Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia was born the elder daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain and Grand Duke Louis IV of Hess and by the Rhine. A favored grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, she was considered without doubt the most beautiful princess in all of Europe.
After her marriage to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, she grew to love her adopted country and devoted herself to her countrymen, husband, and imperial family. The splakling gem of the royal family, she was the center of attention wherever she was found, though she took no pride or pleasure in the admiration given her.
Instrumental in the marriage of her sister Alix (Alexandra Feodorovna) to Nicholas II (the were introduced at her wedding to Serge, uncle of Nicholas) , she became on of the few sensible influences to the imperial family.
After the death of her husband, she devoted herself to and found purpose in her strong religious beliefs and charitable works, as taught through example by her mother.
Following whole-heartedly the instructions of Christ and the bible, she closed her palaces, sold her belongings, and prepared for a life of Christian service. She built a church, chapel and hospital in Moscow and planned and opened her own nunnery. Met with opposition from the church and supporters of Rasputin (she was one of his staunchest opposers), whom she viewed as the very incarnation of evil, her convent was established by Imperial Decree of Nicholas II in March of 1910. Taking the veil April 15, 1910, Elizabeth, through her convent of Saints Mary and Martha, revolutionized the work of the church throughtout Moscow and Russia.
Her sisters did not remain cut off and cloistered from the world but rather became a true help to the city, founding orphanages, feeding the poor, tending to the ill and terminal and extending the true words of the bible through their actions to the country.
After the revolution, Elizabeth, along with two of her nuns, three sons of Grand Duke Constantine and several others, were imprisoned in Siberia and later thrown down a mineshaft to their imminent deaths on July 17, 1918. Before being struck with the butt of a rifle and thrown into the earth, in true christian spirit she stated, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Considered a saint by the masses within her lifetime, Grand Duchess Elizabeth was later canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church. Her life became an inspiration to many, notably other members of the royal family including her neices. |
