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Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine

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"Princess Elisabeth of Hesse" redirects here. For other people, see Elisabeth of Hesse (disambiguation) and Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (disambiguation).

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia (born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine; 1 November 1864 – 18 July 1918) was a German Hessian and Rhenish princess of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

Princess Elisabeth
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia
Photograph by Charles Bergamasco, 1885
BornPrincess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine
(1864-11-01)1 November 1864
Bessungen, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Confederation
Died18 July 1918(1918-07-18) (aged 53)
Alapayevsk, Russian SFSR
Burial
Church of Mary Magdalene, Gethsemane, Jerusalem
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1884; died 1905)​
Names
  • English: Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice
  • German: Elisabeth Alexandra Luise Alix
  • Russian: Елизавета Фёдоровна Романова
HouseHesse-Darmstadt
FatherLouis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
MotherPrincess Alice of the United Kingdom
ReligionRussian Orthodox
Previously Lutheran
SignaturePrincess Elisabeth's signature

A granddaughter of Queen Victoria and an older sister of Alexandra, the last Russian Empress, Elisabeth became famous in Russian society for her dignified beauty and charitable works among the poor. After the Socialist Revolutionary Party's Combat Organization assassinated her husband with a bomb in 1905, Elisabeth publicly forgave Sergei's murderer, Ivan Kalyayev, and campaigned without success for him to be pardoned. She then departed the Imperial Court and became a nun, founding the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent dedicated to helping the downtrodden of Moscow. In 1918, she was arrested and ultimately murdered by Bolsheviks. In 1981, she was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate.

Early life

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The Hessian grand ducal family in May 1875

Elisabeth was born on 1 November 1864, as the second child of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria.[1][2]Having named their firstborn Victoria, after her maternal grandmother, the new baby girl was to be named in honor of two Elizabeth’s; She was given the names Elisabeth Alexandra Luise Alix: "Elisabeth" after both St. Elizabeth of Hungary (the ancestress of the House of Hesse) and her paternal grandmother, Princess Elisabeth of Prussia.[3]

At her christening on 28 November, the infant- whose godparents, or sponsors as they were known, included her grandmother Princess Charles, her great uncle Tsar Alexandra ll, her aunts Alix (Princess of Wales), (Her mothers’s sister, Helena) and Anna of Mecklenburg Schwerin, together with her uncles (Prince Alfred) and Fritz (Crown Prince of Prussia), she received the names Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice.[3] To her family she would be known simply as Ella.[3]

Princess Alice brought up her daughters simply. An English nanny presided over the nursery and the children ate plain meals of rice puddings and baked apples and wore plain dresses. Her daughters were taught how to do housework, such as baking cakes, making their own beds, laying fires and sweeping and dusting their rooms. Princess Alice also emphasized the need to give to the poor and often took her daughters on visits to hospitals and charities.[4]

The family was devastated in 1873 when Irene's hemophiliac younger brother Friedrich, nicknamed "Frittie", fell through an open window, struck his head on the balustrade and died hours later of a brain hemorrhage.[5] In the months following the toddler's death, Alice frequently took her children to his grave to pray and was melancholy on anniversaries associated with him.[6]

On the afternoon of 7 November, Victoria although complaining of a sore throat, sat down to read to her bothers and sister.[7] Later that evening she began to run a fever and was put to bed.[7] The following morning, when her daughter was no better, the Grand duchess called for the family physician, Dr Eigenbrodt, who, to Alice's great concern, discovered a white membrane on both sides of Victoria throat, the first sign of diphtheria. This was set the most traumatic and tragic sequence of events in the lives of the grand ducal family.[7]

Ella was moved out of Victoria’s room, On 10 November Alix fell ill, Next day little May succumbed as did Irene.[7] On 13th, in an attempt to keep Ella free of the disease, Alice sent her with her governess miss Jackson to stay with Princess Charles.[7]

In the autumn of 1878, diphtheria swept through the Hesse household, killing Elisabeth's youngest sister, Marie, on 16 November, as well as her mother Alice on 14 December. Elisabeth, who had been sent away to her paternal grandmother's home at the beginning of the outbreak, was the only member of her family to remain unaffected. When she was finally allowed to return home, she described the meeting as "terribly sad" and said that everything was "like a horrible dream".[8]

That morning Elizabeth heard that her mother died at half-past eight with the words, “from Friday to Saturday-four-weeks-may-dear-papa.” At last Elizabeth could see the family. “It was a terrible lay sad meeting,” she wrote “no-one daring to speak of what was uppermost in their thoughts Poor papa looked dreadfully.[9]

Admirers and suitors

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Elisabeth of Hesse, 1883

Charming and with a very accommodating personality, Elisabeth was considered by many historians and contemporaries to be one of the most beautiful women in Europe at that time. Her cousin Princess Marie of Edinburgh wrote that "one could never take one's eyes off [Ella]"[10] and that Ella's features were "exquisite beyond words, it almost brought tears to your eyes".[11] Her older cousin Prince Wilhelm of Prussia called her "exceedingly beautiful, in fact she is the most beautiful girl I ever saw".[12] Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, her sister's lady-in-waiting, reflected that she was "a very pretty girl, tall and fair, with regular features".[13]

When Elisabeth was a young woman, her cousin Prince Wilhelm of Prussia fell in love with her. In April 1875, 16-year-old Wilhelm visited Darmstadt to celebrate Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine's 12th birthday and first expressed interest in 11-year-old Elisabeth. He wrote in a letter to his mother that "if God grants that I may live till then I shall make her my bride once if you allow it".[12] When he was a student at Bonn University, he often visited his Aunt Alice and his Hessian relatives on the weekends. During these frequent visits, he fell in love with Elisabeth, But she declined.[14][15]

Henry Wilson, later a distinguished soldier, also vied unsuccessfully for Elisabeth's hand.[16]

The future Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, Wilhelm's first cousin, proposed to Elisabeth. Queen Victoria described him as "so good and steady", with "such a safe and happy position",[17]

 
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, 1887

Other admirers included:

  • As a young girl, Queen Marie of Romania was very fascinated with her cousin Ella. In her memoirs, she wrote that "her beauty and sweetness was a thing of dreams".[20]
  • The French Ambassador to the Russian court, Maurice Paleologue, wrote in his memoirs how Elisabeth was capable of arousing what he described as "profane passions".[21]

Engagement and Marriage

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Ella and Sergei celebrated their engagement with her family at Darmstadt in February 1884.[22]

Sergei for his part was soon writing home to his bother Paul, Ella is, if possible, even more beautiful. We both sit together a lot. In the mornings she is in my room, and I teach her some Russian, which is very funny. I even make her write. I also teach her the words to ‘god save the tsar’. Now we often go out all over Darmstadt alone.’[22]

They were first cousins once removed (i.e., Elizabeth's great-grandfather, her father's paternal grandfather, Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse, was Sergei's maternal grandfather) and had known each other all their lives.[23] There were hesitations on both sides and Elizabeth first rejected his proposal of marriage.[24] Queen Victoria, who had anti-Russian sentiments, opposed the marriage of her motherless granddaughter.[25] Elizabeth and her sisters were not pressured into following political marriages; they were allowed to follow their own inclination.[24] After the couple spent some time together at Schloss Wolfsgarten in Darmstadt in September 1883, Elizabeth agreed to marry him.[26] Their engagement was announced publicly on 26 February 1884 when Sergei returned to visit her in Darmstadt.[27]

when he arrived at the Neues Palais that February, he had with him a wealth of jewels that he showered on his bride-to-be. After they were married.[28]Among the engagement presents Sergei brought with him to Darmstadt, ropes of jewelry and brochures of ores.[29] Ella herself recalled how serge, haveing insisted that she put them all at once, pinned each one and every brooch on to her dress untill she could hardly stand under the weight ‘I look liked a Christmas tree!’ she wrote, ‘And we had terrible time getting them all off, because we couldn’t find the clasps.[29]

 
Elisabeth and her husband Sergei
 
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna in 1897

Sergei and Elisabeth married on 15 (3) June 1884, at the Chapel of the Winter Palace in St.[30] Petersburg; upon her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, she took the name Elizaveta Feodorovna.[31] It was at the wedding that Sergei's 16-year-old nephew, Tsarevich Nicholas, first met his future wife, Elisabeth's youngest surviving sister Alix.[32]

Grand Duchess of Russia

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Elisabeth was not legally required to convert to Russian Orthodoxy from her native Lutheran religion, but she voluntarily chose to do so in 1891. Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Elisabeth's Lutheran sister-in-law who had not converted to Russian Orthodoxy, insisted that it was "a disgrace for a German Protestant princess to go over to the Orthodox faith".[33] Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had once been in love with her, declared that she converted because of "an inordinate pursuit of popularity, a desire to improve her position at court, a great lack of intelligence, and also a want of true religiousness".[33]

 
Grand Duchess Elisabeth Fedorovna in court dress

The vice-regal role of Governor-General ruling Prince of Moscow was one that was answerable only to the emperor.[34] Grand Duke Sergei was a political hardliner who shared his brother's inalienable belief in strong, nationalist government.[34] Sergei's tenure began with the expulsion of Moscow's 20,000 Jews.[34] It started four weeks before he arrived in person, after the publication of an imperial ukase by the Minister of the Interior Ivan Durnovo, by which all Jews of lower social stance (artisans, minor traders and so on) had to be expelled from Moscow. On 29 March, the first day of Passover, the city's Jewish population learned of the new decree that called for their expulsion.[34] In three carefully planned phases over the next twelve months, Moscow's Jews were expelled. Those first to go were the unmarried, the childless, and those who had lived in the city for less than three years.[34] Next, it was the turn of apprentices, of families with up to four children, and those with less than six years residency.[34] Last of all, it was the turn of the old Jewish settlers with large families and/or numerous employees, some of whom had lived in Moscow for forty years.[34] Young Jewish women were made to register as prostitutes if they wanted to stay in the city.[35]

During the expulsion, homes were surrounded by mounted Cossacks in the middle of the night while policemen ransacked every house. In January 1892, in a temperature of 30 degrees below zero, Brest station was packed with Jews of all ages and sexes, all in rags and surrounded by meager remnants of households goods, all leaving voluntarily rather than face deportation.[34] Sergei as governor-general was petitioned by the police commissioners to stop the expulsions until the weather conditions improved.[34] While he agreed, the order was not published until the expulsions were over.[34] Some of them moved to southern and western regions of the empire although there were many who decided to emigrate.[36] In counting the cost, Moscow lost 100 million rubles in trade and production, 25,000 Russians employed by Jewish firms lost their livelihoods, while the manufacture of silk, one of the city's most lucrative industries, was all but wiped out.[37]

In 1892 Ella and serge’s arrival in Moscow was marred by tragedy, that September, not long after Paul and Alexandra arrived llinskoye to spend late summer with them. One afternoon, the 21-year-old to grand duchess, who was seven months’ pregnant with her second child, followed the path down from the back of the house to the small the waiting boat, Alexandra suddenly collapsed, her frantic husband, bother-and sister-in-law felt important to help, and with doctors to far away.[38] Midwife was called Alexandra was delivered tiny premature baby boy, Alexandra died 6 days later. Alexandra’s sudden deaths so crushing and unbelievable a blow to Paul, Sergei and Ella.[39]

 
Hessian family in mourning

Worse news was soon to be follow when, during the first week of march 1892, Grand Duke Louis suffered paralytic stroke that brought family his family hurrying to his bedside.[40] Ernie, Alix, Victoria and Irene, he raised his whole face off the pillow, put out his hand and stroked Ella’s face.[40] On evening of 13 march, he lapsed into a coma and died.[40]

The couple never had children of their own, but their Ilyinskoe estate was usually filled with parties that Elisabeth organized especially for children. It was rumoured that their childlessness was due to Grand Duke Sergei's homosexual tendencies.[41] They eventually became the foster parents of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, Sergei's niece and nephew. Maria wrote in her memoirs about her aunt Ella: "she and my uncle seemed never very intimate. They met for the most part only at meals and by day avoided being alone together. They slept, however, up to the last year of their life together, in the same great bed."[42] Maria and Dimitri resented their aunt and uncle, blaming them for the forced separation from their real father, who had abandoned them.[43]

Elisabeth was instrumental in the marriage of her nephew-by-marriage, Tsar Nicholas II, to her youngest sister Alix. Much to the dismay of Queen Victoria, Elisabeth had been encouraging Nicholas, then tsarevich, in his pursuit of Alix.[44] When Nicholas did propose to Alix in 1894, and Alix rejected him on the basis of her refusal to convert to Orthodoxy, it was Elisabeth who spoke with Alix and encouraged her to convert.[44] When Nicholas proposed to her again, a few days later, Alix then accepted.[45]

Assassination of grand duke Sergei

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Photograph of Ivan Kalyayev taken just after the assassination. I threw the bomb from less than four steps. I was taken by the explosions, I saw the carriage flew to pieces... My overcoat was strewn with splinters of wood all around, it was torn and burnt, there was blood on my face...

On 15 February 1905, the family attended a concert at the Bolshoi Theatre in aid of Elizabeth Feodorovna's Red Cross War charities.[46] A terrorist organization that knew his route, the Socialist Revolutionary Party's combat detachment, had planned to assassinate him that day. However, one of their members, Ivan Kalyayev, noticed the children in the carriage and decided to call off their attack. To kill the Grand Duchess and the children would surely have sparked a wave of apprehension throughout the empire, and would have set back the revolutionary cause by years.[47] Having had lunch with his wife at Nicholas Palace on 17 February, Sergei left unaccompanied for the Governor General's mansion.[48] Because of the looming threat, Sergei had refused to take his adjutant, Alexei, since he was married and a father. The arrival of the Grand Duke's recognizable carriage, drawn by a pair of horses and driven by his coachman Andrei Rudinkin, alerted the terrorist who had been waiting in the Kremlin with a bomb wrapped in newspapers.[49]

Just before 14:45, the carriage of the Grand Duke passed through the gate of Nikolskaya Tower of the Kremlin and turned the corner of the Chudov Monasteryinto Senatskaya Square. From a distance no more than four feet (1.2 m) away and still some 60 feet (18 m) inside the Nikolsky Gate, Ivan Kalyayev stepped forward and threw a nitroglycerin bomb directly into Sergei's lap.[50] The explosion disintegrated the carriage and the Grand Duke died immediately.[50] Scattered all over the bloodstained snow lay pieces of scorched cloth, fur, and leather. The body of the Grand Duke was mutilated, with the head, the upper part of the chest, and the left shoulder and arm blown off and completely destroyed.[51] Some of the Grand Duke's fingers, still adorned with the rings he habitually wore, were found on the roof of a nearby building.[50][52]

On impact, the carriage horses had bolted towards the Nikolsky Gate, dragging with them the front wheels and coachbox as well as the semi-conscious and badly burned driver, Rudinkin, whose back had been riddled with bits of bomb and stones. He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he died three days later. Kalyayev, who by his own testimony had expected to die in the explosion, survived.[49][53] Sucked into the vortex of the explosion, he ended up by the remains of the rear wheels. His face was peppered by splinters, pouring with blood.[49] Kalyayev was immediately arrested, sentenced to death, and hanged two months later. The Grand Duchess rushed to the scene of the explosion.[53] Stunned but perfectly controlled, she gave instructions, and, kneeling in the snow, helped to gather up Sergei's remains.[53] The remains were placed on a stretcher and covered with an army greatcoat.[53]

According to Edvard Radzinsky,

Elizabeth spent all the days before the burial in ceaseless prayer. On her husband's tombstone she wrote: 'Father, release them, they know not what they do.' She understood the words of the Gospels heart and soul, and on the eve of the funeral she demanded to be taken to the prison where Kalyayev was being held. Brought into his cell, she asked, 'Why did you kill my husband?' 'I killed Sergei Alexandrovich because he was a weapon of tyranny. I was taking revenge for the people.' She replied, 'Do not listen to your pride. Repent... and I will beg the Sovereign to give you your life. I will ask him for you. I myself have already forgiven you.' On the eve of revolution, she had already found a way out; forgiveness! Forgive through the impossible pain and blood -- and thereby stop it then, at the beginning, this bloody wheel. By her example, poor Ella appealed to society, calling upon the people to live in Christian faith. 'No!" replied Kalyayev. 'I do not repent. I must die for my deed and I will... My death will be more useful to my cause than Sergei Alexandrovich's death.' Kalyayev was sentenced to death. 'I am pleased with your sentence,' he told the judges. 'I hope that you will carry it out just as openly and publicly as I carried out the sentence of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Learn to look the advancing revolution right in the face.'[54]

In 1915, the All-Russian Zemstvo Union was organised under Elisabeth's auspices to provide support for sick and injured soldiers during the First World War.[55]

Religious life

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Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna as a nun after her husband's death

Deeply affected by the Grand Duke's death, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna retired from the royal family and founded the Russian Orthodox convent of Martha and Mary, where she dedicated herself to the care of Moscow's poor and suffering.[50] Part of the obligations of the sisters of the Martha and Mary convent was to make an annual pilgrimage to the sepulchral church in memory of the Grand Duke on the day of his repose, 4 February.[56]

Elisabeth wore mourning clothes and became a vegetarian. In 1909, she sold off her magnificent collection of jewels and other luxurious possessions; even her wedding ring was not spared.[57] With the proceeds, she opened the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary and became its abbess.[58] She soon opened a hospital, chapel, pharmacy and orphanage on its grounds.[58]

Elisabeth and her fellow nuns worked tirelessly among the poor and the sick of Moscow. She often visited Moscow's worst slums and did all she could to help alleviate the suffering of the poor.[59] For many years, her institution helped the poor and the orphans in Moscow by fostering the prayer and charity of devout women.[59]

On October 17, 1910, Grand duchess Elizabeth took leave of her sisters and boarded her train en route for Germany.[60] She arrived at Wolfsgarten for a cheerful reunion with the rest of surviving family. Her ill health was aggravated by the mounting anxiety Alexandra felt for her son. From the first signs of severe bleeding six weeks after his birth.[61] From Moscow, Elizabeth had observed this morning depepdence with dismay.[62] She knew all about Rasputin true nature, and she had none of her sister’s naive credulity.[62] Soon after his acceptance by the imperial couple, rumours beign to spread in St. Petersburg society Rasputin had been a member of the Khlisti.[63] Several times Elizabeth warned Alexandra that the “holy man” was a fraud and a ledcherous drunkard, Alexandra would flatly refuse to believe her.[64]

The February Revolution of 1917 ended the Tsar rule in Russia, and Elisabeth's brother-in-law Nicholas II had to abdicate. The political upheavals initially had no impact on life in the monastery. However, Elisabeth was worried about her relatives, who were under house arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. She kept in touch with her sister Alexandra, even when she was in exile in Tobolsk, although under considerably more difficult conditions.[65]

In 2010, a historian claimed that Elisabeth may have been aware that the murder of Rasputin was to take place and secondly, she knew who was going to commit it when she wrote a letter and sent it to the Tsar and two telegrams to Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and her friend Zinaida Yusupova. The telegrams, which were written the night of the murder, reveal that Elisabeth was aware of who the murderers were before that information had been released to the public, and she stated that she felt that the killing was a "patriotic act".[66]

Death

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Further information: Martyrs of Alapayevsk

In 1918, Vladimir Lenin ordered the Cheka to arrest Elisabeth. They then exiled her first to Perm, then to Yekaterinburg, where she spent a few days and was joined by others: the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; Princes John Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess's convent.[67] They were all taken to Alapayevsk on 20 May 1918.[68]

 
Mine shaft in Siniachikha where Elisabeth and her family were killed

At noon on 17 July, Cheka officer Pyotr Startsev and a few Bolshevik workers came to the school. They took from the prisoners whatever money they had left and announced that they would be transferred that night to the Upper Siniachikhensky factory compound. The Red Army guards were told to leave and Cheka men replaced them.[69] That night the prisoners were awakened and driven in carts on a road leading to the village of Siniachikha, some 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Alapayevsk, where there was an abandoned iron mine with a pit 20 metres (66 feet) deep.[70] Here they halted. The Cheka beat all the prisoners before throwing their victims into this pit, Elisabeth being the first.[70] Hand grenades were then hurled down the shaft.[70]

According to the personal account of Vasily Ryabov, one of the executioners, Elisabeth and the others survived the initial fall into the mine, prompting Ryabov to toss in a grenade after them. Following the explosion, he claimed to have heard Elisabeth and the others singing an Orthodox hymn from the bottom of the shaft.[71] Unnerved, Ryabov threw down a second grenade, but the singing continued. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the opening and set alight, upon which Ryabov posted a guard over the site and departed.[72]

Early on 18 July 1918, the leader of the Alapayevsk Cheka, Abramov, and the head of the Yekaterinburg Regional Soviet, Beloborodov, who had been involved in the execution of the Imperial Family, exchanged a number of telegrams in a pre-arranged plan saying that the school had been attacked by an "unidentified gang". A month later, Alapayevsk fell to the White Army of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. Lenin welcomed Elisabeth's death, remarking that "virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars".[73][74] Elizabeth last words were: “Father Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[70]

New research published in the book Крестный путь преподобномученицы Великой княгини Елисаветы Феодоровны на Алапаевскую Голгофу, by Russian Orthodox Church historian Ludmila Kulikova in 2019, challenges the traditional hagiographical belief about Elizabeth during her time in the mine shaft. According to the original documents of the preliminary investigation in 1918 by investigator Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, Elizabeth's body was found "vertical, her arms folded over her body...both hands...tightly clenched, fingers bent, her nails sunk into the skin...head, eyes and nose were tied with a handkerchief folded in four layers."[75][76]

Legacy

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Saint

Elizabeth Romanova
Holy Martyr
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Canonized
Major shrineMartha and Mary Convent, Moscow, Russia.
Feast5 July (O.S 18 July)
AttributesReligious habit
PatronageRussia

Fate of the remains

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On 8 October 1918, White Army soldiers discovered the remains of Elisabeth and her companions, still within the shaft where they had been killed. Despite having lain there for almost three months, the bodies were in relatively good condition. With the Red Army approaching, their remains were removed farther east and buried in the cemetery of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Peking (now Beijing), China. In 1921.[77]

Canonisation

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Elisabeth was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981, and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate as Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna.[78] Her principal shrines are the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent she founded in Moscow, and the Saint Mary Magdalene Convent on the Mount of Olives, which she and her husband helped build, and where her relics (along with those of Nun Barbara (Varvara Yakovleva, her former maid) are enshrined.[79]

 
Tomb and mosaic icon of Princess Elizabeth

Commemoration

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Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr is commemorated on three days in the liturgical year of the Russian Orthodox Church: on the feast day of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russian Church (Sunday nearest 25 January (O.S.)/ 7 February (N.S.)), on the anniversary of her martyrdom (5/ 18 July) and on the anniversary of the uncovering of her relics from the mine (28 September/ October 11). A fourth feast day, the anniversary of the transfer of her relics to Jerusalem (17/ 30 January), is commemorated on the ROCOR liturgical calendar.[80]

She is one of the ten 20th-century martyrs from across the world who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London, England,[81] and she is also represented in the restored nave screen installed at St Albans Cathedral in April 2015.[82]

A statue of Elisabeth was erected in the garden of her convent in Moscow after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[79] Its inscription reads: "To the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna: With Repentance".[79]

Relics

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In 2004-2005, the relics of St. Elizabeth were brought to Russia, the CIS and Baltic countryies, where more than 7 million people came to venerate them.[83] According to patriarch Alexei ll (1929-2008), "the long queues of believers to the relics of the holy new martyrs are another symbol of Russia’s repentance for the sons of hard times, the country’s return to its original historical path."[83] The relics were subsequently returned to Jerusalem.[83]

Rehabilitation

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On 8 June 2009, the Prosecutor General of Russia officially posthumously rehabilitated Elizabeth Feodorovna, along with other Romanovs: Mikhail Alexandrovich, Sergei Mikhailovich, John Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, and Igor Konstantinovich. "All of these people were subjected to repression in the form of arrest, deportation and being held by the Cheka without charge", said a representative of the office.[84]

Honours

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Ancestry

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Queen Victoria's Journals – Friday 1 November 1864
  2. ^ Millar 2009, p. 21.
  3. ^ a b c Warwick 2014, p. 21.
  4. ^ Mager 1998, p. 28-29.
  5. ^ Mager 1998, p. 45.
  6. ^ Mager 1998, p. 45,46.
  7. ^ a b c d e Warwick 2014, p. 60.
  8. ^ Barkowez 2001, p. 147-149.
  9. ^ Mager 1998, p. 56.
  10. ^ Marie, Queen of Romania, The story of my life, (1934), vol. 1, p 8
  11. ^ Marie, Queen of Romania, The story of my life (1934), vol. 1, p 95
  12. ^ a b Röhl 1998, p. 326.
  13. ^ Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Chapter 1: Childhood, https://www.alexanderpalace.org/alexandra/XVI.html
  14. ^ Packard 1998, p. 176.
  15. ^ Millar 2009, p. 27.
  16. ^ Mager 1998, p. 64.
  17. ^ RA VIC/ADDU/173/69, QV to V of Hesse, 7 March 1880. Deborah, Cadbury, (2017), Queen Victoria's Matchmaking ISBN 1610398475
  18. ^ Millar 2009, p. 42.
  19. ^ Croft 2008, p. 11-12.
  20. ^ Marie, Queen of Romania, The story of my life (1934), vol. 1, p. 93.
  21. ^ Barkowez, Fedorow, Krylow: “Peterhof is a dream …”, 2001, pages 164–65 – from the notes of Maurice Paléologue
  22. ^ a b Warwick 2014, p. 105.
  23. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 85.
  24. ^ a b Warwick 2007, p. 79.
  25. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 80.
  26. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 83.
  27. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 100.
  28. ^ Warwick 2014, p. 102-103.
  29. ^ a b Warwick 2014, p. 103.
  30. ^ Warwick 2014, p. 114.
  31. ^ See Feodorovna as a Romanov patronymic
  32. ^ King 1994, p. 55-56.
  33. ^ a b Gelardi 2011, p. 126.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Warwick 2007, p. 164.
  35. ^ Miller 2011, p. 141.
  36. ^ Полян П.М. Не по своей воле/Polyan P. Not by the free will, p. 26
  37. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 165.
  38. ^ Warwick 2014, p. 173.
  39. ^ Warwick 2014, p. 174.
  40. ^ a b c Warwick 2014, p. 176.
  41. ^ Andriyanov, Nikita. "Celebrating the Gay Russian Celebrities History Books Tried to Erase". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  42. ^ Marie 1930, p. 17.
  43. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 204.
  44. ^ a b Mager 1998, p. 147-148.
  45. ^ Mager 1998, p. 148.
  46. ^ Maylunas & Mironenko 1997, p. 258.
  47. ^ Van der Kiste 1999, p. 172.
  48. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 217.
  49. ^ a b c Maylunas & Mironenko 1997, p. 259.
  50. ^ a b c d Lincoln 1981, p. 651.
  51. ^ Maylunas & Mironenko 1997, p. 260.
  52. ^ Warwick 2007, p. 218.
  53. ^ a b c d Warwick 2007, p. 219.
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Sources

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Further reading

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  • Almedingen, E.M. An Unbroken Unity, 1964
  • Duff, David. Hessian Tapestry, 1967
  • Millar, Lubov, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, US edition, Redding, California., 1991, ISBN 1-879066-01-7
  • Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn, 2000, ISBN 5-8276-0034-2
  • Belyakova, Zoia. The Romanovs: the Way It Was, 2000, ISBN 5-8276-0034-2
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elizaveta Fedorovna of Russia.

Orthodox sources

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Orthodox hymns to Saint Elizabeth

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Secular sources

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