Who killed Elizabeth Feodorovna. Cancer with the relics of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

(18641101 ) Place of Birth: Date of death: Place of death:

Novaya Selimskaya mine 18 km from Alapaevsk, Perm Governorate, RSFSR

Father: Mother: Spouse:

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice; her family called her Ella; officially in Russia - Elisaveta Feodorovna) (November 1, Darmstadt - July 18, Perm province) - Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duchess of the Romanov dynasty. Ranked among the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church in.

Family and childhood

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 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia.

From childhood, she was religiously disposed, participated in charity work with her mother, Grand Duchess Alice, who died in. An important role in the spiritual life of the family was played by the image of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, after whom Ella was named: this saint, the ancestor of the Dukes of Hesse, became famous for her works of mercy.

Grand Duke's wife

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

She was considered one of the first beauties among European princesses, had a very pleasant voice, sang well, drew, made bouquets of flowers with great taste. B married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of the Russian Emperor Alexander III. After marriage, she lived with her husband in his estate near Moscow, Ilyinskoye. At her insistence, a hospital was set up in Ilyinsky, fairs were periodically held in favor of the peasants.

She perfectly mastered the Russian language, spoke it almost without an accent. While still professing Protestantism, she attended Orthodox services. Together with her husband, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. B converted to Orthodoxy, writing before that 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 a real and strong faith in God, which a person should have to be a good Christian."

Elizaveta Feodorovna and Sergei Alexandrovich

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, established in order to “see the legitimate babies of the poorest mothers, hitherto placed, although without any right, in the Moscow Orphanage under the guise of being illegal. The activities of the society first took place in Moscow, and then spread to the entire Moscow province. Elisabeth committees were formed at all Moscow church parishes and in all county towns 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 Department of the Red Cross.

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

On February 4, her husband was killed by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev, who threw a hand bomb at him. I had a hard time with this drama. The Greek Queen Olga Konstantinovna, cousin of the murdered Sergei Alexandrovich, wrote: “This is a wonderful, holy woman - she is apparently worthy of a heavy cross that lifts her higher and higher!” Later, the Grand Duchess visited the murderer in prison: she conveyed forgiveness to him on behalf of Sergei Alexandrovich, left him the Gospel. Moreover, she submitted a petition to Emperor Nicholas II to pardon the terrorist, but it was not granted.

Founder of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent

She was a supporter of the revival of the rank of deaconesses - the ministers of the church of the first centuries, who in the first centuries of Christianity were delivered through ordination, participated in the celebration of the Liturgy, approximately in the role in which subdeacons now serve, were engaged in catechism of women, helped with the baptism of women, served the sick. She received the support of the majority of the 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 was used. The sisters who lived in the monastery took vows of chastity, non-possession and obedience, however, unlike nuns, after a certain period they could leave the monastery, start a family and be free from previous vows. The sisters received serious psychological, methodological, spiritual and medical training in the monastery. They were given lectures by the best doctors of Moscow, conversations with them were conducted by the confessor of the monastery, Fr. Mitrofan Srebryansky (later Archimandrite Sergius; canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church) and the second priest of the monastery, Fr. Eugene Sinadsky.

Elizaveta Feodorovna in the clothes of the sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent

According to the plan of Elizabeth Feodorovna, the monastery was supposed to provide comprehensive, spiritual, educational and medical assistance to those in need, who were often not only given food and clothing, but were helped in finding employment, 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 education, good care and a profession.

A hospital, an excellent outpatient clinic, a pharmacy, where part of the medicines were given free of charge, a shelter, a free canteen, and many other institutions were created in the monastery. Educational lectures and talks, meetings of the Palestinian Society, the 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 Khitrov Market - the most criminogenic 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 exaltation over the inhabitants of the slums. During the First World War, she actively took care of helping the Russian army, including wounded soldiers. Then she tried to help the prisoners of war, with whom hospitals were overcrowded and, as a result, she was accused of aiding the Germans. She had a sharply negative attitude towards Grigory Rasputin, although she had never met him. The murder of Rasputin, an Orthodox Christian who was not excommunicated from the Church, was regarded as a "patriotic act."

martyrdom

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 dynasty, was transported to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Atamanovskie Rooms hotel (currently the FSB and Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region are located in the building, the modern address is the intersection of Lenin and Weiner streets), and then, two months later, to the city of Alapaevsk. She did not lose her presence of mind, in letters she instructed the remaining sisters, bequeathing them to keep love for God and neighbors. With her was a sister from the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent Varvara Yakovleva.

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

Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
Prince John Konstantinovich;
Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich (younger);
Prince Igor Konstantinovich;
Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley;
Fyodor Semyonovich Remez, manager of the affairs of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
sister of the Martha and Mary Convent Varvara (Yakovleva).

All of them, except for the shot Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, were thrown into the mine alive. When the bodies were removed from the shaft, it was discovered that some of the victims lived 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 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 on

In 1873, Elizabeth's three-year-old brother Friedrich crashed to death in front of his mother. In 1876, an epidemic of diphtheria broke out in Darmstadt, all the children fell ill, except for Elizabeth. The mother sat at night by the beds of sick children. Soon the four-year-old Maria died, and after her, Grand Duchess Alice herself fell ill and died at the age of 35.
In that year, the time of childhood ended for Elizabeth. Grief intensified her prayers. She understood that life on earth is the way of the Cross. The child tried with all his might to alleviate the grief of his father, support him, console him, and to some extent replace his mother for his younger sisters and brother.
In the twentieth year of her life, 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 Hessian house. Before that, all applicants for her hand were refused: Princess Elizabeth in her youth made a vow to keep her virginity all her life. After a frank conversation between her and Sergei Alexandrovich, it turned out that he secretly made the same vow. By mutual agreement, their marriage was spiritual, they lived like brother and sister.

Elizaveta Feodorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich

The whole family accompanied Princess Elizabeth to her wedding in Russia. Instead, the twelve-year-old sister Alice came with her, who met her future husband, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, here.
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 the culture and especially the faith of her new homeland in depth.
Grand Duchess Elizabeth was dazzlingly beautiful. In those days they said that in Europe there are only two beauties, and both are Elizabeths: Elisabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, and Elizaveta Feodorovna.

For most of the year, the Grand Duchess lived with her husband in their Ilinskoye estate, sixty kilometers from Moscow, on the banks of the Moscow River. She loved Moscow with its ancient churches, monasteries and patriarchal way of life. Sergei Alexandrovich was a deeply religious person, strictly observed all church canons, 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 unlike what she met in a Protestant church.
Elizaveta Feodorovna firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy. From this step, she was held back by 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 Feodorovna showed courage and, despite moral suffering, firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy.
On April 13 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the sacrament of chrismation 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 celebrates on September 5 (18).
In 1891, Emperor Alexander III appointed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich as the Governor-General of Moscow. The wife of the governor-general had to perform many duties - there were constant receptions, concerts, balls. It was necessary to smile and bow to the guests, dance and carry on conversations, regardless of mood, state of health and desire.
The people of Moscow soon appreciated her merciful heart. She went to hospitals for the poor, to almshouses, to shelters for homeless children. And everywhere she tried to alleviate the suffering of people: she distributed food, clothes, money, improved the living conditions of the unfortunate.
In 1894, after many obstacles, a decision was made on the engagement of the Grand Duchess Alice with the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Elizaveta Fedorovna was glad 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 Elizabeth 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.
But everything happened differently. The bride of the heir arrived in Russia when Emperor Alexander III was in a terminal illness. On October 20, 1894, the emperor died. The next day, Princess Alice converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra. The marriage 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 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 arrangement of workshops to help the soldiers - all the halls of the Kremlin Palace, except for the Throne, were occupied for them. Thousands of women worked on sewing machines and work tables. Huge donations came from all over Moscow and from the provinces. From here, bales of food, uniforms, medicines and gifts for soldiers went to the front. The Grand Duchess sent marching churches to the front with icons and everything necessary for worship. She personally sent Gospels, icons and prayer books. At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several sanitary trains.
In Moscow, she arranged a hospital for the wounded, created special committees to provide for the widows and orphans of those who died at the front. But the Russian troops suffered one defeat after another. The war showed the technical and military unpreparedness of Russia, the shortcomings of public administration. The settling of scores for past insults of arbitrariness or injustice, an unprecedented scale of terrorist acts, rallies, strikes began. 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 in the current situation he could no longer hold the post of Governor-General of Moscow. The sovereign accepted his resignation and the couple left the governor's house, temporarily moving to Neskuchnoye.
Meanwhile, the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Her agents were watching him, waiting for an opportunity to carry out the execution. Elizaveta Feodorovna knew that her husband was in mortal danger. She was warned in anonymous letters not to accompany her husband if she did not want to share his fate. The Grand Duchess tried all the more not to leave him alone and, if possible, accompanied her husband everywhere.
On February 5 (18), 1905, Sergei Aleksandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Fyodorovna arrived at the site 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 pieces of her husband's body scattered by the explosion on 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 did not want to kill you, I saw him several times and the time when I had the bomb at the ready, but you were with him, and I did not dare to touch him."
- "And you did not realize that you killed me along with him?" she replied. Further, she said that she 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, it is possible that 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.
Since the death of her wife, Elizaveta Feodorovna did not take off her mourning, she began to keep a strict fast, she prayed a lot. Her bedroom in the Nicholas Palace began to resemble a monastic cell. All luxurious furniture was taken out, the walls were repainted white, they were only icons and paintings of spiritual content. She did not appear at social receptions. I only went to the church for weddings or christenings of relatives and friends and immediately went home or on business. Now she had nothing to do with social life.

Elizaveta Feodorovna in mourning after the death of her husband

She collected all her jewels, gave part to the treasury, part to her relatives, and decided to use the rest to build a monastery of mercy. On Bolshaya Ordynka in Moscow, Elizaveta Fedorovna bought an estate with four houses and a garden. In the largest two-storey house there is a dining room for sisters, a kitchen and other utility rooms, in the second - a church and a hospital, next to it - a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic for visiting patients. In the fourth house there was an apartment for the priest - 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 world of the poor and the suffering."

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

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 her sisters for the coming day. Those free from obedience remained in the church, where the Divine Liturgy began. The afternoon meal was accompanied by the reading of the lives of the saints. At 5 pm Vespers and Matins were served in the church, where all the sisters who were free from obedience were present. On holidays and Sundays, an all-night vigil was performed. At 9 pm, the evening rule was read in the hospital church, after which all the sisters, having received the blessing of the abbess, dispersed to their cells. Akathists were read four times a week at Vespers: on Sunday - to the Savior, on Monday - to the Archangel Michael and all the Disembodied 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 was read for the dead. 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 held talks with the sisters. In addition, the sisters could come daily at certain hours for advice and guidance to the confessor or to the abbess. The Grand Duchess, together with Father Mitrofan, taught the sisters not only medical knowledge, but also the spiritual guidance of degraded, lost and desperate 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 a common singing of prayers.
Divine services in the monastery have always stood at a brilliant height thanks to the confessor chosen by the abbess, who was exceptional in his pastoral merits. The best shepherds and preachers not only of Moscow, but also of many distant places in Russia came here to perform divine services and preach. As a bee, the abbess collected nectar from all flowers so that people could feel the special aroma of spirituality. The monastery, its temples and divine services aroused the admiration of 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.
A contemporary of the Grand Duchess, Nonna Grayton, the maid of honor of 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 had the words “I can’t”, and there was never anything dull in the life of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. Everything was there perfectly both inside and out. And who has been there, carried away a wonderful feeling.
In the Martha and Mary Convent, the Grand Duchess led the life of an ascetic. Slept on a wooden bed without a mattress. She strictly observed the 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, sorted out petitions and letters.
In the evening, rounds of patients, ending after midnight. At night she prayed in the chapel or in the church, her sleep rarely lasted more than three hours. When the patient rushed about and needed help, she sat at his bedside until dawn. In the hospital, Elizaveta Fedorovna took on the most responsible work: she assisted in operations, did dressings, found words of comfort, and tried to alleviate the suffering of patients. They said that a healing power emanated from the Grand Duchess, which helped them endure pain and agree to difficult operations.
As the main remedy for ailments, the abbess always offered confession and communion. She said: “It is immoral to console the dying with a false hope of recovery, it is better to help them pass in a Christian way into eternity.”
The sisters of the monastery took a course in medical knowledge. Their main task was to visit sick, poor, abandoned children, providing them with medical, material and moral assistance.
The best specialists of Moscow worked in the monastery hospital, all operations were performed free of charge. Here those who were refused by doctors were healed.
The healed patients cried as they left the Marfo-Mariinsky hospital, parting with the “great mother,” as they called the abbess. A Sunday school for factory workers worked at the monastery. Anyone could use the funds of the excellent library. There was a free canteen for the poor.
The abbess of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent believed that the main thing was not the hospital, but help to the poor and needy. The monastery received up to 12,000 petitions a year. They asked for everything: arrange for treatment, find a job, look after children, take care of bedridden patients, send them to study abroad.
She found opportunities to help the clergy - she gave funds for the needs of poor rural parishes who could not repair the temple or build a new one. She encouraged, strengthened, helped materially the priests - missionaries who worked among the pagans of the Far North or foreigners of the outskirts of Russia.
One of the main places of poverty, to which the Grand Duchess paid special attention, was Khitrov Market. Elizaveta Feodorovna, accompanied by her cell-attendant Varvara Yakovleva or the sister of the monastery, Princess Maria Obolenskaya, tirelessly moving from one brothel to another, collected orphans and persuaded parents to give her children to raise. The entire population of Khitrov respected her, calling her "sister Elizabeth" or "mother." The police constantly warned her that they could not guarantee her safety.
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 impurity, abuse, which lost its human face. She said, "The likeness of God may sometimes be obscured, but it can never be destroyed."
The boys torn from Khitrovka, she arranged for hostels. From one group of such recent ragamuffins, an artel of executive messengers from Moscow was formed. The girls were placed in closed educational institutions or shelters, where they also monitored their health, spiritual and physical.
Elizaveta Fyodorovna organized charity homes for orphans, the disabled, the seriously ill, found time to visit them, constantly supported them financially, and brought gifts. They tell such a case: one day the Grand Duchess was supposed to come to a shelter for little orphans. Everyone was preparing to meet their benefactor with dignity. The girls were told that the Grand Duchess was coming: they would have to say hello to her and kiss her hands. When Elizaveta Fyodorovna arrived, she was met by babies in white dresses. They greeted each other and all extended their hands to the Grand Duchess with the words: "Kiss the hands." The teachers were horrified: what will happen. But the Grand Duchess approached each of the girls and kissed everyone's hands. Everyone cried at the same time - such tenderness and reverence was on their faces and in their hearts.
The “Great Mother” hoped that the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, which she had created, would blossom into a large fruitful tree.
Over time, she was going to arrange branches of the monastery in other cities of Russia.
The Grand Duchess had a primordially Russian love for pilgrimage.
More than once she went to Sarov and with joy hurried to the temple to pray at the shrine of St. Seraphim. She traveled to Pskov, to Optina Hermitage, to Zosima Hermitage, 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 opening or transfer of the relics of the saints of God. The Grand Duchess secretly helped and looked after sick pilgrims who were waiting for 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 is the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Italy, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas of Mir of Lycia are buried. In 1914, the lower church was consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas and the hospice.
During the First World War, the work of the Grand Duchess increased: it was necessary to take care of the wounded in the infirmaries. Some of the sisters of the monastery were released to work in the field hospital. At first, Elizaveta Fedorovna, prompted by a Christian feeling, visited the captured Germans, but the slander about the secret support of the enemy forced her to refuse this.
In 1916, an angry crowd approached the gates of the monastery demanding to hand over a German spy, the brother of Elizaveta Feodorovna, who was allegedly hiding in the monastery. The abbess went out to the crowd alone and offered to inspect all the premises of the community. The police cavalry dispersed the crowd.
Shortly after the February Revolution, a crowd again approached the monastery with rifles, red flags and bows. The abbess herself opened the gate - she was told that they had come to arrest her and put her on trial as a German spy, who also kept weapons in the monastery.
To the demand of those who came to immediately go with them, the Grand Duchess said that she must make orders and say goodbye to her 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.
The entire prayer service Elizaveta Feodorovna stood on her knees. 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 did not find anything there, except for the cells of the sisters and the hospital with the sick. After the crowd left, Elizaveta Fedorovna told the sisters: "Obviously, we are still unworthy of the martyr's crown."
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 at this difficult time.
There have never been so many people at worship in the monastery as before the October Revolution. They went not only for a bowl of soup or medical help, but for consolation and advice from the “great mother”. Elizaveta Fedorovna received everyone, listened, strengthened. People left her peaceful and encouraged.
The first time after the October Revolution, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was not touched. On the contrary, the sisters were respected, twice a week a truck with food drove up to the monastery: brown bread, dried fish, vegetables, a little fat and sugar. Of the medicines, bandages and essential medicines were issued in limited quantities.
But everyone around was frightened, patrons and wealthy donors were now afraid to help the monastery. The Grand Duchess, in order to avoid provocation, did not go out of the gate, the sisters were also forbidden to go out. However, the established daily routine of the monastery did not change, only the services became longer, the prayer of the sisters became more fervent. Father Mitrofan served the Divine Liturgy every day in the crowded church, there were many communicants. For some time, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, the Sovereign, found in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow on the day of the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II from the throne, was located in the monastery. Cathedral prayers were performed before the icon.
After the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the German government obtained the consent of the Soviet authorities for Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna to leave the country. The German ambassador, Count Mirbach, twice tried to see the Grand Duchess, but she did not receive him and categorically refused to leave Russia. She said: “I have done nothing wrong to anyone. Be the will of the Lord!”
The tranquility in the monastery was the calm before the storm. First, questionnaires were sent - questionnaires for those who lived and were on treatment: name, surname, age, social origin, etc. After that, several people from the hospital were arrested. Then it was announced that the orphans would be transferred to an orphanage. In April 1918, on the third day of Easter, when the Church celebrates the memory of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, Elizaveta Feodorovna was arrested and immediately taken out of Moscow. On this day, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon visited the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, where he served the Divine Liturgy and a prayer service. After the service, the patriarch stayed at the monastery until four in the afternoon, talking with the abbess and sisters. This was the last blessing and parting word of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church before the way of the cross of the Grand Duchess to Golgotha.
Almost immediately after the departure of Patriarch Tikhon, a car with a commissar and Latvian Red Army soldiers drove up to the monastery. Elizaveta Fyodorovna was ordered to go with them. We were given half an hour to get ready. The abbess only had time to gather the sisters in the church of Saints Martha and Mary and give them the last blessing. Everyone present wept, knowing that they were seeing their mother and abbess for the last time. Elizaveta Feodorovna thanked the sisters for their dedication and loyalty and asked Father Mitrofan not to leave the monastery and serve in it as long as it was possible.
Two sisters went with the Grand Duchess - Varvara Yakovleva and Ekaterina Yanysheva. Before getting into the car, the abbess made the sign of the cross to everyone.
Having learned about what had happened, Patriarch Tikhon tried through various organizations with which the new government was considered to achieve the release of the Grand Duchess. But his efforts were in vain. All members of the imperial house were doomed.
Elizaveta Fedorovna and her companions were sent by rail to Perm.
The Grand Duchess spent the last months of her life in prison, at a school, on the outskirts of the city of Alapaevsk, together with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich (the youngest son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, brother of Emperor Alexander II), his secretary, Fyodor Mikhailovich Remez, and three brothers, John, Konstantin and Igor (sons of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich) and Prince Vladimir Paley (son of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich). The end was near. Mother Superior prepared for this outcome, devoting all her time to prayer.
The sisters accompanying their abbess were brought to the Regional Council and offered to be released. Both begged to be returned to the Grand Duchess, then the Chekists began to frighten them with torture and torment, which would await everyone who would stay with her. Varvara Yakovleva said that she was ready to give a subscription even with her own blood, that she wanted to share her fate with the Grand Duchess. So the cross sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent Varvara Yakovleva made her choice and joined the prisoners who were waiting for their fate to be decided.
In the dead of night on July 5 (18), 1918, on the day of the uncovering of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, along with other members of the imperial house, was thrown into the mine of an old mine. When the brutalized executioners pushed the Grand Duchess into the black pit, she said a prayer: "Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Then the Chekists began throwing hand grenades into the mine. One of the peasants, who witnessed the murder, said that from the depths of the mine, the singing of the Cherubim was heard. It was sung by the New Martyrs of Russia before passing into eternity. They died in terrible suffering, from thirst, hunger and wounds.

The Grand Duchess fell not to the bottom of the shaft, but to a ledge, which was at a depth of 15 meters. Next to her, they found the body of John Konstantinovich with a bandaged head. All broken, with the strongest bruises, here she also sought to alleviate the suffering of her neighbor. The fingers of the right hand of the Grand Duchess and nun Varvara turned out to be folded for the sign of the cross.
The remains of the abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent and her faithful cell-attendant Varvara were transported to Jerusalem in 1921 and placed in the tomb of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles in Gethsemane.
The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 canonized the Holy New Martyrs of Russia, the Monk Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Nun Varvara, establishing a celebration for them on the day of their death - July 5 (18).

The Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna (Comm. 18 July) was a reformer of merciful service in Russia. What new types of social service did she bring?

The activities of the Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, who converted to Orthodoxy and founded the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in Moscow, were varied. She was always distinguished by her personal involvement.

Prmc life. Elizabeth was not divided into "just life" and "good deeds."

She personally visited Khitrovka - the "bottom" of Moscow, where the poor and the "criminal element" lived and where even men were afraid to go.
She personally assisted in operations that were carried out in the hospital of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent.

Already after the execution, when the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, wounded, was thrown into the mine, she, having received fractures, a head injury, bandaged the wounds of other victims and consoled them.

With all her active involvement in affairs, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna maintained a prayerful mood. Far from all the monasteries of that time were engaged in the Jesus Prayer. Saint Elizabeth was its "doer" and even - at least one letter has been preserved - advised her family to pray this prayer.

Wrote the charter of a fundamentally new monastery of mercy. The Monk Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna treated the Russian Orthodox monastic traditions with great respect.

But in the monastery, first of all, she saw a departure from the world, from an active life for the sake of prayer.

In a big city, such as the second capital of the Russian Empire, Moscow, according to led. book. Elizabeth Feodorovna, a monastery was needed that responds to the most diverse needs of people, where a person can be helped both in word and deed. And where anyone in need could come, regardless of religion and nationality.

Therefore, she began to create new institutions of sisters. Both sisters who had taken a vow of obedience, virginity and non-possession for the duration of their service in the monastery, as well as sisters who had accepted or were preparing for monastic vows, could live in the Martha and Mary Convent.

Creating the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, ow. book. Elizabeth was guided by the ancient monastic charters and the advice of spiritual authorities, who could hardly be called modernists - the Metropolitan of Moscow, St. Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky), Bishop Tryphon (Turkestanov), the elders of the Zosima Hermitage near Moscow.

I wanted to revive the institute of deaconesses. In the Ancient Church there were deaconesses - women who helped the bishop in missionary service and works of mercy, as well as in the performance of the Sacrament of Baptism over adult women.

Thus, the deaconess Thebe, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and St. Olympias, interlocutor of Chrysostom. In the Middle Ages, the institute of deaconesses was forgotten, but at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. voices began to be heard in the Church in favor of its revival.

Efforts led. book. Elizabeth Feodorovna was supported by some hierarchs (St. Martyr Vladimir Bogoyavlensky) and rejected by others (St. Martyr Pitirim of Tobolsk).

Prmc. Elizabeth was reproached for taking as a basis the German Lutheran communities of the deaconesses of pastor Flidner.

However, St. Elizaveta Feodorovna turned to the practice of the Ancient Church, which in some matters was thoroughly forgotten.

In early Christian times, there were deaconesses by robe (service) who took vows, and deaconesses who were ordained. “I ask only for the first (category),” Elizaveta Fedorovna wrote to Alexei Afanasyevich Dmitrievsky, professor at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. “To tell the truth, I am not at all for the second degree, the times are not right now to give women the right to participate in the clergy, humility is achieved with difficulty and the participation of women in the clergy can introduce instability into it.”

Opened a sanatorium for wounded soldiers. Hospitals for wounded soldiers were opened by many, including the PMC. Elizabeth. Less common are examples of the creation of rehabilitation centers. The sanatorium, equipped with the latest medical technology of that time, was organized by vl. book. Elizaveta Fedorovna near Novorossiysk during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

Organized a collection point for aid to the front in the palace. In the halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace during the Russo-Japanese War, on the initiative of vl. book. Elizabeth worked workshops where they sewed uniforms for soldiers. Donations of money and things were also accepted here.

Elizaveta Fedorovna herself monitored the general organization and progress of work every day.

Created the best surgical hospital in Moscow. The first operation in the clinic at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was performed on the Grand Duchess Elizabeth herself. Subsequently, the most seriously ill patients were brought here, who were refused in other hospitals.

Prmc. Elizabeth not only personally helped with operations, but personally nursed the most seriously ill patients. She sat by the bed, changed the bandages, fed, consoled.

There is a case when she left a woman with severe burns of the whole body, which doctors considered doomed.

However, the hospital in the monastery was not considered a priority. Outpatient care was the main one, patients were received free of charge by qualified Moscow doctors (in 1913, 10,814 visits were registered in it).

Built a building with cheap apartments for working women.

Cheap apartments (dormitories) for working women, opened in the monastery, became a new type of assistance for Russia. It was a trend of the times as more and more young women began to work in factories.

The monastery helped them get out of the world of workers' settlements and suburbs with their drunkenness and depravity.

Oriented the monastery on a mission among the poor. There was a public library in the priest's house at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. It collected 1590 volumes of religious, moral, secular and children's literature.

There was also a Sunday school, where in 1913 75 girls and women who worked in factories studied. If a patient died in the clinic of the monastery, the nuns of Moscow monasteries and sisters who were not engaged in serving the sick would read the Psalter from him. The abbess of the monastery also participated in the prayer. She was put in line at night, because during the day she was busy.

Picked up children from Khitrovka's brothels. The area of shelters described by Gilyarovsky at the beginning of the 20th century was a world lost in the center of Moscow, living according to animal laws. Only the Soviet government succeeded in “liminating” the Khitrovants, which, unlike the tsarist government, used all the power and cruelty of the repressive machine.

Before the revolution, the authorities put up with the existence of Khitrovka. It was believed that the influx of unemployed, homeless and downtrodden people could not be stopped, and in the city center the flophouse area would be under greater police control than in the outskirts. Khitrovka was visited by various benefactors. So it is known that Bishop Arseniy (Zhadanovsky) rescued many former choristers from Khitrovka. People who drank everything to the skin were dressed in new clothes and gave them a chance to get a job in the temples again.

A special choir was even composed of the Khitrovsky choristers, who sang during the services of the bishop. The Moscow elder, the righteous Alexy Mechev, went to Khitrovka to preach.

A feature of the service of St. Elizaveta Feodorovna was that she took children from the doss houses and sent them to a special school at the monastery. So she saved them from an inevitable fate - for boys, theft, for girls - a panel, and as a result, hard labor or early death. If the family had not yet completely descended, then the children could stay with their parents and only attend classes at the monastery, receive clothes and food there.

Was she afraid to go to brothels? St. Elizabeth went to the poor with alacrity. So, during the revolutionary unrest in Moscow (1905), in the evenings, with only one escort, she went to the hospital to the soldiers wounded in battles with the Japanese. And always refused the protection and assistance of the police.

Russia is a sick child...

In one of the letters after the revolution, Prmts. Elizaveta Fedorovna wrote: “I felt such deep pity for Russia and its children, who at present do not know what they are doing. Is it not a sick child whom we love a hundred times more during his illness than when he is cheerful and healthy? I would like to bear his suffering, teach him patience, help him. That's what I feel every day.

Holy Russia cannot perish. But great Russia, alas, is no more. But God in the Bible shows how he forgave his repentant people and gave them blessed power again. Let us hope that prayers, intensifying every day, and increasing repentance will propitiate the Ever-Virgin, and she will pray for us her Divine Son, and that the Lord will forgive us.

Romanova Elizaveta Fedorovna (1864-1918) - Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt; in marriage (behind the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich) the Grand Duchess of the reigning house of the Romanovs. Founder of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. Honorary member of the Imperial Kazan Theological Academy (the title of the Highest was approved on June 6, 1913).

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

Grand Duchess Elisabeth was born on October 20, 1864 to a Protestant family of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England. In 1884 she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of Emperor Alexander III of Russia.

Seeing the deep faith of her husband, the Grand Duchess searched with all her heart for the answer to the question - what kind of religion is true? She prayed fervently and asked the Lord to reveal His will to her. On April 13, 1891, on Lazarus Saturday, the rite of acceptance into the Orthodox Church was performed over Elisaveta Feodorovna. In the same year, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed governor-general of Moscow.

Visiting temples, hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes and prisons, the Grand Duchess saw a lot of suffering. And everywhere she tried to do something to relieve them.

After the Russo-Japanese War began in 1904, Elisaveta Feodorovna helped the front and the Russian soldiers in many ways. She worked to the point of exhaustion.

On February 5, 1905, a terrible event occurred that changed the whole life of Elizabeth Feodorovna. The bombing of a revolutionary terrorist killed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Elizaveta Feodorovna, who rushed to the place of the explosion, saw a picture that, in its horror, surpassed the human imagination. Silently, without crying or tears, kneeling in the snow, she began to collect and put on a stretcher parts of the body of her beloved and alive husband a few minutes ago. At the hour of her ordeal, Elisaveta Feodorovna asked God for help and consolation. The next day, she received the Holy Mysteries in the Church of the Chudov Monastery, where her husband's coffin stood. On the third day after the death of her husband, Elisaveta Feodorovna went to prison to see the killer. She didn't hate him. The Grand Duchess wanted him to repent of his terrible crime and pray to the Lord for forgiveness. She even submitted a petition to the Sovereign to pardon the murderer.

Elisaveta Feodorovna decided to dedicate her life to the Lord through serving people and create in Moscow a monastery of work, mercy and prayer. She bought a piece of land on Bolshaya Ordynka Street with four houses and a large garden. In the monastery, which was named Marfo-Mariinsky in honor of the holy sisters Martha and Mary, two churches were created - Marfo-Mariinsky and Pokrovsky, a hospital, which was later considered the best in Moscow, and a pharmacy in which medicines were dispensed to the poor free of charge, an orphanage and a school . Outside the walls of the monastery, a house-hospital was built for women with tuberculosis.

From the beginning of the First World War, the Grand Duchess organized assistance to the front. Under her leadership, sanitary trains were formed, warehouses of medicines and equipment were arranged, and marching churches were sent to the front.

The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II from the throne was a great blow to Elizabeth Feodorovna. Her soul was shaken, she could not speak without tears. Elisaveta Feodorovna saw into what abyss Russia was flying, and wept bitterly for the Russian people, for the royal family dear to her.

Her letters of that time contain the following words: “I felt such deep pity for Russia and its children, who at present do not know what they are doing. Isn’t this a sick child whom we love a hundred times more during his illness than when he is cheerful and healthy? I would like to bear his suffering, to help him. Holy Russia cannot perish. But Great Russia, alas, is no more. We ... must direct our thoughts to the Kingdom of Heaven ... and say with humility: " May your will be done."

Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna was arrested on the third day of Easter 1918, on Bright Tuesday. On that day, Saint Tikhon served a prayer service at the monastery.

The sisters of the monastery, Varvara Yakovleva and Ekaterina Yanysheva, were allowed to go with her. They were brought to the Siberian city of Alapaevsk on May 20, 1918. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich and his secretary Feodor Mikhailovich Remez, Grand Dukes John, Konstantin and Igor Konstantinovichi and Prince Vladimir Paley were also brought here. Companions of Elisaveta Feodorovna were sent to Yekaterinburg and released there. But sister Varvara managed to be left with the Grand Duchess.

On July 5 (18), 1918, the prisoners were taken at night in the direction of the village of Sinyachikha. Outside the city, in an abandoned mine, a bloody crime was committed. Cursing in the arena, beating the martyrs with the butts of their rifles, the executioners began to throw them into the mine. The Grand Duchess Elisabeth was the first to be pushed. She crossed herself and prayed loudly: "Lord, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing!"

Elisaveta Feodorovna and Prince John did not fall to the bottom of the mine, but to a ledge located at a depth of 15 meters. Badly wounded, she tore off part of the fabric from her apostle and bandaged Prince John to alleviate his suffering. A peasant, who happened to be near the mine, heard the Cherubic Hymn sounding in the depths of the mine - these were the martyrs singing.

A few months later, the army of Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak occupied Yekaterinburg, the bodies of the martyrs were removed from the mine. The venerable martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara and Grand Duke John had their fingers folded for the sign of the cross. The body of Elizabeth Feodorovna remained incorrupt.
During the retreat of the White Army, the coffins with the relics of the martyrs were brought to Jerusalem in 1920. Currently, their relics rest in the church of Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

Elizaveta Feodorovna (at birth Elisabeth Alexandra Luise Alice Alice of Hessen-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 (behind the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich) the Grand Duchess of the reigning house of the Romanovs. Founder of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. Honorary member of the Imperial Kazan Theological Academy (the title of the Highest was approved on June 6, 1913).

She was glorified as a saint in 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 hourly:
You are so unspeakably good!
Oh, right, under such a beautiful exterior
Such a beautiful soul!
Some meekness and innermost sadness
There is depth in your eyes;
Like an angel you are quiet, pure and perfect;
Like a woman, shy and gentle.
Let nothing on earth
in the midst of many evils and sorrows
Your purity will not be stained.
And everyone who sees you will glorify God,
who created such beauty!

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

The biography of this amazing woman, who made her life during the Crusades, is in many ways surprising for us. At the age of four, she was betrothed 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. Overwork and exhausting austerity quickly undermined the strength of a young fragile woman. She was gone at 24. Elizabeth lived in a world dominated by brute force and class prejudice. Her activities seemed to many absurd and harmful, but she was not afraid of ridicule and malice, she 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 with the life and work of her holy successor, who became the Orthodox Martyr Elisabeth!

The second daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria. Her younger sister Alice later, in November 1894, became the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, having married the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

From childhood, she was religiously disposed, participated in charity work together with her mother, Grand Duchess Alice, who died in 1878. An important role in the spiritual life of the family was played by the image of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, after whom Ella was named: this saint, the ancestor of the Dukes of Hesse, famous for her deeds of mercy.

Living in seclusion, the German princess, apparently, did not seek marriage. In any case, all applicants for the hand and heart of the beautiful Elizabeth were refused. So it was until she met with 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 Supreme Manifesto. The Orthodox marriage was performed by the court protopresbyter John Yanyshev; crowns were held by Tsesarevich 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 the church of St. Anna also performed a service according to the Lutheran rite.

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

She perfectly mastered the Russian language, spoke it almost without an 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 that 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 a real and strong faith in God, which a person must have to be a good Christian."

Thus began the "Russian" era of the life of the German princess. A woman's homeland is where her family is, says a folk proverb. Elizabeth tried her best to learn the language and traditions of Russia. And soon mastered them to perfection. She, as the Grand Duchess, did not have to accept Orthodoxy. However, Sergei Alexandrovich was a sincere believer. He regularly visited the temple, often went to confession and partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ, kept 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 so strongly influenced the spiritual life of Elizabeth that she decided to accept Orthodoxy, despite the protest of her father and family, who remained in Darmstadt. Attending all divine services with her beloved husband, in her soul she had long since become Orthodox. After the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Grand Duchess was left 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 a precious icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, with which Elisaveta Feodorovna did not part all her life and with it on her chest she accepted a martyr's death.

Characteristically, 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.” Little did she 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), in 1892 she organized the Elizabethan Charitable Society, established in order to "see 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. Elisabeth committees were formed at all Moscow church parishes and in all county towns 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 Department of the Red Cross.

As you know, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was the Moscow governor-general. It was the time of spiritual growth of the Grand Duchess. Residents of Moscow appreciated her mercy. Elisaveta Fedorovna visited hospitals for the poor, almshouses, shelters for homeless children. And everywhere she tried to alleviate the suffering of people: she distributed food, clothes, money, improved the living conditions of the unfortunate. But especially the talents of mercy of the Grand Duchess manifested themselves during the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars. Assistance to the front, to the wounded and disabled, as well as to their wives, children and widows, was organized in an unparalleled way.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Elizaveta Fyodorovna organized a Special Committee for Assistance to Soldiers, under which a donation warehouse was created in the Grand Kremlin Palace in favor of the 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 by 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 ... in order to kill their desire to risk their lives and commit such crimes (I think 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 nothing to pity those who themselves do not pity anyone. "

However, the country was overwhelmed by terrorist acts, 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 in the current situation he could no longer hold the post of Governor-General of Moscow. The emperor accepted his resignation. Nevertheless, the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Her agents were watching him, waiting for the right opportunity to carry out their intent. Elizaveta Feodorovna 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 tried all the more not to leave him alone, and whenever possible accompanied her husband everywhere. On February 18, 1905, Sergei Aleksandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Fyodorovna arrived at the site of the explosion, a crowd had already gathered there. And with her own hands, she collected pieces of her husband’s body scattered by the explosion on a stretcher. Then, after the first memorial service, she 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 that, the Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected. At the site of the murder of her husband, 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, they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). These words were the last in her life - on July 18, 1918, when agents of the new godless government threw the Grand Duchess alive into the Alapaevskaya mine. But until that day, there were still a few years left, filled with the ascetic work of the cross sister of mercy Elizabeth in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent 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, without a trace, to serving people and God ...

Shortly after the death of her husband, she sold her jewels (giving away to the treasury that part of them that belonged to the Romanov dynasty), and with the proceeds she bought an estate with four houses and a vast garden on Bolshaya Ordynka, where the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy, founded by her in 1909, is located (this there was no 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 delivered through ordination, participated in the celebration of the Liturgy, approximately in the role in which subdeacons now serve, were engaged in catechism of women, helped with the baptism of women, served the sick. She received the support of the majority of the 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 was used. The sisters who lived in the monastery took vows of chastity, non-possession and obedience, however, unlike the nuns, after a certain period they could leave the monastery, start a family and be free from the previous vows. The sisters received serious psychological, methodological, spiritual and medical training in the monastery. They were given lectures by the best doctors of Moscow, conversations with them were conducted by the confessor of the monastery, Fr. Mitrofan Srebryansky (later Archimandrite Sergius; canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church) and the second priest of the monastery, Fr. Eugene Sinadsky.

She maintained relations with a number of well-known elders of that time: Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov) (Eleazar Hermitage), Schemagumen German (Gomzin) and Hieroschemamonk Alexy (Soloviev) (Elders of the Zosima Hermitage). Elizaveta Feodorovna did not accept monastic vows.

During the First World War, she actively took care of helping the Russian army, including wounded soldiers. Then she tried to help the prisoners of war, with whom hospitals were overcrowded and, as a result, she was accused of aiding 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 Feodorovna was an honorary member of the Berlin Orthodox St. Prince Vladimir Brotherhood. In 1910, together with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, she took under her protection the fraternal church in Bad Nauheim (Germany).

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 dynasty, was transported to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Ataman Rooms hotel (currently the FSB and Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Sverdlovsk region are located in the building, the modern address is the intersection of Lenin and Weiner streets), and then, two months later, sent to the city of Alapaevsk. She did not lose her presence of mind, in letters she instructed the remaining sisters, bequeathing them to keep love for God and neighbors. With her was a sister from the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent Varvara Yakovleva. In Alapaevsk, Elizaveta Fedorovna was imprisoned in the building of the Napolnaya School. Until now, an apple tree grows near this school, according to legend, planted by the Grand Duchess (12 travels in 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. Died with her:

Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
Prince John Konstantinovich;
Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich (younger);
Prince Igor Konstantinovich;
Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley;
Fyodor Semyonovich Remez, manager of the affairs of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich;
sister of the Martha and Mary Convent Barbara (Yakovleva).

On October 31, 1918, the White Army occupied Alapaevsk. The remains of the dead were removed from the mine, placed in coffins and put to a funeral service in the cemetery church of the city. 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 steamer to Port Said. Finally, the coffins arrived in Jerusalem. 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 the Grand Duchess Elizabeth herself to be buried in the Holy Land, expressed by her during a pilgrimage in 1888, was fulfilled.

In 1992, Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Sister Barbara were canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church and included in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (earlier, 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 countries and the Baltic States, where more than 7 million people bowed to them. According to Patriarch Alexy II, "long queues 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." Then the relics were returned to Jerusalem.

The monument to this merciful and virtuous woman was erected more than 70 years after her martyrdom. Elizabeth 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 Socialist-Revolutionaries, she devoted herself entirely to serving God and helping the suffering. The sculpture depicted the princess in monastic clothes. Opened in August 1990 in the courtyard of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. Sculptor V. M. Klykov.

Literature

Materials for the Life of the Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Letters, diaries, memoirs, documents. M., 1995. GARF. F. 601. Op.1. L. 145-148v.
Maerova V. Elizaveta Fedorovna: Biography. M.: Ed. "Zakharov", 2001. ISBN 5-8159-0185-7
Maksimova L. B. Elisaveta Feodorovna // Orthodox Encyclopedia. Volume XVIII. - M.: Church-Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia", 2009. - S. 389-399. - 752 p. - 39000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-032-5
Miller, L.P. Holy Martyr Russian Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. M .: "Capital", 1994. ISBN 5-7055-1155-8
Kuchmaeva I. K. Life and feat of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. M.: ANO Research Center "Moskvovedenie", JSC "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 Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna. - Publishing house "MiK", 2007.