The canonisation of Tsar Nicholas II and his family by the Russian Orthodox Church comes amid growing popular nostalgia for the Romanov family, who were slain by Bolsheviks 82 years ago.

Increasing numbers of icons of the last tsar have been reported weeping "myrrh" - interpreted as a sign of heavenly support for canonisation.

Work on a grand cathedral has begun at the site of the family's murder in Yekaterinburg.

Plans are also afoot to search for the bodies of two of the tsar's children, which were not found in time for the family's majestic re-burial in St Petersburg in 1998.

Church under pressure

The decision to canonise the family was taken by a council of Russian Orthodox bishops - the same group that opted in 1997 to shelve the issue by putting it to a larger and long overdue gathering of the faithful.

But what was then too hot to handle later became impossible to ignore.

A member of the Church's Committee for the Canonisation of Saints, Father Georgi Mitrofanov, told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper that the tsar, his wife Alexandra, and their five children would be declared "passion bearers" - people who met their death in a Christian way even though they were not martyred for their faith.

Larry Uzzell, Moscow correspondent for the religious-freedom monitoring organisation, the Keston Institute, said before the canonisation that the Church was under a lot of pressure to elevate the family to the sainthood.

"There are political pressures from powerful secular circles to recognise them as saints, and also popular pressures," he said.

"A referendum among Christian supporters of the Church would result in a hands-down vote in favour of canonisation."

Holy soil

Icons of Tsar Nicholas have long been circulating among believers, and some are even displayed in churches.