Icon of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth. Life of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth

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 the 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. Orthodox rite, and after him in the Protestant style 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 was performed Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, leaving her former name, but already 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 desktops. 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 government controlled. 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 the luxurious furniture was taken out, the walls were repainted in White color, they contained 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 a 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 Incorporeal Heavenly Forces, 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 best traditions 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 wooden bed without 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 consolation, 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.
In the hospital of the monastery worked the best specialists Moscow, all operations were carried out 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 the World 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 Brest-Litovsk peace German government obtained the consent of the Soviet authorities to leave the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna abroad. 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 St. Sergius 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.

Icon of St. Elizabeth

Surprisingly tragic is the story of the life of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna, the founder of the Martha and Mary Convent. On the icon, Saint Elizabeth is depicted with a martyr's cross in one hand and the Cathedral of the Martha and Mary Convent in the other. Like the Catholic Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, the Thuringian founder of the Eisenach Hospital for the Poor, in whose honor Elizaveta Feodorovna was named, the righteous martyr became famous over the centuries for her exemplary adherence to the ideals of the Church of Christ and the founding of a monastery - a monastery of mercy.

Jesus Christ, preparing his disciples for future hardships and martyrdom, said: "Take up your cross and follow me!" About the Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna, we can safely say that she carried her cross with dignity, responding to the most cruel blows of fate with the deepest truly Christian humility.

Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice was born in 1864 in the family of Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, daughter of the British Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert. The childhood of Elizabeth and her many brothers and sisters fell on the reign of Queen Victoria - the ruler of a modest, strict, conservative, very religious ruler, who put the church, family and monarchy above all else. Therefore, from childhood, Ella (as her parents called her) was accustomed to strict order and obedience - the grandchildren and granddaughters of Queen Victoria did without servants and did absolutely everything themselves homework. Every day, Princess Alice held religious conversations with her children, instilling in them love for their neighbor, modesty, decency, responsiveness and other Christian virtues. Often, children, together with their parents, went to military hospitals, shelters for the homeless, homes for the disabled in order to help the sick and suffering in word and deed.

At the age of seven, Saint Elizabeth experienced her first life shock - her younger brother Friedrich, who suffered from hemophilia, died from bleeding as a result of a fall from the stairs. Seven years after this tragic incident, the Hesse-Darmstadsky family fell ill with diphtheria. Mary's three-year-old sister and Elizabeth's mother, Princess Alice, died of respiratory paralysis as a result of complications from diphtheria. From that moment until the age of twenty, Saint Elizabeth replaced the mother of the remaining brothers and sisters.

In 1884, at the age of 20, Elizaveta Feodorovna got married in St. Petersburg with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of Emperor Alexander III, uncle of the last emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II. The whole family of Elizabeth was present at the wedding: it was here that Nicholas II and Ella's sister Alice, who was destined to become the last Russian Empress, met. Orthodox wedding took place in the Court Cathedral of the Winter Palace, and the Lutheran Sacrament took place in St. Anna's church. The people who were getting married were a match for each other: the Grand Duke was very devout, and devoted a lot of time to church affairs. This marriage was amazing in its righteousness - even before the wedding, Sergei Alexandrovich and Elizabeth swore to each other to observe the vow of celibacy, which both gave at a young age. The couple settled in the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, but spent most of their time at their Ilinskoye estate near Moscow, where Elizabeth even founded a special fair, the profit from which went to the poor.

All the years after her marriage, Elizabeth diligently learns Russian from Orthodox books and attends church services with her beloved husband. So great was her fascination with the Russian language and Orthodox faith that in 1891 Elizabeth converted to Orthodoxy, entering into a quarrel with her father for this. The name of the Grand Duchess remained the same, but now her namesake Saint was considered the mother of John the Baptist, the righteous Elizabeth.

In the same year, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich became the Governor-General of Moscow and the righteous couple finally moved to the white-stone one. Despite the super-busy schedule of the wife of the Governor-General, Elizaveta Fyodorovna finds time to make life easier for those in need: she headed the Ladies' Committee of the Red Cross and helped the unfortunate in shelters, hospitals and almshouses.

In 1904, the war between Japan and Russia begins, in which our country lost more than 50,000 people killed. Saint Elizabeth arranges a Special Committee for Assistance to Soldiers in the Kremlin Palace, where volunteer assistants and assistants sewed clothes for the military, collected donations and medicines for soldiers and officers. On Far East with the personal participation of the Grand Duchess, several camp churches were sent to support morale, with Gospels and icons. At her own expense, Elizaveta Fedorovna purchased a large number of medicines, tourniquets, bandages and formed several ambulance cars with her own efforts.

But the results of the war were disappointing for the Russian Empire. The war severely undermined the country's economy, and ongoing protests began throughout Russia. Social injustice has become obviously egregious. A political crisis has begun.

In 1905, the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev threw a bomb under the crew of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The terrorist - a member of the militant organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, was seized at the scene of the crime. The husband of St. Elizabeth died instantly, the coachman Yefim, who had served the Grand Duke all his life, was hospitalized with a mortal wound. A few days later, Elizaveta Fedorovna visited Ivan Kalyaev in prison, where, on behalf of her husband, she forgave the terrorist and left him the Gospel and a small icon. The widow of the Grand Duke filed a petition to Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but it was rejected. At the site of her husband's death, Saint Elizabeth erected a monument in the form of a cross with the words of the crucified Christ engraved on it: "Father! Let them go, not knowing what they are doing..."

Having sold all her jewelry and property, Elizaveta Feodorovna bought a spacious estate on Bolshaya Ordynka, on the site of which she founded the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. A monastery was organized in the monastery, where the poor and the needy were provided with medical care in the hospital and pharmacy at the monastery, as well as psychological assistance by the sisters. The originality of the monastery lay in the most modern approach of teaching the sisters of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent at that time: the professors gave them medical lectures on the care and treatment of the sick, the clergy conducted instructive conversations with them. St. Elizabeth and her sisters guided the lost souls on the true path not only with food, clothing and prayers: they tried to teach everyone who wished some profession so that the degraded people could no longer return to their former way of life.

People of various classes and wealth treated Elizabeth Feodorovna with love and respect. The rich appreciated her selfless work and sincerity in righteous deeds, the poor and degraded respected her for the complete absence of arrogance, for the fact that in everyone she saw first of all a person. Many adopted children were brought up and cared for within the walls of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent: Saint Elizabeth and her sisters nursed abandoned and neglected children in their monastery.

But the First World War happened, followed by the bloody revolution of 1917. All members of the royal family were arrested. The sad fate also touched Elizabeth Feodorovna. The Grand Duchess and her cell-attendant Varvara Yakovleva were sent first to Perm, then to Yekaterinburg, and from there to Alapaevsk, where she completed her earthly life Saint Elizabeth. She, Varvara, Fyodor Remez (manager of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich) and five other members of the imperial family, the Red Army Bolsheviks and workers of local factories, after being hit on the head with an ax butt, were thrown into the mine of the Nizhnyaya Selimskaya iron mine, after which they threw several grenades there and, hiding the traces of the crime, they threw branches and logs at the shaft. Fearing the reaction of ordinary people to the murder of St. Elizabeth, the Bolsheviks spread a rumor about the escape-abduction of the Alapaevsk captives. A few months later, when the Kolchak commission to investigate this murder discovered the bodies of the dead, gloomy details surfaced of the massacre of defenseless captives. Not all of them died immediately in the cave - John Konstantinovich and Elizaveta Feodorovna fell on the overlay, located above the bottom of the mine. Having received multiple fractures, Saint Elizabeth found the strength to bandage with her apostle - a nun's handkerchief with a cutout for the face - John's wound. Local peasants said that the singing of prayers could be heard from the mine for several more days. Elizaveta Feodorovna and John died of wounds and dehydration. Before her death, the Grand Duchess smiled, the fingers of her right hand froze in a blessing gesture. When the bodies of the Alapaevo martyrs were taken out of the mine, it turned out that the body of St. Elizabeth had not been touched by decay. Her body and the remains of Varvara Yakovleva were transferred a few years later to the Jerusalem Church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, where they found their refuge in the crypt (the lower room for the relics of the Saints) under the temple.

The Holy Martyr Elizabeth and Sister Varvara were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992, 8 years earlier than the canonization of the Royal Passion-Bearers.

Before the icon of St. Elizabeth, they pray for healing from illnesses and for giving spiritual strength in difficult times.

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Life of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth.

WITH Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna - daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. In this family, children were brought up strictly in English:they were accustomed to simple clothes and food, to housework, a lot of time was devoted to lessons.Parents conducted extensive charitable activities and constantly took their children with them to hospitals, shelters, and homes for the disabled. Princess Elizabeth was especially distinguished by her love for her neighbors, her serious, deep character.

At nineteen, she became the bride of the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II. The wedding took place in the church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

The Grand Duchess studied the Russian language, culture and history of Russia. For a princess who married the Grand Duke, there was no mandatory conversion to Orthodoxy. But Elisaveta Feodorovna, while still a Protestant, tried to learn as much as possible about Orthodoxy, seeing the deep faith of her husband, who was a very pious person, strictly observed fasts, read the books of the Holy Fathers and often went to church. She accompanied him all the time and fully stood up for church services. She saw the joyful state of Sergei Alexandrovich after he received the Holy Mysteries, but, being outside the Orthodox Church, she could not share this joy with him.

The Grand Duchess thought a lot about faith, trying to find the truth, read books in solitude (in general, she was burdened by secular entertainment), and prayed to the Lord for enlightenment. In 1888, Sergei Alexandrovich was instructed to be the representative of the Russian Emperor at the consecration of the church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles in Gethsemane. Elisaveta Feodorovna went with him, rejoicing at the opportunity in the Holy Land to pray that the Lord would reveal His will to her. Seeing this temple, she said:

How I would like to be buried here.

Gradually, she came to a firm decision to accept Orthodoxy. She wrote to her father, who took this step of hers with acute pain:

You must have noticed the deep reverence I have for this religion. I kept thinking and praying to God to show me the right path, and I came to the conclusion that only in this religion can I find all the real and strong faith in God that a person must have in order to be a good Christian. It would be a sin to remain the way I am now, to belong to the same church in form and to the outside world, but inwardly pray and believe as my husband does. You cannot imagine how kind he was, he never tried to force me by any means, leaving it all entirely to my conscience. He knows what a serious step it is and that he had to be absolutely sure before deciding on it.

This change of religion will make many, I know, cry out, but I feel it will bring me closer to God. I know all her tenets and will gladly continue to study them. You call me frivolous and say that the external brilliance of the church fascinated me. In this you are wrong. Nothing external attracts me, and not worship, but the foundation of faith. External signs only remind us of the inner. I pass from pure conviction; I feel that this is the highest religion and that I do it with faith, with deep conviction and confidence that there is God's blessing on it.

The Sacrament of Confirmation was performed on April 12 (25), 1891 on Lazarus Saturday. The Grand Duchess was left her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth, mother of St. John the Baptist.

In 1891, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed governor-general of Moscow. His wife had to attend receptions, concerts, balls. But this was not what brought joy to the Grand Duchess - her soul aspired to works of mercy, she visited hospitals for the poor, almshouses, shelters for homeless children, distributed food, clothes, money, wanting to alleviate the living conditions of the unfortunate in every possible way.

In 1894, Elisaveta Feodorovna's sister, Alisa, married Nikolai Alexandrovich, Heir to the Russian Throne, who soon became Emperor. In Orthodoxy, she received the name Alexander.

In 1903, Nikolai Alexandrovich with Alexandra Feodorovna and Sergei Alexandrovich with Elisaveta Feodorovna were at the Sarov celebrations in honor of the glorification of the great Russian saint, St. Seraphim of Sarov, who was always greatly revered.

In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began. Elisaveta Feodorovna, who already had a good experience in charity work, became one of the main organizers of assistance to the front. She organized special workshops, under which all the halls of the Kremlin Palace, except for the Throne Palace, were occupied. Thousands of women worked here at sewing machines and work tables. From here, food, uniforms, medicines, and gifts were sent to the front. At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several hospital trains, set up a hospital for the wounded in Moscow, created special committees to provide for the widows and orphans of dead soldiers and officers. She also organized the departure of camp churches to the front with everything necessary for the celebration of worship.

However, the Russian troops suffered defeat after defeat. The political situation in Russia became more and more tense. One could often hear revolutionary slogans, calls for strikes. Terrorist organizations have emerged. The militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Elisaveta Feodorovna knew that he was in mortal danger, she received anonymous letters, in which she was warned not to accompany her husband if she did not want to share his fate. But she tried her best not to leave him alone.

On February 5 (18), 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. Three days later, Elisaveta Feodorovna arrived at the prison where the murderer was being held. She said that she brought him forgiveness from Sergei Alexandrovich and asked him to repent. She held the Gospel in her hands and asked to read it, but Kalyaev refused. But still, she left the Gospel and a small icon in the cell, saying:

My attempt was unsuccessful, although, who knows, it is possible that at the last minute he will recognize his sin and repent of it.

Then the Grand Duchess turned to the Emperor with a request to pardon Kalyaev, but the request was rejected.

From the moment of the death of her beloved husband, Elisaveta Feodorovna did not take off her mourning, kept a strict fast, and prayed a lot. Her bedroom turned into a monastic cell: expensive furniture was removed, the walls were repainted white. The Grand Duchess collected all her jewels and gave some of them to the treasury, some to relatives, and some she used to build the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy.

She worked for a long time on the charter of the monastery, wishing to revive the ancient institution of deaconesses, she traveled to Zosima Hermitage to discuss the project with the elders. In 1906, Grand Duchess Elisaveta met priest Mitrofan Srebryansky, a man of high spiritual life, who took an active part in drawing up the charter of the monastery and became its confessor, as he met all the high requirements.

Father Mitrofan is God's blessing for our cause

- said Elisaveta Feodorovna.

Father Mitrofan Srebryansky was glorified as New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

The basis of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy was the charter of the monastic community. The sisters were taught the basics of medicine, their main concern was visiting the sick and the poor, helping abandoned children.

The best specialists worked in the monastery hospital. All operations were carried out free of charge. At the monastery there was a free canteen for the poor, an excellent library that anyone could use, and a shelter for orphan girls was created.

Elisaveta Feodorovna led an ascetic life. She slept on naked wooden planks, secretly wore a sackcloth, ate only vegetable food, prayed a lot, slept little, but tried her best to hide it. The Grand Duchess always did everything herself, without requiring help from others, she participated in the affairs of the monastery as an ordinary sister. She loved to make pilgrimages to holy places. According to those who knew Elisaveta Feodorovna, the Lord rewarded her with the gift of reasoning, and revealed to her pictures of the future of Russia.

She also continued to engage in charitable activities outside the walls of the monastery, visiting the unfortunate in various hospitals and shelters. During the First World War, the Grand Duchess was engaged in the formation of hospital trains, the arrangement of warehouses for medicines and equipment, and the sending of camp churches to the front.

The first time after the October Revolution, the monastery was not touched. The Grand Duchess, acutely worried about the terrible events taking place, however, refused offers to go abroad, wanting to share the fate of her country, which she deeply loved - in one of her letters she wrote:

I am Russian with every fiber of my soul.

In April 1918, on the third day of Easter, on the day of the celebration of the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God, Elisaveta Feodorovna was arrested and taken away from Moscow. Two sisters went with her - Varvara Yakovleva and Ekaterina Yanysheva. They were taken to Perm. The Grand Duchess wrote to her sisters:

For God's sake, don't be discouraged. The Mother of God knows why Her Heavenly Son sent us this test on the day of Her feast, the Lord found that it is time for us to carry His cross. Let's try to be worthy of this joy. As God pleased, so it happened. May the name of the Lord be blessed forever.

The Grand Duchess spent the last months of her life in prison, at a school on the outskirts of the city of Alapaevsk. She devoted all her time to prayer. The sisters who accompanied their abbess were brought to the regional council and offered to go free, but they begged to return them to the Grand Duchess. Then the Chekists began to frighten them with torture and torment, which is coming to everyone who stays with her. Varvara Yakovleva replied that she was ready to give a signature even with her own blood, that she wanted to share the fate of her abbess.

In the dead of night on July 5 (July 18), on the day of the uncovering of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Grand Duchess Elisaveta 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 prayed: Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23; 34). Then the security officers began to throw hand grenades into the mine. One of the peasants, who witnessed the murder, said that from the depths of the mine, the sounds of the Cherubim were heard, which the sufferers sang before passing into eternity.

Elisaveta Feodorovna fell not to the bottom of the mine, but to a ledge, which was at a depth of 15 meters. Next to her, they found the body of John Konstantinovich, the son of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, with his head bandaged. With the most severe fractures and bruises, she also sought to alleviate the suffering of her neighbor here. The fingers of the right hand of Grand Duchess Elizabeth and nun Barbara turned out to be folded for the sign of the cross. They died in terrible agony from thirst, hunger and wounds.

The remains of the martyrs in 1921 were transported to Jerusalem by Father Seraphim, hegumen of the Aleksievsky skete of the Perm diocese, friend and confessor of the Grand Duchess, and laid in the tomb of the church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles in Gethsemane. The burial of the New Martyrs was performed by Patriarch Damian. Their relics were partially incorrupt. Patriarch Diodorus of Jerusalem blessed the solemn transfer of the relics from the tomb to the church of St. Mary Magdalene itself.

In 1992, the Reverend Martyr Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Nun Barbara were canonized by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their memory is celebrated on the day of their death - July 5 (18).

The Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna (Comm. 18 July) was a reformer of merciful ministry 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 different needs 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 time of their service in the monastery, and 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. Sanatorium equipped with last word of the then medical technology, was organized by ow. 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. Moscow elder, 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.

Biography of the Grand Duchess

Letter from Elizabeth Feodorovna to her father about the adoption of Orthodoxy

The father did not bless his daughter to change her faith, but she could no longer change her mind and through the sacrament of Confirmation she became Orthodox. On June 3 (15), 1884, in the Court Cathedral of the Winter Palace, she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother Russian emperor Alexander III, which was 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 husband was Elizabeth and a cousin uncle (a common ancestor - Wilhelmina of Baden), and a fourth cousin (a common great-great-grandfather - the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm II). The couple settled in the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace bought by Sergei Alexandrovich (the palace became known as Sergievsky), having spent their honeymoon in the Ilyinskoye 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. Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna 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. As the wife of the Moscow governor-general (Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed to this post in 1891), she organized in 1892 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. Elizabethan committees were formed under all Moscow parishes and in all county towns of the Moscow province. In addition, Elisaveta Feodorovna 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. Sergei Alexandrovich and Elisaveta Feodorovna had no children of their own, but they raised the children of Sergei Alexandrovich's brother, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, Maria and Dmitry, whose mother died in childbirth. With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Elisaveta Feodorovna 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 assassination of Sipyagin (D.S. Sipyagin - The Minister of the Interior was killed in 1902 by a member of the AKP BO Stepan Balmashev. Balmashev (involved in the terror of Gershuni), acquired military uniform and, introducing himself as an adjutant of one of the Grand Dukes, when handing over the package, he shot at the minister. Sipyagin was mortally wounded in the stomach and neck. Balmashev was executed), and she herself answered the question: - “It is necessary to do everything to prevent them from turning into 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 ”On February 4, 1905, her husband was killed by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev, who threw a hand bomb at him. Elisaveta Feodorovna was the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy and with her own hands collected parts of the body of her beloved husband, scattered by the explosion. I took this tragedy hard. 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!” On the third day after the death of the Grand Duke, she went to prison to the killer in the hope that he would repent, she conveyed forgiveness to him on behalf of Sergei Alexandrovich, left him the Gospel. To the words of Kalyaev: “I didn’t want to kill you, I saw him several times and the time when I had a bomb at the ready, but you were with him, and I didn’t dare to touch him,” Elisaveta Feodorovna replied: “And you didn’t realize that you killed me along with him?". Despite the fact that the killer did not repent, the Grand Duchess filed a petition for pardon to Nicholas II, which he rejected. After the death of her husband, Elizaveta Feodorovna replaced him as Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society and served in this position from 1905 to 1917. Elisaveta Feodorovna decided to devote all her strength to serving Christ and her neighbors. She bought a plot of land on Bolshaya Ordynka and in 1909 opened the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent there, naming it in honor of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary. There are two temples, a hospital, a pharmacy with free medicines for the poor, an orphanage and a school on the site. A year later, the nuns of the monastery were consecrated to the title of cross sisters of love and mercy, and Elisaveta Feodorovna was elevated to the rank of abbess. She said goodbye to secular life without regret, saying to the sisters of the convent: "I leave the brilliant world, but together with all of you I ascend to a greater world - to the world of the poor and suffering." During the First World War, the Grand Duchess actively supported the front: she helped form ambulance trains, sent medicines and field churches to the soldiers. After the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, she wrote: “I felt deep pity for Russia and its children, who currently do not know what they are doing. Isn't this a sick child whom we love a hundred times more during his illness, and not 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: “Thy will be done.”

Martyrdom of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

Novo-Tikhvinsky Monastery, where Elizaveta Feodorovna was kept on the eve of her death

Where are the relics of the Grand Duchess

Canonization

Prayers of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

Poem about Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna

Marfo-Mariinsky Convent

According to the plan of Elisaveta 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 an education, good care and 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, Elisaveta Feodorovna 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 quarters. Together with her cell-attendant Varvara Yakovleva, Elisaveta Feodorovna often visited Khitrov Market, a place of attraction for the Moscow poor. Here, mother found homeless children and gave them to city shelters. All Khitrovka respectfully called the Grand Duchess "Sister Elizabeth" or "Mother". 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 Zosima Hermitage). Elisaveta 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. With her participation, at the beginning of 1915, a workshop was organized to assemble prostheses from ready-made parts, obtained in most of the St. Petersburg military medical manufacturing plant, where there was a special prosthetic workshop. Until 1914, this branch of industry did not develop in Russia. Funds for the equipment of the workshop, located in private ownership on Trubnikovsky Lane in house No. 9, were collected from donations. As hostilities developed, the need to increase the production of artificial limbs increased and the Committee of the Grand Duchess moved production along Maronovsky Lane, 9. Understanding the social significance of this area, with the personal participation of Elisaveta Feodorovna, in 1916 work began on the design and construction of the first in Moscow in Russian prosthetic plant, which is still engaged in the production of components for prostheses.

Elisaveta Feodorovna wanted to open branches of the monastery in other cities of Russia, but her plans were not destined to come true. The First World War began, with the blessing of the mother, the sisters of the monastery worked in field hospitals. The revolutionary events affected all members of the Romanov dynasty, even the Grand Duchess Elisabeth, whom all of Moscow loved. Shortly after the February Revolution, an armed crowd with red flags came to arrest the abbess of the monastery - "a German spy who keeps weapons in the monastery." The monastery was searched; after the crowd left, Elisaveta Feodorovna said to the sisters: "Obviously, we are still unworthy of the martyr's crown." After the October Revolution of 1917, at first the convent was not disturbed, and food and medicine were even brought to the sisters. Arrests began later. In 1918, Elisaveta Feodorovna was taken into custody. The Marfo-Mariinsky Convent existed until 1926. Some sisters were sent into exile, others united in a community and created a small vegetable garden in the Tver region. Two years later, a cinema was opened in the Intercession Church, and then a house of health education was located there. A statue of Stalin was placed in the altar. After the Great Patriotic War, the State Art Restoration Workshops settled in the cathedral of the monastery, the rest of the premises were occupied by a polyclinic and laboratories of the All-Union Institute of Mineral Raw Materials. In 1992, the territory of the monastery was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Now the monastery lives according to the charter created by Elisaveta Feodorovna. The residents are trained at the St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Mercy, help those in need, work in the newly opened orphanage on Bolshaya Ordynka, a charity canteen, a patronage service, a gymnasium and a cultural and educational center.

Statues of 20th-century martyrs on the western façade Westminster Abbey Cast: Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Macemola, Janani Luvum, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi and Wang Zhiming

relics

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 return of the country to its original historical path." Then the relics were returned to Jerusalem.

Temples and monasteries

Rehabilitation