He Who Restraineth

The concept of the Katechon (meaning, "that which restrains") has existed in the writings of the Holy Fathers in reference to St Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians (2:1-12). The Katechon is a force or a person that retrains the spirit of the Antichrist and this force was often attributed to the Orthodox Christian Monarchy. Czar Nicholas II, being the last of the Orthodox Christian monarchs, is often referred to and venerated as the last Katechon by saints such as St John Maximovitch. The Orthodox Christian monarchy ended with the brutal execution of the Czar and his family at the hands of godless communists. Since that brutal killing, a spirit of antichrist has been released into the world--one that plunged the Czar's own country into a murderous atheistic totalitarian state and would mark the 20th c. in general as a century of blood. Today, the Czar is a shining beacon  against unbelief and should stand to be venerated as a model of love for God, family, and country.