Elizabeth Feodorovna's birthday. History of Russia: Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna and her martyrdom (13 photos)

The Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was the second child in the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England.

The family called her Ella. Her spiritual world was formed in the circle of a family warmed by mutual love. Ella's mother died when the girl was 12 years old, she planted in her young heart the seeds of pure faith, deep compassion for those who cry, suffer, and are burdened. Ella’s memories of visiting hospitals, shelters, and homes for the disabled remained in her memory for the rest of her life.

In the film about Ella’s parents, about her heavenly patron (before converting to Orthodoxy) St. Elizabeth of Turengen, about the history of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt and about its close connection with the House of Romanov, our contemporaries - the director of the Darmstadt archive, Prof. Frank and Princess Margaret of Hesse - tell in detail .

Russia - the vault of heaven dotted with countless stars of God's saints

A few years later, the whole family accompanied Princess Elizabeth to her wedding in Russia. The wedding took place in the Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. The Grand Duchess intensively studied the Russian language, wanting to study more deeply the culture and, most importantly, the faith of her new Motherland.

The film tells the story of the couple's stay together in the Holy Land in October 1888. This pilgrimage deeply struck Elizaveta Fedorovna: Palestine opened up to her as a source of joyful prayer inspiration: revived, reverent childhood memories and tears of quiet prayers to the Heavenly Shepherd. The Garden of Gethsemane, Golgotha, the Holy Sepulcher - the air itself is sanctified here by God's presence. “I wish I could be buried here,” she will say. These words were destined to come true.

After visiting the Holy Land, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy. The only thing that kept her from taking this step was the fear of hurting her family and, above all, her father. Finally, on January 1, 1891, she wrote a letter to her father about her decision to convert to the Orthodox faith. Here is an excerpt from her letter to her father: “I am converting from pure conviction, I feel that this is the highest religion and that I will do it with faith, with deep conviction and confidence that there is God’s blessing for this.”

On April 12 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the Sacrament of Confirmation of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was performed. She retained her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth - the mother of St. John the Baptist. After Confirmation, Emperor Alexander III blessed his daughter-in-law with the precious icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, with which Elizaveta Feodorovna never parted throughout her life and with it on her chest she accepted a martyr’s death.

The film tells about her trip in 1903 to Sarov to glorify St. Seraphim of Sarov, and provides documentary newsreel footage. “Father, why don’t we now have such a strict life as the ascetics of piety had?” St. Seraphim was once asked.
“Because,” answered the monk, “we have no determination to do so. The grace and help of God to the faithful and those who seek the Lord with all their hearts is now the same as it was before.”

Moscow - where national shrines, in which the spiritual fire has burned for centuries, are collected, one spark at a time, from all over the fatherland

Further, the film tells about mass riots, numerous victims, among whom were prominent political figures who died at the hands of revolutionary terrorists. On February 5 (18), 1905, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown at him by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev.

On the third day after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna went to prison to see the killer. She wanted Kalyaev to repent of his terrible crime and pray to the Lord for forgiveness, but he refused. Despite this, the Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected.

“Acquire a peaceful spirit and thousands around you will be saved,” said St. Seraphim of Sarov. While praying at the tomb of her husband, Elizaveta Feodorovna received a revelation - “to move away from secular life, to create an abode of mercy to help the poor and sick.”

After four years of mourning, on February 10, 1909, the Grand Duchess did not return to secular life, but put on the robe of the cross sister of love and mercy, and having gathered seventeen sisters of the Marfo-Mary Convent she founded, she said: “I am leaving a brilliant world, where I occupied a brilliant position, but together with you all I ascend into a greater world - the world of the poor and suffering.”

The basis of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy was the charter of the monastery hostel. One of the main places of poverty, to which the Grand Duchess paid special attention, was the Khitrov market. Many owed their salvation to her.

Another glorious deed of the Grand Duchess was the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Italy, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra rest.

From the very beginning of her life in Orthodoxy until her last days, the Grand Duchess was in complete obedience to her spiritual fathers. Without the blessing of the priest of the Martha and Mary Convent, Archpriest Mitrofan Serebryansky, and without the advice of the elders of Optina Hermitage, Zosimova Hermitage and other monasteries, she herself did nothing. Her humility and obedience were amazing.

After the February Revolution, in the summer of 1917, a Swedish minister came to the Grand Duchess, who, on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm, was supposed to persuade her to leave the increasingly troubled Russia. Warmly thanking the minister for his care, the Grand Duchess quite calmly said that she could not leave her monastery and the sisters and patients entrusted to her by God, and that she had decided to firmly remain in Russia.

In April 1918, on the third day of Easter, Elizaveta Feodorovna was arrested, and her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva voluntarily went under arrest with her. Together with the Grand Dukes of the Romanovs, they are brought to Alapaevsk.

“The Lord has found that it is time for us to bear His cross. Let’s try to be worthy of this joy,” she said.

In the dead of night on July 5 (18), the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva, together with other members of the Imperial House, were thrown into the shaft of an old mine. Prayer chants were heard from the mine.

A few months later, the army of Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak occupied Yekaterinburg, and the bodies of the martyrs were removed from the mine. The venerable martyrs Elizabeth and Varvara and the Grand Duke John had their fingers folded for the sign of the cross. The body of Elizaveta Feodorovna remained incorrupt.

Through the efforts of the White Army, the coffins with the relics of the holy martyrs were delivered to Jerusalem in 1921 and placed in the tomb of the Church of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane, according to the wishes of Grand Duchess Elizabeth.

Director Viktor Ryzhko, script Sergei Drobashenko. 1992
The film is a laureate of the All-Russian Orthodox Film Festival in 1995. Audience Award in 1995.
Diploma winner of the IFF “Golden Knight” 1993
(in preparing the review, the book by L. Miller “The Holy Martyr of Russia Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna” was used)

Text: Zoya Zhalnina

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, 1904. Archival photos and documents from the Museum of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy

What speaks best about a person is his deeds and letters. Elizaveta Feodorovna's letters to her close people reveal the rules on which she built her life and relationships with others, and allow us to better understand the reasons that prompted the brilliant high-society beauty to turn into a saint during her lifetime.

In Russia, Elizaveta Feodorovna was known not only as “the most beautiful princess in Europe,” the sister of the empress and the wife of the royal uncle, but also as the founder of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, a new type of monastery.

In 1918, the founder of the monastery of mercy, wounded but alive, was thrown into a mine in a deep forest so that no one would find it, on the orders of the head of the Bolshevik Party V.I. Lenin.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna was very fond of nature and often took long walks - without ladies-in-waiting or “etiquette.” In the photo: on the way to the village of Nasonovo, not far from the Ilyinsky estate near Moscow, where she and her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, lived almost forever until his appointment in 1891 to the post of Governor General of Moscow. End of the 19th century. State Archive of the Russian Federation

On faith: “External signs only remind me of the internal”

By birth, a Lutheran, Elizaveta Feodorovna, if she wished, could remain one throughout her life: the canons of that time prescribed mandatory conversion to Orthodoxy only for those members of the august family who were related to the succession to the throne, and Elizabeth’s husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was not the heir to the throne . However, in the seventh year of marriage, Elizabeth decides to become Orthodox. And she does this not “because of her husband,” but of her own free will.

Princess Elizabeth with her family in her youth: father, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, sister Alix (future Empress of Russia), Princess Elizabeth herself, elder sister, Princess Victoria, brother Ernst-Ludwig. Mother, Princess Alice, died when Elizabeth was 12 years old.
Painter Heinrich von Angeli, 1879

From a letter to his father, Ludwig IV , Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine
(January 1, 1891):
I decided to take this step [ – transition to Orthodoxy –] It is only out of deep faith that I feel that I must appear before God with a pure and believing heart. How simple it would be to remain as it is now, but then how hypocritical, how false it would be, and how I can lie to everyone - pretending that I am a Protestant in all external rituals, when my soul belongs entirely to religion here. I thought and thought deeply about all this, being in this country for more than 6 years, and knowing that religion was “found”.

I even understand almost everything in Slavic, although I have never studied this language. You say that the external splendor of the church fascinated me. This is where you are wrong. Nothing external attracts me and not worship - but the basis of faith. External signs only remind me of the internal...

Certificate of high medical qualifications of the sisters of the Marfo-Mariinsky Labor Community dated April 21, 1925. After the arrest of Elizaveta Feodorovna in 1918, a “labor artel” was established in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and a hospital was maintained where the sisters of the monastery could work. The sisters worked so well that they even earned praise from the Soviet authorities. That did not stop her from closing the monastery a year after the certificate was issued, in 1926. A copy of the certificate was provided to the Museum of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent by the Central Archives of Moscow

About the revolution: “I prefer to be killed by the first random shot than to sit with my hands folded”

From a letter from V.F. Dzhunkovsky, adjutant of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1905):
The revolution cannot end from day to day, it can only get worse or become chronic, which, in all likelihood, it will be. My duty is now to help the unfortunate victims of the uprising... I prefer to be killed by the first random shot from some window than to sit here with folded hands.<…>

Revolution of 1905-1907 Barricades in Ekaterininsky Lane (Moscow). Photo from the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. Photo chronicle RIA Novosti

From a letter to Emperor Nicholas II (December 29, 1916):
We are all about to be overwhelmed by huge waves<…>All classes - from the lowest to the highest, and even those who are now at the front - have reached the limit!..<…>What other tragedies could unfold? What other suffering do we have ahead of us?

Sergei Alexandrovich and Elizaveta Fedorovna. 1892

Elizaveta Fedorovna is in mourning for her murdered husband. Archival photos and documents from the Museum of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy.

On forgiving enemies: “Knowing the good heart of the deceased, I forgive you”

In 1905, Elizabeth Feodorovna's husband, the Governor General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, was killed by a bomb by the terrorist Kalyaev. Elizaveta Feodorovna, hearing the explosion that occurred not far from the governor’s palace, ran out into the street and began to collect her husband’s body torn to pieces. Then I prayed for a long time. After some time, she filed a petition for pardon for her husband’s killer and visited him in prison, leaving the Gospel. She said she forgives him everything.

Revolutionary Ivan Kalyaev (1877-1905), who killed Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich in Moscow and was executed by the tsarist government. From the family of a retired policeman. In addition to the revolution, he loved poetry and wrote poetry. From the notes of the archpriest of the Shlisselburg prison Cathedral of St. John the Baptist: “I have never seen a man going to death with such calmness and humility of a true Christian. When I told him that in two hours he would be executed, he answered me completely calmly: “ I am quite ready to die; I do not need your sacraments and prayers. I believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit, He is always with me, and I will die accompanied by Him. But if you are a decent person and if you have compassion for me, let's just talk like friends." And he hugged me!" Photo chronicle RIA Novosti

From an encrypted telegram from Senate Prosecutor E.B. Vasiliev dated February 8, 1905:
The meeting between the Grand Duchess and the killer took place on February 7 at 8 pm in the office of the Pyatnitskaya part.<…>When asked who she was, the Grand Duchess replied “I am the wife of the one you killed, tell me why you killed him”; the accused stood up, saying “I did what I was assigned, this is the result of the existing regime.” The Grand Duchess graciously addressed him with the words “knowing the kind heart of the deceased, I forgive you” and blessed the murderer. Then<…>I was left alone with the criminal for about twenty minutes. After the meeting, he told the accompanying officer that “The Grand Duchess is kind, but you are all evil.”

From a letter to Empress Maria Feodorovna (March 8, 1905):
Violent shock [ from the death of her husband] I have flattened a small white cross placed on the spot where he died. The next evening I went there to pray and was able to close my eyes and see this pure symbol of Christ. It was a great mercy, and then, in the evenings, before going to bed, I say: “Good night!” - and I pray, and I have peace in my heart and soul.

Handmade embroidery by Elizabeth Feodorovna. The images of the sisters Martha and Mary signified the path of serving people chosen by the Grand Duchess: active goodness and prayer. Museum of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy in Moscow

About prayer: “I don’t know how to pray well...”

From a letter to Princess Z.N. Yusupova (June 23, 1908):
Peace of heart, tranquility of soul and mind brought me the relics of St. Alexis. If only you could approach the holy relics in church and, after praying, simply venerate them with your forehead - so that peace would enter into you and remain there. I barely prayed - alas, I don’t know how to pray well, but I just fell: I fell like a child to its mother’s breast, not asking for anything, because he was at peace, from the fact that the saint was with me, on whom I could lean and don't get lost alone.

Elizaveta Feodorovna in the vestments of a sister of mercy. The clothes of the sisters of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent were made according to the sketches of Elizabeth Feodorovna, who believed that white was more appropriate for sisters in the world than black.
Archival photos and documents from the Museum of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy.

About monasticism: “I accepted it not as a cross, but as a path”

Four years after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna sold her property and jewelry, donating to the treasury the part that belonged to the Romanov house, and with the proceeds she founded the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in Moscow.

From letters to Emperor Nicholas II (March 26 and April 18, 1909):
In two weeks my new life begins, blessed in the church. It’s as if I’m saying goodbye to the past, with its mistakes and sins, hoping for a higher goal and a purer existence.<…>For me, taking vows is something even more serious than getting married for a young girl. I commit myself to Christ and His cause, I give everything I can to Him and to my neighbors.

View of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent on Ordynka (Moscow) at the beginning of the 20th century. Archival photos and documents from the Museum of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy.

From a telegram and letter from Elizaveta Fedorovna to the professor St. Petersburg Theological Academy A.A. Dmitrievsky (1911):
Some people don’t believe that I myself, without any outside influence, decided to take this step. It seems to many that I have taken on an impossible cross, which I will regret one day and either throw it off or collapse under it. I accepted this not as a cross, but as a path replete with light, which the Lord showed me after the death of Sergei, but which had begun to dawn in my soul many years before. For me this is not a “transition”: it is something that little by little grew in me and took shape.<…>I was amazed when a whole battle broke out to hinder me, to intimidate me with difficulties. All this was done with great love and good intentions, but with an absolute lack of understanding of my character.

Sisters of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent

On relationships with people: “I should do what they do”

From a letter from E.N. Naryshkina (1910):
...You can follow many others in telling me: stay in your palace as a widow and do good “from above.” But, if I demand from others that they follow my convictions, I must do the same as they do, I myself experience the same difficulties with them, I must be strong to console them, encourage them with my example; I have neither intelligence nor talent - I have nothing except love for Christ, but I am weak; We can express the truth of our love for Christ, our devotion to Him, by consoling other people - this is how we will give our lives to Him...

A group of wounded soldiers of the First World War at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. In the center are Elizaveta Feodorovna and sister Varvara, Elizaveta Feodorovna’s cell attendant, the venerable martyr, who voluntarily went into exile with her abbess and died with her. Photo from the Museum of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy.

About attitude towards yourself: “You need to move forward so slowly that you feel like you’re standing still”

From a letter to Emperor Nicholas II (March 26, 1910):
The higher we try to rise, the greater feats we impose on ourselves, the more the devil tries to make us blind to the truth.<…>You need to move forward so slowly that it seems like you are standing still. A person should not look down on himself, he should consider himself the worst of the worst. It often seemed to me that there was some kind of lie in this: trying to consider oneself the worst of the worst. But this is exactly what we must come to - with the help of God, everything is possible.

Theotokos and Apostle John the Theologian at the Cross on Golgotha. A fragment of stucco decorating the Intercession Cathedral of the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery.

Why God Allows Suffering

From a letter Countess A.A. Olsufieva (1916):
I'm not exalted, my friend. I am only sure that the Lord who punishes is the same Lord who loves. I have been reading the Gospel a lot lately, and if we realize the great sacrifice of God the Father, who sent His Son to die and rise for us, then we will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, who illuminates our path. And then joy becomes eternal even when our poor human hearts and our little earthly minds experience moments that seem very scary.

About Rasputin: “This is a man who leads several lives”

Elizaveta Feodorovna had an extremely negative attitude towards the excessive trust with which her younger sister, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, treated Grigory Rasputin. She believed that Rasputin's dark influence had reduced the imperial couple to "a state of blindness that casts a shadow over their home and country."
It is interesting that two of the participants in the murder of Rasputin were part of Elizabeth Feodorovna’s closest circle of friends: Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, who was her nephew.

Holy Martyr Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova

The Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (officially in Russia - Elisaveta Feodorovna) was born on October 20 (November 1), 1864 in Germany, in the city of Darmstadt. She was the second child in the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ludwig IV, and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England. Another daughter of this couple (Alice) would later become Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

Grand Duchess of Hesse and Rhineland Alice with her daughter Ella

Ella with her mother Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and the Rhine

Ludwig IV of Hesse and Alice with Princesses Victoria and Elizabeth (right).

Princess Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt

The children were brought up in the traditions of old England, their lives followed a strict order established by their mother. Children's clothing and food were very basic. The eldest daughters did their homework themselves: they cleaned the rooms, beds, and lit the fireplace. Subsequently, Elizaveta Fedorovna said: “They taught me everything in the house.” The mother carefully monitored the talents and inclinations of each of the seven children and tried to raise them on the solid basis of Christian commandments, to put in their hearts love for their neighbors, especially for the suffering.

Elizaveta Fedorovna's parents gave away most of their fortune to charity, and the children constantly traveled with their mother to hospitals, shelters, and homes for the disabled, bringing with them large bouquets of flowers, putting them in vases, and carrying them around the wards of the sick.

Since childhood, Elizabeth loved nature and especially flowers, which she enthusiastically painted. She had a gift for painting, and throughout her life she devoted a lot of time to this activity. She loved classical music. Everyone who knew Elizabeth from childhood noted her religiosity and love for her neighbors. As Elizaveta Feodorovna herself later said, even in her earliest youth she was greatly influenced by the life and exploits of her saintly distant relative Elizabeth of Thuringia, in whose honor she bore her name.

Portrait of the family of Grand Duke Ludwig IV, painted for Queen Victoria in 1879 by the artist Baron Heinrich von Angeli.

In 1873, Elizabeth’s three-year-old brother Friedrich fell to his death in front of his mother. In 1876, an epidemic of diphtheria began in Darmstadt; all the children except Elizabeth fell ill. The mother sat at night by the beds of her sick children. Soon, four-year-old Maria died, and after her, the Grand Duchess Alice herself fell ill and died at the age of 35.

That year the time of childhood ended for Elizabeth. Grief intensified her prayers. She realized that life on earth is the path of the Cross. The child tried with all his might to ease his father’s grief, support him, console him, and to some extent replace his mother with his younger sisters and brother.

Alice and Louis together with their children: Marie in the arms of the Grand Duke and (from left to right) Ella, Ernie, Alix, Irene, and Victoria

Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse and the Rhine

Artist - Henry Charles Heath

Princesses Victoria, Elizabeth, Irene, Alix Hesse mourn their mother.

In her twentieth year, Princess Elizabeth became the bride of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, brother of Emperor Alexander III. She met her future husband in childhood, when he came to Germany with his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who also came from the House of Hesse. Before this, all applicants for her hand had been refused: Princess Elizabeth in her youth had vowed to remain a virgin for the rest of her life. After a frank conversation between her and Sergei Alexandrovich, it turned out that he had secretly made the same vow. By mutual agreement, their marriage was spiritual, they lived like brother and sister.

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich

Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

The wedding took place in the church of the Grand Palace of St. Petersburg according to the Orthodox rite, and after it according to the Protestant rite in one of the living rooms of the palace. The Grand Duchess intensively studied the Russian language, wanting to study more deeply the culture and especially the faith of her new homeland.

Grand Duchess Elizabeth was dazzlingly beautiful. In those days they said that there were only two beauties in Europe, and both were Elizabeths: Elizabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, and Elizabeth Feodorovna.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova.

F.I. Rerberg.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova.

Zon, Karl Rudolf -

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova.

A.P.Sokolov

For most of the year, the Grand Duchess lived with her husband on their Ilyinskoye estate, sixty kilometers from Moscow, on the banks of the Moscow River. She loved Moscow with its ancient churches, monasteries and patriarchal life. Sergei Alexandrovich was a deeply religious person, strictly observed all church canons and fasts, often went to services, went to monasteries - the Grand Duchess followed her husband everywhere and stood idle for long church services. Here she experienced an amazing feeling, so different from what she encountered in the Protestant church.

Elizaveta Feodorovna firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy. What kept her from taking this step was the fear of hurting her family, and above all, her father. Finally, on January 1, 1891, she wrote a letter to her father about her decision, asking for a short telegram of blessing.

The father did not send his daughter the desired telegram with a blessing, but wrote a letter in which he said that her decision brings him pain and suffering, and he cannot give a blessing. Then Elizaveta Fedorovna showed courage and, despite moral suffering, firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy.

On April 13 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the sacrament of anointing of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was performed, leaving her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth - the mother of St. John the Baptist, whose memory the Orthodox Church commemorates on September 5 (18).

Friedrich August von Kaulbach.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, V.I. Nesterenko

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, 1887. Artist S.F. Alexandrovsky

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

In 1891, Emperor Alexander III appointed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich as Moscow Governor-General. The wife of the Governor-General had to perform many duties - there were constant receptions, concerts, and balls. It was necessary to smile and bow to the guests, dance and conduct conversations, regardless of mood, state of health and desire.

The residents of Moscow soon appreciated her merciful heart. She went to hospitals for the poor, almshouses, and shelters for street children. And everywhere she tried to alleviate the suffering of people: she distributed food, clothing, money, and improved the living conditions of the unfortunate.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Room of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

In 1894, after many obstacles, the decision was made to engage Grand Duchess Alice to the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Elizaveta Feodorovna rejoiced that the young lovers could finally unite, and her sister would live in Russia, dear to her heart. Princess Alice was 22 years old and Elizaveta Feodorovna hoped that her sister, living in Russia, would understand and love the Russian people, master the Russian language perfectly and be able to prepare for the high service of the Russian Empress.

Two sisters Ella and Alix

Ella and Alix

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

But everything happened differently. The heir's bride arrived in Russia when Emperor Alexander III lay dying. On October 20, 1894, the emperor died. The next day, Princess Alice converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra. The wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna took place a week after the funeral, and in the spring of 1896 the coronation took place in Moscow. The celebrations were overshadowed by a terrible disaster: on the Khodynka field, where gifts were being distributed to the people, a stampede began - thousands of people were injured or crushed.

When the Russo-Japanese War began, Elizaveta Fedorovna immediately began organizing assistance to the front. One of her remarkable undertakings was the establishment of workshops to help soldiers - all the halls of the Kremlin Palace, except the Throne Palace, were occupied for them. Thousands of women worked on sewing machines and work tables. Huge donations came from all over Moscow and the provinces. From here, bales of food, uniforms, medicines and gifts for soldiers went to the front. The Grand Duchess sent camp churches with icons and everything necessary for worship to the front. I personally sent Gospels, icons and prayer books. At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several ambulance trains.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, D. Belyukin

Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

In Moscow, she set up a hospital for the wounded and created special committees to provide for the widows and orphans of those killed at the front. But Russian troops suffered one defeat after another. The war showed Russia's technical and military unpreparedness and the shortcomings of public administration. Scores began to be settled for past grievances of arbitrariness or injustice, the unprecedented scale of terrorist acts, rallies, and strikes. The state and social order was falling apart, a revolution was approaching.

Sergei Alexandrovich believed that it was necessary to take tougher measures against the revolutionaries and reported this to the emperor, saying that given the current situation he could no longer hold the position of Governor-General of Moscow. The Emperor accepted his resignation and the couple left the governor's house, moving temporarily to Neskuchnoye.

Meanwhile, the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Its agents kept an eye on him, waiting for an opportunity to execute him. Elizaveta Fedorovna knew that her husband was in mortal danger. Anonymous letters warned her not to accompany her husband if she did not want to share his fate. The Grand Duchess especially tried not to leave him alone and, if possible, accompanied her husband everywhere.

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, V.I. Nesterenko

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Princess Elizaveta Feodorovna

On February 5 (18), 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Feodorovna arrived at the scene of the explosion, a crowd had already gathered there. Someone tried to prevent her from approaching the remains of her husband, but with her own hands she collected the pieces of her husband’s body scattered by the explosion onto a stretcher.

On the third day after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna went to the prison where the murderer was kept. Kalyaev said: “I didn’t want to kill you, I saw him several times and the time when I had a bomb ready, but you were with him, and I did not dare to touch him.”

- « And you didn’t realize that you killed me along with him? - she answered. She further said that she had brought forgiveness from Sergei Alexandrovich and asked him to repent. But he refused. Nevertheless, Elizaveta Fedorovna left the Gospel and a small icon in the cell, hoping for a miracle. Leaving prison, she said: “My attempt was unsuccessful, although who knows, perhaps at the last minute he will realize his sin and repent of it.” The Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected.

Meeting of Elizaveta Fedorovna and Kalyaev.

From the moment of the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna did not stop mourning, began to keep a strict fast, and prayed a lot. Her bedroom in the Nicholas Palace began to resemble a monastic cell. All the luxurious furniture was taken out, the walls were repainted white, and only icons and paintings of spiritual content were on them. She did not appear at social functions. She was only in church for weddings or christenings of relatives and friends and immediately went home or on business. Now nothing connected her with social life.

Elizaveta Fedorovna in mourning after the death of her husband

She collected all her jewelry, gave some to the treasury, some to her relatives, and decided to use the rest to build a monastery of mercy. On Bolshaya Ordynka in Moscow, Elizaveta Fedorovna purchased an estate with four houses and a garden. In the largest two-story house there is a dining room for the sisters, a kitchen and other utility rooms, in the second there is a church and a hospital, next to it there is a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic for incoming patients. In the fourth house there was an apartment for the priest - the confessor of the monastery, classes of the school for girls of the orphanage and a library.

On February 10, 1909, the Grand Duchess gathered 17 sisters of the monastery she founded, took off her mourning dress, put on a monastic robe and said: “I will leave the brilliant world where I occupied a brilliant position, but together with all of you I ascend to a greater world - to a world of the poor and suffering."

Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova.

The first church of the monastery (“hospital”) was consecrated by Bishop Tryphon on September 9 (21), 1909 (on the day of the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the name of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary. The second church is in honor of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 1911 (architect A.V. Shchusev, paintings by M.V. Nesterov)

Mikhail Nesterov. Elisaveta Feodorovna Romanova. Between 1910 and 1912.

The day at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent began at 6 o’clock in the morning. After the general morning prayer rule. In the hospital church, the Grand Duchess gave obedience to the sisters for the coming day. Those free from obedience remained in the church, where the Divine Liturgy began. The afternoon meal included reading the lives of the saints. At 5 o'clock in the evening, Vespers and Matins were served in the church, where all the sisters free from obedience were present. On holidays and Sundays an all-night vigil was held. At 9 o'clock in the evening, the evening rule was read in the hospital church, after which all the sisters, having received the blessing of the abbess, went to their cells. Akathists were read four times a week during Vespers: on Sunday - to the Savior, on Monday - to the Archangel Michael and all the Ethereal Heavenly Powers, on Wednesday - to the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary, and on Friday - to the Mother of God or the Passion of Christ. In the chapel, built at the end of the garden, the Psalter for the dead was read. The abbess herself often prayed there at night. The inner life of the sisters was led by a wonderful priest and shepherd - the confessor of the monastery, Archpriest Mitrofan Serebryansky. Twice a week he had conversations with the sisters. In addition, the sisters could come to their confessor or abbess every day at certain hours for advice and guidance. The Grand Duchess, together with Father Mitrofan, taught the sisters not only medical knowledge, but also spiritual guidance to degenerate, lost and despairing people. Every Sunday after the evening service in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God, conversations were held for the people with the general singing of prayers.

Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent

Archpriest Mitrofan Srebryansky

Divine services in the monastery have always been at a brilliant height thanks to the exceptional pastoral merits of the confessor chosen by the abbess. The best shepherds and preachers not only from Moscow, but also from many remote places in Russia came here to perform divine services and preach. Like a bee, the abbess collected nectar from all flowers so that people could feel the special aroma of spirituality. The monastery, its churches and worship aroused the admiration of its contemporaries. This was facilitated not only by the temples of the monastery, but also by a beautiful park with greenhouses - in the best traditions of garden art of the 18th - 19th centuries. It was a single ensemble that harmoniously combined external and internal beauty.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

A contemporary of the Grand Duchess, Nonna Grayton, maid of honor to her relative Princess Victoria, testifies: “She had a wonderful quality - to see the good and the real in people, and tried to bring it out. She also did not have a high opinion of her qualities at all... She never said the words “I can’t”, and there was never anything dull in the life of the Marfo-Mary Convent. Everything was perfect there, both inside and outside. And whoever was there took away a wonderful feeling.”

In the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, the Grand Duchess led the life of an ascetic. She slept on a wooden bed without a mattress. She strictly observed fasts, eating only plant foods. In the morning she got up for prayer, after which she distributed obediences to the sisters, worked in the clinic, received visitors, and sorted out petitions and letters.

In the evening, there is a round of patients, ending after midnight. At night she prayed in a chapel or in church, her sleep rarely lasting more than three hours. When the patient was thrashing about and needed help, she sat at his bedside until dawn. In the hospital, Elizaveta Feodorovna took on the most responsible work: she assisted during operations, did dressings, found words of consolation, and tried to alleviate the suffering of the sick. They said that the Grand Duchess emanated a healing power that helped them endure pain and agree to difficult operations.

The abbess always offered confession and communion as the main remedy for illnesses. She said: “It is immoral to console the dying with false hope of recovery; it is better to help them move into eternity in a Christian way.”

The healed patients cried as they left the Marfo-Mariinskaya Hospital, parting with “ great mother", as they called the abbess. There was a Sunday school at the monastery for female factory workers. Anyone could use the funds of the excellent library. There was a free canteen for the poor.

The abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent believed that the main thing was not the hospital, but helping the poor and needy. The monastery received up to 12,000 requests a year. They asked for everything: arranging for treatment, finding a job, looking after children, caring for bedridden patients, sending them to study abroad.

She found opportunities to help the clergy - she provided funds for the needs of poor rural parishes that could not repair the church or build a new one. She encouraged, strengthened, and helped financially the priests - missionaries who worked among the pagans of the far north or foreigners on the outskirts of Russia.

One of the main places of poverty, to which the Grand Duchess paid special attention, was the Khitrov market. Elizaveta Fedorovna, accompanied by her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva or the sister of the monastery, Princess Maria Obolenskaya, tirelessly moving from one den to another, collected orphans and persuaded parents to give her children to raise. The entire population of Khitrovo respected her, calling her “ sister Elizabeth" or "mother" The police constantly warned her that they could not guarantee her safety.

Varvara Yakovleva

Princess Maria Obolenskaya

Khitrov market

In response to this, the Grand Duchess always thanked the police for their care and said that her life was not in their hands, but in the hands of God. She tried to save the children of Khitrovka. She was not afraid of uncleanliness, swearing, or a face that had lost its human appearance. She said: " The likeness of God may sometimes be obscured, but it can never be destroyed.”

She placed the boys torn from Khitrovka into dormitories. From one group of such recent ragamuffins an artel of executive messengers of Moscow was formed. The girls were placed in closed educational institutions or shelters, where their health, spiritual and physical, was also monitored.

Elizaveta Feodorovna organized charity homes for orphans, disabled people, and seriously ill people, found time to visit them, constantly supported them financially, and brought gifts. They tell the following story: one day the Grand Duchess was supposed to come to an orphanage for little orphans. Everyone was preparing to meet their benefactress with dignity. The girls were told that the Grand Duchess would come: they would need to greet her and kiss her hands. When Elizaveta Fedorovna arrived, she was greeted by little children in white dresses. They greeted each other in unison and all extended their hands to the Grand Duchess with the words: “kiss the hands.” The teachers were horrified: what would happen. But the Grand Duchess went up to each of the girls and kissed everyone’s hands. Everyone cried at the same time - there was such tenderness and reverence on their faces and in their hearts.

« Great Mother“hoped that the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, which she created, would blossom into a large fruitful tree.

Over time, she planned to establish branches of the monastery in other cities of Russia.

The Grand Duchess had a native Russian love of pilgrimage.

More than once she traveled to Sarov and happily hurried to the temple to pray at the shrine of St. Seraphim. She went to Pskov, to Optina Pustyn, to Zosima Pustyn, and was in the Solovetsky Monastery. She also visited the smallest monasteries in provincial and remote places in Russia. She was present at all spiritual celebrations associated with the discovery or transfer of the relics of the saints of God. The Grand Duchess secretly helped and looked after sick pilgrims who were expecting healing from the newly glorified saints. In 1914, she visited the monastery in Alapaevsk, which was destined to become the place of her imprisonment and martyrdom.

She was the patroness of Russian pilgrims going to Jerusalem. Through the societies organized by her, the cost of tickets for pilgrims sailing from Odessa to Jaffa was covered. She also built a large hotel in Jerusalem.

Another glorious deed of the Grand Duchess was the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Italy, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra of Lycia rest. In 1914, the lower church in honor of St. Nicholas and the hospice house were consecrated.

During the First World War, the Grand Duchess's work increased: it was necessary to care for the wounded in hospitals. Some of the sisters of the monastery were released to work in a field hospital. At first, Elizaveta Fedorovna, prompted by Christian feelings, visited the captured Germans, but slander about secret support for the enemy forced her to abandon this.

In 1916, an angry crowd approached the gates of the monastery with a demand to hand over a German spy - the brother of Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was allegedly hiding in the monastery. The abbess came out to the crowd alone and offered to inspect all the premises of the community. A mounted police force dispersed the crowd.

Soon after the February Revolution, a crowd with rifles, red flags and bows again approached the monastery. The abbess herself opened the gate - they told her that they had come to arrest her and put her on trial as a German spy, who also kept weapons in the monastery.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Konstantinov

In response to the demands of those who came to immediately go with them, the Grand Duchess said that she must make orders and say goodbye to the sisters. The abbess gathered all the sisters in the monastery and asked Father Mitrofan to serve a prayer service. Then, turning to the revolutionaries, she invited them to enter the church, but to leave their weapons at the entrance. They reluctantly took off their rifles and followed into the temple.

Elizaveta Fedorovna stood on her knees throughout the prayer service. After the end of the service, she said that Father Mitrofan would show them all the buildings of the monastery, and they could look for what they wanted to find. Of course, they found nothing there except the sisters’ cells and a hospital with the sick. After the crowd left, Elizaveta Fedorovna said to the sisters: “ Obviously we are not yet worthy of the crown of martyrdom.”.

In the spring of 1917, a Swedish minister came to her on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm and offered her help in traveling abroad. Elizaveta Fedorovna replied that she had decided to share the fate of the country, which she considered her new homeland and could not leave the sisters of the monastery in this difficult time.

Never have there been so many people at a service in the monastery as before the October revolution. They went not only for a bowl of soup or medical help, but also for consolation and advice." great mother" Elizaveta Fedorovna received everyone, listened to them, and strengthened them. People left her peaceful and encouraged.

Mikhail Nesterov

Fresco "Christ with Martha and Mary" for the Intercession Cathedral of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow

Mikhail Nesterov

Mikhail Nesterov

For the first time after the October revolution, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was not touched. On the contrary, the sisters were shown respect; twice a week a truck with food arrived at the monastery: black bread, dried fish, vegetables, some fat and sugar. Limited quantities of bandages and essential medicines were provided.

Elizaveta Feodorovna (at birth Elizaveta Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, German Elisabeth Alexandra Luise Alice von Hessen-Darmstadt und bei Rhein, her family name was Ella, officially in Russia - Elisaveta Feodorovna; November 1, 1864, Darmstadt - July 18, 1918, Perm province) - Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt; in marriage (to the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich) the Grand Duchess of the reigning house of Romanov. Founder of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. Honorary member of the Imperial Kazan Theological Academy (the title was Supremely approved on June 6, 1913).

She was canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992.

She was called the most beautiful princess in Europe - the second daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, whose mother was Queen Victoria of England. The august poet Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov dedicated the following poem to the beautiful German princess:

I look at you, admiring you every hour:
You are so inexpressibly beautiful!
Oh, that's right, underneath such a beautiful exterior
Such a beautiful soul!
Some kind of meekness and innermost sadness
There is depth in your eyes;
Like an angel you are quiet, pure and perfect;
Like a woman, shy and tender.
May there be nothing on earth
amidst much evil and sorrow
Your purity will not be tarnished.
And everyone who sees you will glorify God,
Who created such beauty!

However, Elizabeth's real life was very far from our ideas of how princesses live. Brought up in strict English traditions, the girl was accustomed to work from childhood; she and her sister did housework, and clothing and food were simple. In addition, from a very early age, the children in this family were involved in charity work: together with their mother, they visited hospitals, shelters, and homes for the disabled, trying to the best of their ability, if not to alleviate, at least to brighten up the stay of those suffering in them. Elizabeth’s life example was her relative, the German saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, after whom this sad and beautiful girl was named.

The biography of this amazing woman, who made her life’s journey during the Crusades, is surprising to us in many ways. At the age of four, she was married to her future husband, Landgrave Ludwig IV of Thuringia, who was not much older than her. In 1222, at the age of 15, she gave birth to her first child, and in 1227 she was widowed. And she was only 20 years old and had three children in her arms. Elizabeth took a monastic vow and retired to Marburg, where she devoted herself to serving God and people. On her initiative, a hospital for the poor was built here, where Elizabeth worked selflessly, personally caring for patients. Backbreaking work and grueling asceticism quickly undermined the strength of the young, fragile woman. At the age of 24 she died. Elizabeth lived in a world where brute force and class prejudices reigned. Her activities seemed absurd and harmful to many, but she was not afraid of ridicule and anger, was not afraid of being different from others and acting contrary to established views. She perceived each person, first of all, as the image and likeness of God, and therefore caring for him acquired a higher, sacred meaning for her. How consonant is this with the life and work of her holy successor, who became the Orthodox Martyr Elizabeth!

Second daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. Her younger sister Alice later became Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in November 1894, marrying Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

From childhood she was religiously inclined and participated in charity work with her mother, Grand Duchess Alice, who died in 1878. The image of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, after whom Ella was named, played a large role in the spiritual life of the family: this saint, the ancestor of the Dukes of Hesse, became famous for her deeds of mercy.

Living in solitude, the German princess apparently had no desire to get married. In any case, all applicants for the hand and heart of the beautiful Elizabeth were refused. That was until she met Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, brother of Emperor Alexander III. At the age of twenty, Elizabeth became the bride of the Grand Duke, and then his wife.

On June 3 (15), 1884, in the Court Cathedral of the Winter Palace, she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, as announced by the Highest Manifesto. The Orthodox wedding was performed by the court protopresbyter John Yanyshev; the crowns were held by Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, Grand Dukes Alexei and Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Peter Nikolaevich, Mikhail and Georgy Mikhailovich; then, in the Alexander Hall, the pastor of St. Anne’s Church also performed a service according to the Lutheran rite.

The couple settled in the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace purchased by Sergei Alexandrovich (the palace became known as Sergievsky), spending their honeymoon on the Ilyinskoye estate near Moscow, where they also lived subsequently. At her insistence, a hospital was established in Ilyinsky, and fairs were periodically held in favor of the peasants.

She mastered the Russian language perfectly and spoke it with almost no accent. While still professing Protestantism, she attended Orthodox services. In 1888, together with her husband, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1891, she converted to Orthodoxy, writing before this to her father: “I thought and read and prayed to God all the time to show me the right path - and came to the conclusion that only in this religion can I find the true and strong faith in God that a person must have to be a good Christian."

Thus began the “Russian” era of the German princess’s life. A woman’s homeland is where her family is, says a popular proverb. Elizabeth tried to learn the language and traditions of Russia as best as possible. And soon she mastered them perfectly. She, as a Grand Duchess, did not have to convert to Orthodoxy. However, Sergei Alexandrovich was a sincere believer. He regularly attended church, often confessed and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, observed fasts and tried to live in harmony with God. At the same time, he did not put any pressure on his wife, who remained a devout Protestant. The example of her husband influenced Elizabeth’s spiritual life so much that she decided to convert to Orthodoxy, despite the protest of her father and family who remained in Darmstadt. Attending all services with her beloved husband, she had long since become Orthodox in her soul. After the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Grand Duchess was left with her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth - the mother of the holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. Only one letter has changed. And all life. Emperor Alexander III blessed his daughter-in-law with the precious icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, with which Elisaveta Feodorovna did not part with her entire life and accepted a martyr’s death with it on her chest.

It is characteristic that while visiting the Holy Land in 1888, examining the Church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles on the Mount of Olives, the Grand Duchess said: “How I would like to be buried here.” She did not know then that she had uttered a prophecy that was destined to be fulfilled.

As the wife of the Moscow governor-general (Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed to this post in 1891), she organized the Elizabethan Charitable Society in 1892, established in order to “look after the legitimate babies of the poorest mothers, hitherto placed, although without any right, in the Moscow Educational house, under the guise of illegal.” The activities of the society first took place in Moscow, and then spread to the entire Moscow province. Elizabethan committees were formed at all Moscow church parishes and in all district cities of the Moscow province. In addition, Elizaveta Fedorovna headed the Ladies' Committee of the Red Cross, and after the death of her husband, she was appointed chairman of the Moscow Office of the Red Cross.

As you know, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was the Moscow governor-general. This was the time of spiritual growth for the Grand Duchess. The residents of Moscow appreciated her mercy. Elisaveta Feodorovna visited hospitals for the poor, almshouses, and shelters for street children. And everywhere she tried to alleviate the suffering of people: she distributed food, clothing, money, and improved the living conditions of the unfortunate. But the Grand Duchess’s talents for mercy were especially evident during the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars. Help for the front, the wounded and disabled, as well as their wives, children and widows was organized in an unprecedented way.

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Elizaveta Fedorovna organized the Special Committee for Assistance to Soldiers, under which a donation warehouse was created in the Grand Kremlin Palace for the benefit of soldiers: bandages were prepared there, clothes were sewn, parcels were collected, and camp churches were formed.

In the recently published letters of Elizabeth Feodorovna to Nicholas II, the Grand Duchess appears as a supporter of the most stringent and decisive measures against any freethinking in general and revolutionary terrorism in particular. “Is it really impossible to judge these animals in a field court?” - she asked the emperor in a letter written in 1902 shortly after the murder of Sipyagin, and she herself answered the question: “Everything must be done to prevent them from becoming heroes... to kill in them the desire to risk their lives and commit such crimes (I believe that it would be better if he paid with his life and thus disappeared!) But who he is and what he is - let no one know... and there is no point in pitying those who themselves do not pity anyone.”

However, the country was overwhelmed by terrorist attacks, rallies, and strikes. The state and social order was falling apart, a revolution was approaching. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich believed that it was necessary to take tougher measures against the revolutionaries, and reported this to the Emperor, saying that given the current situation he could no longer hold the position of Governor-General of Moscow. The Emperor accepted the resignation. Nevertheless, the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Its agents watched him, waiting for an opportunity to carry out their plan. Elizaveta Fedorovna knew that her husband was in mortal danger. She received anonymous letters warning her not to accompany her husband if she did not want to share his fate. The Grand Duchess especially tried not to leave him alone and, if possible, accompanied her husband everywhere. On February 18, 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Feodorovna arrived at the scene of the explosion, a crowd had already gathered there. And with her own hands she collected the pieces of her husband’s body scattered by the explosion onto a stretcher. Then, after the first funeral service, I changed into all black. On the third day after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna went to the prison where the murderer was kept. The Grand Duchess brought him forgiveness from Sergei Alexandrovich and asked Kalyaev to repent. She held the Gospel in her hands and asked to read it, but he refused both it and repentance. Nevertheless, Elizaveta Fedorovna left the Gospel and a small icon in the cell, hoping for a miracle that did not happen. After this, the Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected. At the site of her husband’s murder, Elizaveta Fedorovna erected a monument - a cross made according to the design of the artist Vasnetsov with the words of the Savior spoken by Him on the Cross: “Father, let them go, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). These words became the last in her life - July 18, 1918, when agents of the new godless government threw the Grand Duchess alive into the Alapaevsk mine. But until this day there were still several years left, filled with the ascetic work of the sister of the cross of mercy Elizabeth in the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery founded by the Grand Duchess. Without becoming a nun in the proper sense of the word, she was not afraid to be different from others, like her German ancestor, devoting herself entirely to serving people and God...

Soon after the death of her husband, she sold her jewelry (giving to the treasury that part of it that belonged to the Romanov dynasty), and with the proceeds she bought an estate on Bolshaya Ordynka with four houses and a vast garden, where the Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent of Mercy, founded by her in 1909, is located (this was not a monastery in the exact sense of the word, the charter of the monastery allowed the sisters to leave it under certain conditions, the sisters of the monastery were engaged in charitable and medical work).

She was a supporter of the revival of the rank of deaconesses - ministers of the church of the first centuries, who in the first centuries of Christianity were appointed through ordination, participated in the celebration of the Liturgy, approximately in the role in which subdeacons now serve, were engaged in catechesis of women, helped with the baptism of women, and served the sick. She received the support of the majority of members of the Holy Synod on the issue of conferring this title on the sisters of the monastery, however, in accordance with the opinion of Nicholas II, the decision was never made.

When creating the monastery, both Russian Orthodox and European experience were used. The sisters who lived in the monastery took vows of chastity, non-covetousness and obedience, however, unlike the nuns, after a certain period of time they could leave the monastery, start a family and be free from the previously given vows. The sisters received serious psychological, methodological, spiritual and medical training at the monastery. The best doctors in Moscow gave lectures to them, conversations with them were conducted by the confessor of the monastery, Fr. Mitrofan of Srebryansky (later Archimandrite Sergius; canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church) and the second priest of the monastery, Fr. Evgeny Sinadsky.

According to Elizaveta Fedorovna’s plan, the monastery was supposed to provide comprehensive, spiritual, educational and medical assistance to those in need, who were often not just given food and clothing, but helped in finding employment and placed in hospitals. Often the sisters persuaded families who could not give their children a normal upbringing (for example, professional beggars, drunkards, etc.) to send their children to an orphanage, where they were given an education, good care and a profession.

A hospital, an excellent outpatient clinic, a pharmacy where some medications were provided free of charge, a shelter, a free canteen and many other institutions were created in the monastery. Educational lectures and conversations, meetings of the Palestine Society, Geographical Society, spiritual readings and other events were held in the Intercession Church of the monastery.

Having settled in the monastery, Elizaveta Fedorovna led an ascetic life: at night caring for the seriously ill or reading the Psalter over the dead, and during the day she worked, along with her sisters, bypassing the poorest neighborhoods, she herself visited the Khitrov market - the most crime-prone place in Moscow at that time, rescuing young children from there. There she was highly respected for the dignity with which she carried herself and her complete lack of superiority over the inhabitants of the slums.

She maintained relations with a number of famous elders of that time: Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov) (Eleazar Hermitage), Schema-Abbot Herman (Gomzin) and Hieroschemamonk Alexy (Solovyov) (Elders of Zosimova Hermitage). Elizaveta Fedorovna did not take monastic vows.

During the First World War, she actively took care of helping the Russian army, including wounded soldiers. At the same time, she tried to help prisoners of war, with whom the hospitals were overcrowded and, as a result, was accused of collaborating with the Germans. She had a sharply negative attitude towards Grigory Rasputin, although she had never met him. The murder of Rasputin was regarded as a “patriotic act.”

Elizaveta Fedorovna was an honorary member of the Berlin Orthodox Holy Prince Vladimir Brotherhood. In 1910, she, together with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, took under her protection the fraternal church in Bad Nauheim (Germany).

She refused to leave Russia after the Bolsheviks came to power. In the spring of 1918, she was taken into custody and deported from Moscow to Perm. In May 1918, she, along with other representatives of the Romanov house, was transported to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Atamanov Rooms hotel (currently the building houses the FSB and the Main Internal Affairs Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region, the current address is the intersection of Lenin and Vainer streets), and then, two months later, they were sent to the city of Alapaevsk. She did not lose her presence of mind, and in letters she instructed the remaining sisters, bequeathing them to maintain love for God and their neighbors. With her was a sister from the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, Varvara Yakovleva. In Alapaevsk, Elizaveta Fedorovna was imprisoned in the building of the Floor School. To this day, an apple tree grows near this school, according to legend, planted by the Grand Duchess (12 trips to the Middle Urals, 2008).

On the night of July 5 (18), 1918, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna was killed by the Bolsheviks: she was thrown into the Novaya Selimskaya mine, 18 km from Alapaevsk. The following died with her:

Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
Prince John Konstantinovich;
Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich (junior);
Prince Igor Konstantinovich;
Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley;
Fyodor Semyonovich Remez, manager of the affairs of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery Varvara (Yakovleva).

All of them, except for the shot Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, were thrown into the mine alive. When the bodies were recovered from the mine, it was discovered that some of the victims lived on after the fall, dying of hunger and wounds. At the same time, the wound of Prince John, who fell on the ledge of the mine near the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, was bandaged with part of her apostle. The surrounding peasants said that for several days the singing of prayers could be heard from the mine.

On October 31, 1918, the White Army occupied Alapaevsk. The remains of the dead were removed from the mine, placed in coffins and placed for funeral services in the city cemetery church. However, with the advance of the Red Army, the bodies were transported further to the East several times. In April 1920, they were met in Beijing by the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archbishop Innokenty (Figurovsky). From there, two coffins - Grand Duchess Elizabeth and sister Varvara - were transported to Shanghai and then by steamship to Port Said. Finally the coffins arrived in Jerusalem. The burial in January 1921 under the Church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane was performed by Patriarch Damian of Jerusalem.

Thus, the desire of Grand Duchess Elizabeth herself to be buried in the Holy Land, expressed by her during a pilgrimage in 1888, was fulfilled.

In 1992, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Grand Duchess Elizabeth and sister Varvara and included them in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (previously, in 1981, they were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia).

In 2004-2005, the relics of the new martyrs were in Russia, the CIS and Baltic countries, where more than 7 million people venerated them. According to Patriarch Alexy II, “long lines of believers to the relics of the holy new martyrs are another symbol of Russia’s repentance for the sins of hard times, the country’s return to its original historical path.” The relics were then returned to Jerusalem.

The monument to this merciful and virtuous woman was erected more than 70 years after her martyrdom. Elizaveta Feodorovna, being a member of the imperial family, was distinguished by rare piety and mercy. And after the death of her husband, who died as a result of a terrorist attack by the Social Revolutionaries, she completely devoted herself to serving God and helping the suffering. The sculpture depicted the princess in monastic clothing. Opened in August 1990 in the courtyard of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. Sculptor V. M. Klykov.

Literature

Materials for the life of the Venerable Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Letters, diaries, memories, documents. M., 1995. GARF. F. 601. Op.1. L. 145-148 vol.
Mayerova V. Elizaveta Fedorovna: Biography. M.: Publishing house. "Zakharov", 2001. ISBN 5-8159-0185-7
Maksimova L. B. Elisaveta Feodorovna // Orthodox Encyclopedia. Volume XVIII. - M.: Church and Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia", 2009. - P. 389-399. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-032-5
Miller, L.P. Holy Russian martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna. M.: "Capital", 1994. ISBN 5-7055-1155-8
Kuchmaeva I.K. Life and feat of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. M.: ANO IC "Moskvovedenie", OJSC "Moscow Textbooks", 2004. ISBN 5-7853-0376-0
Rychkov A.V. 12 travels in the Middle Urals. - Malysh and Carlson, 2008. - 50 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9900756-1-0
Rychkov A. Holy Reverend Martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna. - Publishing house "MiK", 2007.

Everyone talked about her as a dazzling beauty, and in Europe they believed that there were only two beauties on the European Olympus, both of them Elizabeths. Elizabeth of Austria,...

Everyone talked about her as a dazzling beauty, and in Europe they believed that there were only two beauties on the European Olympus, both of them Elizabeths. Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, and Elizabeth Feodorovna.

Elizaveta Feodorovna, the elder sister of Alexandra Feodorovna, the future Russian Empress, was the second child in the family of Duke Louis IV of Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England. Another daughter of this couple, Alice, later became the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

The children were brought up in the traditions of old England, their lives followed a strict schedule. Clothing and food were very simple. The eldest daughters did the housework themselves: they cleaned the rooms, beds, and lit the fireplace. Much later, Elizaveta Fedorovna will say: “They taught me everything in the house.”

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, the same KR, dedicated the following lines to Elizabeth Feodorovna in 1884:

I look at you, admiring you every hour:
You are so inexpressibly beautiful!
Oh, that's right, underneath such a beautiful exterior
Such a beautiful soul!

Some kind of meekness and innermost sadness
There is depth in your eyes;
Like an angel, you are quiet, pure and perfect;
Like a woman, shy and tender.

May there be nothing on earth
Among the evils and much sorrow
Your purity will not be tarnished.
And everyone who sees you will glorify God,

Who created such beauty!

At the age of twenty, Princess Elizabeth became the bride of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II. Before this, all applicants for her hand received a categorical refusal. They got married in the church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and, of course, the princess could not help but be impressed by the majesty of the event. The beauty and antiquity of the wedding ceremony, the Russian church service, like an angelic touch, struck Elizabeth, and she could not forget this feeling all her life.

She had an irresistible desire to explore this mysterious country, its culture, its faith. And her appearance began to change: from a coldish German beauty, the Grand Duchess gradually turned into a spiritualized woman, seemingly glowing with an inner light.

The family spent most of the year on their Ilyinskoye estate, sixty kilometers from Moscow, on the banks of the Moscow River. But there were also balls, celebrations, and theatrical performances. The cheerful Ellie, as she was called in the family, brought youthful enthusiasm into the life of the imperial family with her home theater performances and holidays at the skating rink. Heir Nicholas loved to be here, and when twelve-year-old Alice arrived at the Grand Duke’s house, he began to come even more often.

Ancient Moscow, its way of life, its ancient patriarchal life and its monasteries and churches fascinated the Grand Duchess. Sergei Alexandrovich was a deeply religious person, observed fasts and church holidays, went to services, and traveled to monasteries. And the Grand Duchess was with him everywhere, attending all the services.

How different it was from a Protestant church! How the princess’s soul sang and rejoiced, what grace flowed through her soul when she saw Sergei Alexandrovich, transformed after communion. She wanted to share with him this joy of finding grace, and she began to seriously study the Orthodox faith and read spiritual books.

Here's another gift from fate! Emperor Alexander III instructed Sergei Alexandrovich to be in the Holy Land in 1888 for the consecration of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane, which was built in memory of their mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The couple visited Nazareth, Mount Tabor. The princess wrote to her grandmother, Queen Victoria of England: “The country is truly beautiful. All around are gray stones and houses of the same color. Even the trees do not have fresh color. But nevertheless, when you get used to it, you find picturesque features everywhere and are amazed...”

She stood at the majestic church of St. Mary Magdalene, to which she brought precious utensils for worship, Gospels and air. There was such silence and airy splendor spreading around the temple... At the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the dim, slightly muted light, cypresses and olives froze, as if lightly traced against the sky. A wonderful feeling took possession of her, and she said: “I would like to be buried here.” It was a sign of fate! A sign from above! And how will he respond in the future!
After this trip, Sergei Alexandrovich became chairman of the Palestine Society. And Elizaveta Fedorovna, after visiting the Holy Land, made a firm decision to convert to Orthodoxy. That was not easy. On January 1, 1891, she wrote to her father about the decision with a request to bless her: “You should have noticed how deep reverence I have for the local religion…. I thought and read all the time and prayed to God to show me the right path, and came to the conclusion that only in this religion can I find all the real and strong faith in God that a person must have to be a good Christian. It would be a sin to remain as I am now, to belong to the same church in form and for the outside world, but inside myself to pray and believe the way my husband does…. You know me well, you must see that I decided to take this step only out of deep faith, and that I feel that I must appear before God with a pure and believing heart. I thought and thought deeply about all this, being in this country for more than 6 years and knowing that religion was “found”. I so strongly wish to receive Holy Communion with my husband on Easter.” The father did not bless his daughter for this step. Nevertheless, on the eve of Easter 1891, on Lazarus Saturday, the rite of acceptance into Orthodoxy was performed.

What rejoicing of the soul - on Easter, together with her beloved husband, she sang the bright troparion “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death...” and approached the Holy Chalice. It was Elizaveta Fedorovna who persuaded her sister to convert to Orthodoxy, finally dispelling Alix’s fears. Ellie was not required to convert to the Orthodox faith upon marriage to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, since he could not under any circumstances be the heir to the throne. But she did this out of inner need, she also explained to her sister the whole necessity of this and that the transition to Orthodoxy would not be an apostasy for her, but, on the contrary, the acquisition of true faith.

In 1891, the emperor appointed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich as Moscow governor-general. Muscovites soon recognized the Grand Duchess as a protector of the orphaned and the poor, the sick and the poor; she went to hospitals, almshouses, orphanages, helped many, alleviated suffering, and distributed aid.