A Saint with Hemophilia
For Easter evening, consider a modern-day saint who had hemophilia. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, the son of Tsar Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, is considered a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was canonized as a passion bearer (a saint who faces death in a Christ-like manner) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, along with his parents and sisters.
And read this beautiful but poignant poem about him, in the book Mrs Romanov, by Lori Cayer, 2018. Included in the collection of 92 poems, comprising a biography of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, is the following poem about Alexei:
When he bleeds, there is so little blood
like guilt in a culpable soul, the bleeding takes place
inside the case of skin, molten bruises hot to the touch
it fills and stretches where there is no space for fluid
his knee a reddish-purple melon about to split
pain takes him ghostly under to the deathplace
his blackened eyes soot out the light
all the ways he can die without spilling a drop
what can be done is nothing but bed or a rolling chair
his ankle a wineskin full to bursting
he is purple-black, red-yellow
a bruise-garden beneath his clothes
for weeks a leg thick and unbendable as a carpet roll
when it stops and he learns to walk again
he is a normal boy
a lifelike puppet with joints of loose gravel
he is a crucible of eggshells
what can be done
is nothing
This book review was submitted by Richard Atwood of North Carolina who adds, “The award-winning poet and editor lives in Winnipeg. Her family tree originated in the Slavic region and contains hemophilia A.”
You can also order our children’s book on Alexis: The Prince Who Had Hemophilia.
