orchestrated the church’s restoration at the Simonov Monastery.”
Gray slowly nodded.No wonder the bastard had picked that site to serve as Valya’s local base of operations.
Yelagin sighed. “The Tikhvin Icon has always been Sychkin’s passion.”
“Why?” Monk asked.
“If you remember, back at the morgue, I had described the icon’s holy status, but what I didn’t relate—as it didn’t seem important at the time—is another reason it’s venerated in Russia.” He stared around the table. “Many believe its arrival in Russia, appearing before the fishermen of Tikhvin, was a celestial sign that Russia was destined to be the Third Rome.”
Gray frowned. “A Third Rome?”
Yelagin ticked them off on his fingers. “First, of course, there was the original Rome in Italy, and home to Vatican City. Then when Rome fell, Constantinople became the Second Rome.”
“And where the icon resided for centuries after it was moved from Jerusalem,” Monk noted.
“Correct. And when the icon vanished during the fall of Constantinople and reappeared in Tikhvin, it was taken as a holy sign that Russia was destined to be the Third Rome, the new seat of religious power in the world. It’s a philosophy that drives theRusskii Mir—or Russian World—theology. It’s one of the main reasons that a vocal number of the Russian Orthodox Church, including our patriarch, sanctions Russia’s military conquest of other countries.”
“Because it’s God’s will,” Monk said dourly. “Formalized by the reappearance of the Tikhvin Icon on Russian soil.”
Yelagin sighed. “Not all of us adhere to his political theology.”
“But as a whole, the orthodox church has benefited from it,” Anna said. “Our country’s largest budget expenditure—after the military—is devoted to expanding our patriarchate.”
Gray understood this investment.Such funding had clearly helped garner religious support for Russia’s militant expansionism.
“Even the Trinity Lavra has benefited,” Yelagin continued. “Millions are being poured into the religious site, with the aim of transforming it into a new Vatican City, symbolically preparing the Trinity Lavra to be the holy seat for the Third Rome.”
“And let me guess,” Gray said. “Sychkin is at the center of it.”
Yelagin nodded. “He has curried favor with our Holy Synod for years, gaining the ear of our patriarch. So, know this, he is a powerful man.”
“One you don’t want to make an enemy of,” Anna warned, but there was no shrinking in her manner, only a deep-seated fury that stoked brighter in her cheeks with each breath.
Gray understood.
She now knew that the bastard was behind her brother’s murder.
Yelagin continued, “More importantly, Sychkin is also thepredsedatel’—the chairman—of the Arkangel Society.” He motioned to Father Bailey. “Which further confirms your suspicions about the significance of what was highlighted in the passages of Herodotus’s text.”
“About Hyperborea?” Gray said. “Why is that connection significant?”
“TheArkhangel Obshchestvois founded on the ideologies of a revered Russian philosopher, Aleksandr Dugin. He has written books and treatises pertaining to the historical existence of a lost northern continent, claiming Russians are the descendants of these god-like Hyperboreans.”
“Why does that matter?”
“Dugin believes—as do many—that the theological destiny of Russia is to resurrect our glorious past as the descendants of the Hyperborean people. To return to the divine status of those lost ancestors.”
“Also,” Anna said, “his take is very militant. He believes the only way to achieve that end is via an apocalyptic war between the East and the West. After which, all of Eurasia would return to the fold of Mother Russia.”
