The Horologion / Book of Hours (Chasoslov)
Часослов
Царю Небесный, Утешителю, Душе истины, везде сый и вся исполняяй.
Our renderingO Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things.
What it is
The Chasoslov contains the fixed portions of the daily cycle of services — the Hours, Vespers, Compline, Matins, and the Midnight Office — structuring Christian prayer around the movements of the day. Presidential Library sources confirm it was among the personal desk-books of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (r. 1645–1676), alongside the Psalter and the Acts of the Apostles, establishing its use across the full Romanov dynasty. A copy inscribed 'T.N. Tobolsk, 1917, 30 September' was found among Grand Duchess Tatiana's books at Ekaterinburg, evidence of personal use during captivity. The text is in Church Slavonic throughout and presupposes familiarity with the liturgical tradition.
Why it still matters
Even praying the First Hour (a brief morning office) and the Ninth Hour (an afternoon office) from the Chasoslov draws a lay person into the Church's sanctification of time; modern bilingual editions make this accessible without knowledge of Church Slavonic.
Kept alongside
Orthodox Psalter (Chasoslovnyi Psaltyr)
Псалтирь
The complete Psalter, divided into twenty kathismata, was read through weekly at Orthodox services and served as the foundational personal devotional text across the entire Romanov era and the whole of Byzantine-Slavic Christianity. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich kept the Psalter among his personal desk-books alongside the Horologion, as documented by the Presidential Library of Russia. Empress Alexandra's Bible in Church Slavonic, recovered at Ekaterinburg with underlined passages and dried herbs pressed between pages, testifies to the Psalter's intimate daily use during captivity. The Psalter was also the primary text from which the Romanov children learned to read Church Slavonic.
The Philokalia (Dobrotolubiye)
Добротолюбие
The Philokalia is the foundational anthology of hesychast spiritual writings spanning the 4th through 15th centuries, assembled on Mount Athos by Sts. Makarios of Corinth and Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and first printed in Venice in 1782. Paisios Velichkovsky's 1793 Slavonic translation set off a monastic revival across the Russian Empire, and Theophan the Recluse's expanded Russian edition of 1877–1889 brought its teaching on sobriety of mind, watchfulness, and the Jesus Prayer to educated laypeople throughout the late imperial period. The text was the direct source drawn upon by the anonymous narrator of 'The Way of a Pilgrim' and the backbone of the confessor culture surrounding Nicholas II's court, though no individually labelled Romanov copy appears in any known Ekaterinburg inventory. Its influence on late-Romanov Orthodox piety is certain; direct family reading cannot be documented.
Orthodox Prayer Book (Molitvoslov)
Молитвослов
The Molitvoslov is the standard Orthodox laypeople's prayer book, containing morning and evening prayers, canons, akathists, the preparatory rule for Holy Communion, and occasional prayers for every circumstance of life. A copy with dark blue calico binding and the monograms 'NA' and 'AF' under an imperial crown, dated 6 May 1883, was documented among the Romanov books recovered at Ekaterinburg, and Empress Alexandra learned Church Slavonic specifically to pray from these texts. The Royal Family's prayer rule during their final captivity at Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg was structured on the Molitvoslov cycle. All five Romanov children were instructed in its use as part of the 'Law of God' curriculum prescribed for Orthodox subjects of the Empire.