Reverend Princess Elizabeth. The feat of the princess

6093 18.07.2013

The children were brought up in the traditions of old England, according to a strict routine. The children's clothing and food were very simple. The older daughters did the housework themselves. Subsequently, Elizaveta Feodorovna said: “They taught me everything in the house.”

The Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was the second child in the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England. Another daughter of this couple, Alice, later became the Empress of Russia Alexandra Feodorovna.

The children were brought up in the traditions of old England, their lives followed a strict routine established by their mother. The children's clothing and food were very simple. The eldest daughters did the housework themselves: they cleaned the rooms, beds, and lit the fireplace. Subsequently, Elizaveta Feodorovna said: “They taught me everything in the house.” The mother closely monitored the development of the talents and inclinations of each of the seven children and tried to raise them on the solid basis of Christian commandments, to put in their hearts love for their neighbors (1), especially for the suffering.

Elizaveta Feodorovna’s parents spent most of their fortune on charitable needs, and the children constantly traveled with their mother to hospitals, shelters, and homes for the disabled, bringing large bouquets of flowers with them, carrying them around the wards of the sick, and placing them in vases.

Since childhood, Elizabeth loved nature and especially flowers, which she painted with enthusiasm. She had an artistic gift and spent a lot of her life drawing. She also loved classical music.

Everyone who knew Elizabeth from childhood noted her love for her neighbors. As Elizaveta Feodorovna herself later said, even in her earliest youth she was greatly influenced by the life and exploits of Elizabeth of Thuringia (2), one of her ancestors, after whom she was named.

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

That year the time of childhood ended for Elizabeth. In grief, she began to pray even more often and more earnestly. She realized that life on earth is the way of the cross. She tried with all her might to ease her father’s grief, support him, console him, and to some extent replace her mother with her younger sisters and brother.
In her twentieth year, Princess Elizabeth became the bride of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, brother of Emperor Alexander III. She met her future husband in childhood, when he came to Germany with his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who also came from the House of Hesse. Before this, all applicants for her hand were refused.

The whole family accompanied Princess Elizabeth to her wedding in Russia. Her twelve-year-old sister Alice also came with her, who met here her future husband, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich.

The wedding took place in the Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg (3). The Grand Duchess intensively studied the Russian language, wanting to study more deeply the culture and especially the faith of her new homeland.
Grand Duchess Elizabeth was dazzlingly beautiful. In those days they said that there were only two beauties in Europe, and both were Elizabeths: Elizabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, and Elizabeth Feodorovna. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov dedicated a poem to Elizabeth Feodorovna. It was written in 1884.

I look at you, admiring you every hour: You are so inexpressibly beautiful! Oh, that’s right, underneath such a beautiful exterior there’s an equally beautiful soul! Some kind of meekness and hidden sadness lurks in your eyes; Like an angel you are quiet, pure and perfect; Like a woman, shy and tender. May nothing on earth, amid the evils and much sorrow of Yours, sully your purity. And everyone, seeing you, will glorify God, who created such beauty! K.R.

In Orthodox churches she experienced an amazing feeling, mysterious and blessed, so different from what she felt in a Protestant church. She saw the joyful state of Sergei Alexandrovich after he accepted the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and she herself wanted to approach the Holy Chalice to share this joy. Elizaveta Feodorovna began to ask her husband to get her books of spiritual content, an Orthodox catechism and interpretation of Scripture, so that she could understand with her mind and heart what kind of faith is true.

In 1888, Emperor Alexander III instructed Sergei Alexandrovich to be his representative at the consecration of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane, built in the Holy Land in memory of their mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Sergei Alexandrovich was already in the Holy Land in 1881, when he participated in the founding of the Orthodox Palestine Society and became its chairman. This society raised funds for pilgrims to the Holy Land, to help the Russian Mission in Palestine, to expand missionary work, to acquire lands and monuments associated with the life of the Savior. Having learned about the opportunity to visit the Holy Land, Elizaveta Feodorovna took this as an instruction from God and prayed that there, at the Holy Sepulcher, the Savior Himself would reveal His will to her.

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife arrived in Palestine in October 1888. The Temple of St. Mary Magdalene was built in the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. This five-domed temple with golden domes is to this day one of the most beautiful temples in Jerusalem. At the top of the Mount of Olives stood a huge bell tower, nicknamed the “Russian candle”. Seeing this beauty and feeling the presence of God’s grace in this place, the Grand Duchess said: “How I would like to be buried here.” She did not know then that she had uttered a prophecy that was destined to be fulfilled. Elizaveta Feodorovna brought precious vessels, the Gospel and air as a gift to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

After visiting the Holy Land, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy. What kept her from taking this step was the fear of hurting her family and, above all, her father. Finally, on January 1, 1891, she wrote a letter to her father about her decision to convert to the Orthodox faith. We will present it almost in full, from it it is clear what path Elizaveta Feodorovna took:
“...And now, dear Pope, I want to tell you something and I beg you to give your blessing.

You must have noticed what deep reverence I have had for the religion here since you were last here, more than a year and a half ago. I thought and read all the time and prayed to God to show me the right path, and came to the conclusion that only in this religion can I find all the real and strong faith in God that a person must have to be a good Christian. It would be a sin to remain as I am now - to belong to the same church in form and for the outside world, but inside myself to pray and believe the same way as my husband. You cannot imagine how kind he was: he never tried to force me by any means, leaving all this entirely to my conscience. He knows what a serious step this is, and that he had to be absolutely sure before deciding to take it. I would have done this even before, but I was tormented by the fact that by doing this I was causing you pain. But you, won’t you understand, my dear Dad?

You know me so well, you must see that I decided to take this step only out of deep faith and that I feel that I must appear before God with a pure and believing heart.
How simple it would be to remain as it is now, but then how hypocritical, how false it would be, and how I can lie to everyone - pretending that I am a Protestant in all external rituals, when my soul belongs completely to the Orthodox religion. I thought and thought deeply about all this, having been in this country for more than six years and knowing that religion had been “found.” I so strongly wish to partake of the Holy Mysteries with my husband on Easter. It may seem sudden, but I've been thinking about it for so long, and now, finally, I can't put it off. My conscience won't allow me to do this. I ask, I ask, upon receipt of these lines, to forgive your daughter if she causes you pain. But isn’t faith in God and religion one of the main consolations of this world? Please wire me just one line when you receive this letter. God bless you. This will be such a comfort for me because I know there will be a lot of frustrating moments as no one will understand this step. I only ask for a small, affectionate letter.”

The father did not send his daughter the desired telegram with a blessing, but wrote a letter in which he said that her decision brought him pain and suffering and that he could not give a blessing.
Then Elizaveta Feodorovna showed courage and, despite moral suffering, did not waver in her decision to convert to Orthodoxy. Here are a few more excerpts from her letters to loved ones:
“...My conscience does not allow me to continue in the same spirit - it would be a sin; I lied all this time, remaining for everyone in my old faith... It would have been impossible for me to continue to live the way I lived before... Even in Slavic I understand almost everything, although I never learned this language. The Bible is available in both Slavic and Russian, but the latter is easier to read... You say... that the external splendor of the church fascinated me. This is where you are wrong. Nothing external attracts me, and not worship - but the basis of faith. The external only reminds me of the internal... I come from pure conviction, I feel that this is the highest religion and that I will do it with faith, with deep conviction and confidence that there is God’s blessing for this.”
On April 12 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the Sacrament of Confirmation of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was performed, leaving her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth - the mother of St. John the Baptist, whose memory the Orthodox Church commemorates on September 5 (18). After Confirmation, Emperor Alexander III blessed his daughter-in-law with the precious icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which Elizaveta Feodorovna did not part with throughout her life and accepted a martyr’s death with it on her chest. Now she could tell her husband in the words of the Bible: “Your people have become my people, your God has become my God” (Ruth 1:16).

In 1891, Emperor Alexander III appointed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich as Moscow Governor-General. The wife of the Governor-General had to perform many duties: there were constant receptions, concerts, and balls. It was necessary to smile at the guests, dance and carry on conversations, regardless of mood, state of health and desire.
After moving to Moscow, Elizaveta Feodorovna experienced the death of close people - her beloved daughter-in-law, Princess Alexandra (Pavel Alexandrovich's wife) and her father. This was the time of her spiritual growth.

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

After her father’s death, she and Sergei Alexandrovich traveled along the Volga with stops in Yaroslavl, Rostov, and Uglich. In all these cities, the couple prayed in local churches.
In 1894, despite many obstacles that arose, the decision was finally made to engage Grand Duchess Alice to the Heir to the Russian Throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Elizaveta Feodorovna rejoiced that people who loved each other could become spouses, and her sister would live in Russia, dear to Elizaveta’s heart. Princess Alice was twenty-two years old, and Elizaveta Feodorovna hoped that her sister, living in Russia, would understand and love the Russian people, master the Russian language perfectly and be able to prepare for the high service of the Russian Empress.

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

In July 1903, the solemn glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov took place. The entire Imperial Family arrived in Sarov. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna prayed to the monk to give her a son. When the Heir to the Throne was born a year later, at the request of the Imperial couple, the throne of the lower church built in Tsarskoe Selo was consecrated in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Elizaveta Feodorovna and her husband also came to Sarov. In a letter from Sarov she writes:
“...What weakness, what illnesses we saw, but also what faith! It seemed that we were living during the time of the Savior’s earthly life. And how they prayed, how they cried - these poor mothers with sick children - and, thank God, many were healed. The Lord vouchsafed us to see how the mute girl spoke, but how her mother prayed for her!” (4)

At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several sanitary trains. In Moscow, she set up a hospital for the wounded, which she herself constantly visited, and created special committees to provide for the widows and orphans of soldiers and officers who died at the front.

However, Russian troops suffered one defeat after another. Terrorist acts, rallies, and strikes have acquired unprecedented proportions in the country. The state and social order was falling apart, a revolution was approaching.

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

Meanwhile, the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Its agents kept an eye on him, waiting for an opportunity to execute him. Elizaveta 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 especially tried not to leave him alone and, if possible, accompanied her husband everywhere.

On February 5 (18), 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Feodorovna arrived at the scene of the explosion, a crowd had already gathered there. Someone tried to prevent her from approaching the remains of her husband, but with her own hands she collected the pieces of her husband’s body scattered by the explosion onto a stretcher. After the first funeral service at the Chudov Monastery, Elizaveta Feodorovna returned to the palace, changed into a black mourning dress and began writing telegrams, and first of all to her sister Alexandra Feodorovna, asking her not to come to the funeral, because terrorists could use this incident to assassinate the Imperial couple

When the Grand Duchess wrote telegrams, she inquired several times about the condition of the wounded coachman Sergei Alexandrovich. She was told that the coachman's situation was hopeless and he might soon die. In order not to upset the dying man, Elizaveta Feodorovna took off her mourning dress, put on the same blue one she had been wearing before, and went to the hospital. There, bending over the dying man’s bed, she caught his question about Sergei Alexandrovich and, in order to reassure him, the Grand Duchess overcame herself, smiled at him affectionately and said: “He sent me to you.” And reassured by her words, thinking that Sergei Alexandrovich was alive, the devoted coachman Efim died that same night.
On the third day after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Feodorovna went to the prison where the murderer was kept. Kalyaev said: “I didn’t want to kill you, I saw him several times at a time when I had a bomb ready, but you were with him, and I did not dare to touch him.” - “And you did not realize that you killed me with him?" - she answered. She further said that she brought him forgiveness from Sergei Alexandrovich and asked the killer to repent. She held the Gospel in her hands and asked to read it, but he refused. Nevertheless, Elizaveta Feodorovna 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 recognize his sin and repent of it.” After this, the Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected.

Of the Grand Dukes, only Konstantin Konstantinovich and Pavel Alexandrovich were present at the burial. Sergei Alexandrovich was buried in the small church of the Chudov Monastery, where funeral services were held daily for forty days; The Grand Duchess was present at every service and often came here at night, praying for the newly deceased. Here she felt the gracious help from the holy relics of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, whom she especially revered from then on. The Grand Duchess wore a silver cross with a particle of the relics of St. Alexis (5). She believed that Saint Alexy put in her heart the desire to devote the rest of her life to God.

At the site of her husband’s murder, Elizaveta Feodorovna erected a monument - a cross, made according to the design of the artist Vasnetsov. On the monument were written the words of the Savior, spoken by Him on the Cross: “Father, let them go, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23; 34) (6).

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

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

Elizaveta Feodorovna worked for a long time on drawing up the Charter of the monastery. She wanted to revive in her the ancient institution of deaconesses, which existed in the first centuries of Christianity. Deaconesses in those days could be widows or middle-aged virgins. Their main responsibilities were: monitoring women entering the Church, teaching them the basics of faith, helping with the Sacrament of Baptism, and caring for the poor and sick. During the persecution of Christianity, deaconesses served martyrs and martyrs in prison.

Archbishop Anastasy, who personally knew Elizaveta Feodorovna, recalls: “At one time she seriously thought about reviving the ancient institution of deaconesses, in which she was supported by Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow (Epiphany, New Martyr of Russia + 1918).” But Bishop Hermogenes of Saratov opposed this (after the revolution he ended his life as a martyr in Tobolsk).

Elizaveta Feodorovna abandoned her idea, did not want to take advantage of her high position to circumvent the established rules, and neglect the opinion of the church authorities. It happened that the Grand Duchess was unfairly accused of Protestant tendencies, which she later repented of.

Elizaveta Feodorovna continued to work on drawing up the Charter of the monastery. I went several times to Zosima Hermitage, where I discussed the project with the elders; wrote to various monasteries and spiritual libraries of the world, studied the statutes of ancient monasteries. A happy accident, sent by the Providence of God, helped her in these works.

In 1906, the Grand Duchess read the book “The Diary of a Regimental Priest who served in the Far East during the entire period of the last Russo-Japanese War” (7), by priest Mitrofan Serebryansky. She wanted to meet the author and summoned him to Moscow. As a result of their meetings and conversations, a draft Charter of the future monastery appeared, prepared by Father Mitrofan, which Elizaveta Feodorovna accepted as a basis.

To perform divine services and provide spiritual care for the sisters, according to the draft Charter, a married priest was needed, but who would live with his mother as brother and sister and would constantly be on the territory of the monastery. Elizaveta Feodorovna, in letters and in personal meetings, asked Father Mitrofan to become the confessor of the future monastery, since he met all the requirements of the Charter.

He was born in Orel into a large family of a priest on July 31, 1870. Children were raised in piety and strict observance of church rites. When the child turned four years old, the father brought him to his mother and said that from now on their child could observe all fasts. Peace and love reigned in the family, the children treated their parents with the greatest respect. As a young man, Mitrofan, having graduated from theological seminary, asked his parents for blessings for marriage, so that he could then take holy orders. All his life, Father Mitrofan loved and respected his wife very much. At the end of his life, Father Mitrofan recalled: “Olyushka, my companion, she sailed on open rafts down the Irtysh to join me in exile. What support and comfort it was for me!”
The couple had no children, and by mutual consent they decided to remain celibate in marriage. Father Mitrofan said that this is the most difficult feat - to have the blessing of living with his beloved wife, but to cut off lust. Only by God's grace is this possible.

Since 1896, Father Mitrofan served as a regimental priest with the 51st Chernigov Dragoon Regiment stationed in Orel. Together with the regiment, Father Mitrofan went to the Russo-Japanese War, where he was in the combat zone near Liaoyang and Mukden from 1904 to 1906. After the end of the war, he returned to his native Oryol and became rector of the parish church. He was very much loved in Orel as a true and spiritually experienced shepherd. After the service, people went to him for hours for advice, guidance, with all their difficulties and questions. He recalled that he rarely managed to leave church before five o'clock in the evening.

After a conversation with the Grand Duchess Fr. Mitrofan said that he agreed to move to Moscow and serve in a new monastery. But, returning home, he thought about how many tears awaited him there, how many parishioners would be saddened by the departure of their beloved spiritual father. And he decided to refuse to move to Moscow, although he himself later said that the Grand Duchess’s request was almost an order.
When, before leaving for Oryol, he stopped for the night in a house near Moscow, he thought for a long time and firmly decided to send a telegram refusing Elizaveta Feodorovna’s proposal. And suddenly, almost immediately, the fingers on my hand began to go numb, and my hand became paralyzed. Father Mitrofan was horrified that now he would not be able to serve in the church, and understood what had happened as admonition. He began to pray fervently and promised God that he would give his consent to move to Moscow - and two hours later his hand began to work again.

When Fr. Mitrofan announced his departure in the parish, everyone cried, requests, letters, petitions to the church authorities began. Months passed, it was impossible to leave Orel, and Father Mitrofan felt that he was unable to do this. And then the hand went away again. Immediately after this, Father Mitrofan went to Moscow, came to the Iveron Chapel and prayed with tears before the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, promising to move to Moscow - if only his hand would be healed. And after he kissed the icon, the fingers of his sore hand began to move. Then he went to Elizaveta Feodorovna and joyfully announced that he had firmly decided to come and be the confessor of the monastery.

The Grand Duchess had to redo the Charter of her monastery several times in order to satisfy all the requirements and amendments of the Holy Synod. Emperor Nicholas II, with his Highest Decree, helped overcome the Synod’s resistance to the creation of the monastery.

On February 10, 1909, the Grand Duchess took off her mourning dress, put on the robe of the cross sister of love and mercy and, having gathered seventeen sisters of the monastery she founded, said: “I am leaving the brilliant world where I occupied a brilliant position, but together with all of you I am ascending to a more the great world into the world of the poor and suffering.”

Father Mitrofan became the true confessor of the monastery, mentor and assistant to the abbess. How highly the Grand Duchess valued the confessor of the monastery can be seen from her letter to the Emperor (April 1909): “For our work, Father Mitrofan is a blessing from God, since he laid the necessary foundation... He confesses me, cares for me in church, gives me great help and sets an example with his pure, simple life - so modest and simple in his boundless love for God and the Orthodox Church. After talking with him for just a few minutes, you see that he is a modest, pure, God’s man, God’s servant in our Church.”

The basis of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy was the charter of the monastery hostel. On April 9 (22), 1910, in the Church of Saints Martha and Mary, Bishop Tryphon (Turkestan) dedicated seventeen sisters of the monastery, led by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, to the title of Cross Sisters of Love and Mercy. During the solemn service, Bishop Tryphon, addressing the Grand Duchess, already dressed in the robe of the sister of the cross of mercy, said prophetic words: “This clothing will hide you from the world, and the world will be hidden from you, but at the same time it will be a witness to your beneficial activities, which will shine before the Lord to His glory."

The dedication of the created monastery to the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary is significant. The monastery was supposed to become, as it were, the house of Saint Lazarus - the Friend of God, the house where the Savior visited so often. The sisters of the monastery were called to unite the high lot of Mary, who heeds the words of eternal life, and the service of Martha - serving the Lord through her neighbor.
The first church of the monastery (hospital) was consecrated by Bishop Tryphon on September 9 (21), 1909 (on the day of the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the name of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary. The second church, in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, was consecrated in 1911 (architect A. V. Shchusev, paintings by M. V. Nesterov). Built according to models of Novgorod-Pskov architecture, it retained the warmth and comfort of small parish churches, but, nevertheless, was designed for the presence of more than a thousand worshipers.

M.V. Nesterov said about this temple: “The Church of the Intercession is the best of the modern buildings in Moscow, which under other conditions can have, in addition to its direct purpose for the parish, an artistic and educational purpose for the whole of Moscow.” In 1914, a church-tomb in the name of the Heavenly Powers and All Saints was built under the temple, which the abbess intended to make her resting place. The painting of the tomb was done by P. D. Korin, a student of 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 the sisters for the coming day. Those free from obedience remained in the church, where the Divine Liturgy began. The afternoon meal included reading the lives of the saints. At 5 pm the church served Vespers and Matins. On holidays and Sundays an all-night vigil was held. At 9 o'clock in the evening, the evening rule was read in the hospital church, after which all the sisters, having received the blessing of the abbess, went to their cells. Four times a week during Vespers, akathists were read: on Sunday - to the Savior, on Monday - to the Archangel Michael and all the Ethereal Heavenly Powers, on Wednesday - to the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary, and on Friday - to the Mother of God or the Passion of Christ. In the chapel, built at the end of the monastery garden, the Psalter for the departed was read. The abbess herself often prayed there at night.

The inner life of the sisters was led by a wonderful priest and shepherd, the confessor of the monastery, Archpriest Mitrofan Serebryansky. Twice a week he had conversations with the sisters. In addition, the sisters could come every day at certain hours for advice or guidance to the confessor or the abbess. The Grand Duchess, together with Father Mitrofan, taught the sisters that their task was not only medical assistance, but also the spiritual guidance of degraded, lost and despairing people. Every Sunday after the evening service in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God, conversations were held for the people with the general singing of prayers.

“The entire external environment of the monastery and its very internal life, and on all the creations of the Grand Duchess in general, bore the imprint of grace and culture, not because she attached any self-sufficient significance to this, but because such was the involuntary action of her creative spirit.” — Metropolitan Anastasy writes in his memoirs.

The divine service in the monastery was distinguished by its special beauty and reverence, this was the merit of the confessor, who was exceptional in his pastoral merits; chosen by the abbess. Here the best shepherds and preachers not only from Moscow, but also from many remote places in Russia, performed divine services and preached the word of God. Like a bee, the abbess collected nectar from all flowers so that people could feel the special aroma of spirituality. The monastery, its churches and worship aroused the admiration of its contemporaries. This was facilitated not only by the beauty of the temples, 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, a lady-in-waiting to her relative Princess Victoria, testifies about Elizabeth Feodorovna: “She had a wonderful quality - to see the good and the real in people, and tried to bring it out. She also did not have a high opinion of her qualities at all... She never said the word “I can’t”, and there was never anything dull in the life of the Marfo-Mary Convent. Everything there was modern, both inside and out. And whoever was there was taken away with a wonderful feeling.”

In the Martha and Mary Convent, the Grand Duchess led the life of an ascetic. She slept on wooden planks without a mattress, and secretly wore a hair shirt and chains. The ascetic of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, nun Lyubov (in the world Euphrosyne), spoke about this in her memoirs. One day, not yet trained in monastic rules, she entered the abbess’s chambers without prayer and without asking for a blessing. In the cell she saw the Grand Duchess in a hair shirt and chains. She, not at all embarrassed, said only: “Darling, when you come in, you have to knock.”

Nun Lyubov also recalls the remarkable incident that brought her to the monastery. This was in 1912. At the age of 16, she fell asleep in a lethargic sleep, during which her soul was greeted by the Monk Onuphrius the Great. He led her to three saints - in one of them Euphrosyne recognized St. Sergius of Radonezh, the other two were unknown to her.

The Monk Onuphrius told Euphrosyne that she was needed at the Martha and Mary Convent, and, waking up from her sleep, Euphrosyne began to find out where in Russia there was a monastery in honor of Martha and Mary. One of her friends turned out to be a novice of this monastery and told Euphrosyne about it and its founder. Euphrosyne wrote a letter to the abbess asking if she could be accepted into the monastery, and received an affirmative answer. When, upon arrival at the monastery, Euphrosyne entered the abbess’s cell, she recognized in her the saint who stood in the heavenly monastery along with the Monk Sergius. When she went to receive the blessing of the confessor of the monastery, Father Mitrofan, she recognized him as the second of those who stood next to the Monk Sergius. Exactly six years after this vision, the Grand Duchess suffered martyrdom on the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, and Father Mitrofan subsequently took monastic vows with the name Sergius in honor of St. Sergius.

Accustomed to work since childhood, the Grand Duchess did everything herself and did not require any services from her sisters for herself. She participated in all the affairs of the monastery, like an ordinary sister, always setting an example for others. One day one of the novices approached the abbess with a request to send one of the sisters to sort out the potatoes, since no one wanted to help. The Grand Duchess, without saying a word to anyone, went herself. Seeing the abbess sorting through potatoes, the ashamed sisters ran and got to work.

The Grand Duchess strictly observed fasts, eating only plant foods. In the morning she got up for prayer, after which she distributed obediences to the sisters, worked in the clinic, received visitors, and sorted out petitions and letters.
In the evening, there was a round of patients, ending well after midnight. At night, the abbess prayed in a chapel or church; her sleep rarely lasted more than three hours. When the patient was thrashing about and needed help, she sat at his bedside until dawn. In the hospital, Elizaveta Feodorovna took on the most responsible work: she assisted during operations, made dressings, consoled the sick and tried with all her might to alleviate their suffering. They said that healing power emanated from the Grand Duchess, which helped them endure pain and agree to difficult operations.

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

The sisters of the monastery were taught the basics of medicine. Their main task was to visit the sick and poor, care for abandoned children, and provide them with medical, moral and material assistance.
The best specialists in Moscow worked at the monastery hospital. All operations were carried out free of charge. Those whom other doctors refused were healed here. The healed patients cried as they left the Marfo-Mariinsky Hospital, parting with the “Great Mother,” as they called the abbess. There was a Sunday school at the monastery for female factory workers. Anyone could use the funds of the excellent library. There was a free canteen for the poor. A shelter for orphan girls was created in the monastery. For Christmas, they arranged a large Christmas tree for poor children, giving them toys, sweets, and warm clothes that the sisters themselves sewed.

The abbess of the monastery believed that the main work of the sisters was not working in the hospital, but helping the poor and needy. The monastery received up to twelve thousand requests a year. They asked for everything: arranging for treatment, finding a job, looking after children, caring for bedridden patients, sending them to study abroad.

The Grand Duchess found opportunities to help the clergy and provided funds for the needs of poor rural parishes that could not repair the church or build a new one. She helped financially the missionary priests who worked among the pagans of the Far North or foreigners on the outskirts of Russia, encouraged and strengthened them.

One of the main places of poverty, to which the Grand Duchess paid special attention, was the Khitrov market. Elizaveta Feodorovna, accompanied by her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva or the sister of the monastery, Princess Maria Obolenskaya, tirelessly moving from one den to another, collected orphans and persuaded parents to give her children to raise. The entire population of Khitrovo respected her, calling her “sister Elizaveta” 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 frightened by uncleanliness, swearing, or the sight of people who had lost their human appearance. She said: “The likeness of God may sometimes be obscured, but it can never be destroyed.”

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

Elizaveta Feodorovna created charity homes for orphans, disabled people, and seriously ill people, found time to visit them, constantly supported them financially, and brought gifts. They tell the following story. One day the Grand Duchess was supposed to come to a shelter for little orphan girls. Everyone was preparing to meet their benefactress with dignity. The girls were told that the Grand Duchess would come: they would need to greet her and kiss her hands. When Elizaveta Feodorovna arrived, she was greeted by little children 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 would happen! But the Grand Duchess, shedding tears, went up to each of the girls and kissed everyone’s hands. Everyone cried at the same time - there was such tenderness and reverence on their faces and in their hearts.

Contemporaries recall another of the countless testimonies of her love for the suffering. One of the sisters came from a poor neighborhood and told about a hopelessly ill, consumptive woman with two small children living in a cold basement. Mother immediately became worried, immediately called her older sister and ordered the mother to be placed in a hospital for consumptives, and the children to be taken to an orphanage; If there is no bed, arrange the patient on a cot. After that, she took clothes and blankets for the children and went to get them. The Grand Duchess constantly visited her sick mother until her death, reassuring her, promising that she would take care of the children.

The Great Mother hoped that the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, which she created, would blossom and become a large fruitful tree. Over time, she planned to establish branches of the monastery in other cities of Russia.

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

She helped Russian pilgrims going to Jerusalem. Through the societies organized by her, the cost of tickets for pilgrims sailing from Odessa to Jaffa was covered. She also built a large hotel in Jerusalem. Another glorious deed of the Grand Duchess was the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Italy, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra rest. In 1914, the lower church in honor of St. Nicholas and the hospice house were consecrated.

The memory of the Grand Duchess by Metropolitan Anastasy, who knew her personally, is precious: “She was able not only to cry with those who wept, but also to rejoice with those who rejoiced, which is usually more difficult than the first. Not being a nun in the proper sense of the word, she, better than many nuns, observed the great covenant of St. Nilus of Sinai: “Blessed is the monk who honors every person as if he were a god after God.” Finding the good in every person and “calling mercy to the fallen” was the constant desire of her heart. Her meekness of disposition did not prevent her, however, from burning with sacred anger at the sight of injustice. She condemned herself even more severely if she fell into one or another, even an involuntary mistake...

Once, when I was still a vicar bishop in Moscow, she offered me the presidency of a society that was purely secular in its composition, but which, in its tasks, did not have a direct relationship to the Church. I was involuntarily embarrassed, not knowing how to respond to her words. She immediately understood my situation: “Sorry,” she said decisively, “I said something stupid,” and thus brought me out of the difficulty.”

Contemporaries recalled that Elizaveta Feodorovna brought with her the pure fragrance of lilies, perhaps that is why she loved the color white so much. Meeting many people, she could immediately understand a person; servility, lies and cunning were disgusting to her. She said: “Nowadays it is difficult to find truth on earth, which is increasingly flooded by sinful waves; In order not to be disappointed in life, we must look for the truth in heaven, where it has left us.”

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

The Lord rewarded her with the gift of spiritual reasoning and prophecy. Father Mitrofan Serebryansky said that shortly before the revolution he had a dream, vivid and clearly prophetic, but he did not know how to interpret it. The dream was colorful: four pictures replacing each other. First: there is a beautiful church. Suddenly tongues of fire appear from all sides, and now the entire temple is on fire - a majestic and terrible sight. Second: an image of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in a black frame; suddenly shoots begin to grow from the edges of this frame, on which white lilies open, the flowers increase in size and cover the image. Third: Archangel Michael with a fiery sword in his hand. Fourth picture: St. Seraphim of Sarov is kneeling on a stone with his hands raised in prayer.

Excited by this dream, Father Mitrofan told the Grand Duchess about it early in the morning, even before the start of the Liturgy. Elizaveta Feodorovna said that she understood this dream. The first picture means that there will soon be a revolution in Russia, persecution of the Russian Church will begin, and for our sins, for our unbelief, our country will stand on the brink of destruction. The second picture means that Elizabeth Feodorovna’s sister and the entire Royal Family will accept martyrdom. The third picture means that even after that great disasters await Russia. The fourth picture means that through the prayers of St. Seraphim and other saints and righteous people of the Russian land and through the intercession of the Mother of God, our country and people will be pardoned.

The gift of spiritual reasoning was especially evident in her attitude towards Rasputin. She begged her Empress sister many times not to trust him and not to make herself dependent on him. The Grand Duchess spoke about this to the Emperor himself, but her advice was rejected. At the request of her friends and with the blessing of the elders, in 1916 she made one last attempt and went to Tsarskoe Selo to personally talk with the Emperor about the situation in the country. The Emperor did not accept her. A conversation about Rasputin took place between the Empress and the Grand Duchess and ended sadly. The Empress did not want to listen to her sister: “We know that saints have been slandered before.” To this the Grand Duchess said: “Remember the fate of Louis XVI” (8). They parted coldly.
During the First World War, the Grand Duchess's work increased: it was necessary to care for the wounded in hospitals. Some of the sisters of the monastery were released to work in a field hospital. At first, Elizaveta Feodorovna, prompted by Christian feelings, visited the captured Germans, but slander about secret support for the enemy forced her to abandon this.
In 1916, an angry crowd approached the gates of the monastery. They demanded the extradition of a German spy, Elizaveta Feodorovna’s brother, who was allegedly hiding in the monastery. The abbess came out to the crowd alone and offered to inspect all the premises of the community. The Lord did not allow her to die that day. A mounted police force dispersed the crowd.

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

In response to the demands of those who came to immediately go with them, the Grand Duchess said that she must make orders and say goodbye to the sisters. The abbess gathered all the sisters of the monastery and asked Father Mitrofan to serve a prayer service. Then, turning to the revolutionaries, she invited them to enter the church, but to leave their weapons at the entrance. They reluctantly took off their rifles and followed into the temple.
Elizaveta Feodorovna stood on her knees throughout the prayer service. After the end of the service, she said that Father Mitrofan would show them all the buildings of the monastery, and they could look for what they wanted to find. Of course, they found nothing except the sisters' cells and a hospital with the sick. After they left, Elizaveta Feodorovna said to the sisters: “Obviously we are not yet worthy of the crown of martyrdom.” In one of her letters from that time, she writes: “The fact that we live is an unchanging miracle.” She had no anger or condemnation against the madness of the crowd. She said: “The people are children, they are innocent of what is happening... they are misled by the enemies of Russia.” She said about the arrest and suffering of the Royal Family: “This will serve to their moral purification and bring them closer to God.”
In the spring of 1917, a Swedish minister came to her on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm and offered her help in traveling abroad. Elizaveta Feodorovna 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 a service in the monastery as before the October revolution. They went not so much for a bowl of soup or medical help, but for the consolation and advice of the “Great Mother”. Elizaveta Feodorovna received everyone, listened to them, and strengthened them. People left her peaceful and encouraged.

For the first time after the October revolution, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was not touched. On the contrary, the sisters were shown respect; twice a week a truck with food arrived at the monastery, bringing black bread, dried fish, vegetables... As for medicines, bandages and essential medicines were given out in limited quantities.

Everyone around was scared; patrons and wealthy donors were now afraid to provide assistance to the monastery. To avoid provocations, the Grand Duchess almost never went outside the gates of the monastery; the sisters were also forbidden to go outside. However, the established daily routine of the monastery did not change, only the services became longer and the sisters’ prayers became more fervent. Father Mitrofan served the Divine Liturgy in the crowded church every day; there were many communicants. For some time, the monastery housed the miraculous icon of the Mother of God Sovereign, found in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow on the day of Emperor Nicholas II’s abdication from the throne. Conciliar prayers were performed in front of the icon.

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the German government obtained the consent of the Soviet authorities to allow Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna to travel abroad. The German Ambassador, Count Mirbach, tried twice to see the Grand Duchess, but she did not accept him and categorically refused to leave Russia. She said: “I didn’t do anything bad to anyone. The Lord's will be done!
Here are excerpts from the Grand Duchess's letters to close people:
“...The Lord again, with His great mercy, helped us survive the days of internal war, and today I had boundless consolation to pray... and to be present at the Divine service when our Patriarch gave a blessing. The Holy Kremlin, with noticeable traces of these sad days, was dearer to me than ever before, and I felt to what extent the Orthodox Church is the true Church of the Lord. I felt such deep pity for Russia and its children, who currently do not know what they are doing. Isn't it 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. This is how I feel every day. Holy Russia cannot perish. But Great Russia, alas, no longer exists. 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 appease the Ever-Virgin, and She will pray for Her Divine Son for us, and that the Lord will forgive us.”
“...Great Russia has been completely destroyed, but Holy Russia and the Orthodox Church, which “the gates of hell will not overcome,” exists and exists more than ever. And those who believe and do not doubt for a moment will see the “inner sun” that illuminates the darkness during a thundering storm... I am only sure that the Lord who punishes is the same Lord who loves. I read the Gospel a lot, and if we realize the great sacrifice of God the Father, Who sent His Son to die and rise for us, then we will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, Who illuminates our path. And then joy becomes eternal, even if our poor human hearts and our little earthly minds experience moments that seem very scary... We work, pray, hope and feel the mercy of God every day. Every day we experience constant wonder. And others begin to feel this and come to our church to rest their souls.”

The calm of the monastery was the calm before the storm. First, questionnaires were sent to the monastery - questionnaires for everyone who lived and was treated: first name, last name, age, social origin, etc. After this, several people from the hospital were arrested. Then they announced that the orphans would be transferred to an orphanage.

In April 1918, on the third day of Easter, on the day of the celebration of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, Elizaveta Feodorovna was arrested and immediately taken out of Moscow. This happened on the day when His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon visited the Martha and Mary Convent, where he served the Divine Liturgy and prayer service. After the service, the Patriarch remained in the monastery until four o’clock in the afternoon and talked with the abbess and sisters. This was the last blessing and parting word from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Elizaveta Feodorovna, before the way of the cross to Calvary.

Almost immediately after Patriarch Tikhon’s departure, a car with a commissar and Latvian Red Army soldiers drove up to the monastery. Elizaveta Feodorovna was ordered to go with them. We were given half an hour to get ready. The abbess only managed to gather the sisters in the Church of Saints Martha and Mary and give them the last blessing. Everyone present cried, 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 this 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 over everyone.

One of the sisters of the monastery, Zinaida (Nadezhda in monasticism) recalls:
“...And they took her. The sisters ran after her as much as they could. Who was just falling on the road... When I came to mass, I heard that the deacon was reading the litany and could not, crying... And they took her to Yekaterinburg with some guide, and Varvara with her. We were not separated... Then I sent letters to my father and to each sister. One hundred and five notes (9) were enclosed, each according to its nature. From the Gospel, from the Bible sayings, and to some from myself. She knew all her sisters, all her children..."

Having learned about what had happened, Patriarch Tikhon tried, through various organizations with which the new government reckoned, to achieve the release of the Grand Duchess. But his efforts were in vain. All members of the Imperial House were doomed.

Elizaveta Feodorovna and her companions were sent by rail to Perm. On the way to exile, she wrote a letter to the sisters of her monastery. Here are excerpts from it:
“Lord bless, may the Resurrection of Christ comfort and strengthen you all... May St. Sergius, St. Demetrius and St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk protect us all, my dears... I cannot forget yesterday, all the dear lovely faces. Lord, what suffering was in them, oh, how my heart ached. You become dearer to me every minute. How can I leave you, my children, how can I console you, how can I strengthen you? Remember, my dear ones, everything I told you. Always be not only my children, but obedient students. Unite and be like one soul, all for God, and say, like John Chrysostom: “Glory to God for everything!” Big sisters, unite your sisters. Ask Patriarch Tikhon to take the “chickens” under his wing. Set it up in my middle room. My cell is for confession, and the larger one is for reception... For God’s sake, don’t lose heart. The Mother of God knows why Her Heavenly Son sent us this test on the day of Her holiday... just do not lose heart and do not weaken in your bright intentions, and the Lord, Who temporarily separated us, will strengthen us spiritually. Pray for me, a sinner, so that I will be worthy to return to my children and improve for you, so that we all think about how to prepare for eternal life.
You remember how I was afraid that you were finding too much strength for life in my support, and I told you: “You need to cling to God more. The Lord says: “My son, give your heart to Me, and let your eyes observe My ways.” Then be sure that you will give everything to God if you give Him your heart, that is, yourself.”

Now we are experiencing the same thing and involuntarily only in Him we find consolation to bear our common cross of separation. The Lord decided that it was time for us to bear His cross. Let's try to be worthy of this joy. I thought that we would be so weak, not mature enough to bear a big cross. “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away.” As God pleased, so it happened. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.
What an example does Saint Job give us with his humility and patience in sorrow. For this, the Lord later gave him joy. How many examples of such sorrow do the Holy Fathers have in their holy monasteries, but then there was joy. Get ready for the joy of being together again. Let us be patient and humble. We don’t complain and thank you for everything.
Your constant pilgrim and loving mother in Christ.
Mother".

The Grand Duchess spent the last months of her life imprisoned in a school on the outskirts of the city of Alapaevsk together with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich (the youngest son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, brother of Emperor Alexander II), his secretary - Feodor Mikhailovich Remez, 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 who accompanied their abbess were brought to the Regional Council and were asked to go free. Both begged to be returned to the Grand Duchess. Then the security officers began to scare them with torture and torment that would await everyone who stayed with her. Varvara Yakovleva said that she was ready to sign even with her blood, that she wanted to share the fate of the Grand Duchess. So the sister of the cross of the Martha and Mary Convent, Varvara Yakovleva, made her choice and joined the prisoners awaiting a decision on their fate.

In the dead of night on July 5 (18), the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, along with other members of the Imperial House, was thrown into the shaft of an old mine. When the brutal executioners pushed the Grand Duchess into the black pit, she repeated the prayer said by the Savior of the world crucified on the Cross: “Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23? 34). Then the security officers began throwing 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 crossing into eternity.

Elizaveta Feodorovna fell not to the bottom of the mine, but to a ledge that was located at a depth of 15 meters. Next to her they found the body of John Konstantinovich with a bandaged head. Even here, with severe fractures and bruises, she sought to alleviate the suffering of her neighbor. The fingers of the right hand of the Grand Duchess and nun Varvara were folded for the sign of the cross. They died in terrible agony from thirst, hunger and wounds.

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.

This path was long and difficult. On October 18 (31), 1918, the bodies of the sufferers were placed in wooden coffins and placed in the cemetery church of Alapaevsk, where the psalter was constantly read and funeral services were served. The next day, the coffins were transferred to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, the funeral Liturgy was served, followed by the funeral service. The coffins were placed in the cathedral crypt, on the right side of the altar.

But their bodies did not rest here for long. The Red Army was advancing and it was necessary to transport them to a safer place. Father Seraphim, abbot of the Alekseevsky monastery of the Perm diocese, friend and confessor of the Grand Duchess, took up this task.

Immediately after the October Revolution, Fr. Seraphim was in Moscow, had a conversation with the Grand Duchess and invited her to go with him to Alapaevsk, where, according to him, there were reliable people in the monasteries who would be able to shelter and preserve the Grand Duchess. Elizaveta Feodorovna refused to hide, but added at the end of the conversation: “If they kill me, then I ask you, bury me in a Christian way.” These words turned out to be prophetic.

Hegumen Seraphim received permission from Admiral Kolchak to transport the bodies. Ataman Semenov allocated a carriage for this and gave him a pass. And on July 1 (14), 1919, eight Alapaevsk coffins headed to Chita. To help yourself, Fr. Seraphim took two novices - Maxim Kanunnikov and Seraphim Gnevashev.

In Chita, the coffins were brought to the Pokrovsky Convent, where the nuns washed the bodies of the passion-bearers and dressed the Grand Duchess and nun Varvara in monastic robes. Father Seraphim and his novices removed the floor boards in one of the cells, dug a grave there and placed all eight coffins, covering them with a small layer of earth. In this cell Fr. himself remained to live and guard the bodies of the sufferers. Seraphim.

The coffins of the sufferers stayed in Chita for six months. But the Red Army was advancing again, and the remains of the new martyrs had to be taken outside Russia. On February 26 (March II) this journey began, with railway transport completely disrupted. The carriage moved along with the front: it would go forward 25 versts, and then roll back 15 versts. Thanks to the pass, the carriage was constantly uncoupled and attached to different trains, heading towards the Chinese border. Summer came, and liquid constantly oozed from the cracks of the coffins, spreading a terrible stench. When the train stopped, the attendants collected grass and wiped the coffins with it. The liquid flowing from the coffin of the Grand Duchess, as Fr. recalls. Seraphim smelled fragrant, and they carefully collected it like a shrine in a bottle.

Near the Chinese border, the train was attacked by a detachment of Red partisans who tried to throw coffins with bodies out of the carriage. Chinese soldiers arrived in time and drove off the attackers and saved the bodies of the sufferers from destruction.

When the train arrived in Harbin, the bodies of all the Alapaevsk sufferers were in a state of complete decomposition, except for the bodies of the Grand Duchess and nun Varvara. Prince N.A. Kudashev, summoned to Harbin to identify the dead and draw up a protocol, recalls: “The Grand Duchess lay as if alive, and had not changed at all since the day when I said goodbye to her in Moscow before leaving for Beijing, only on one There was a large bruise on the side of his face from the impact of falling into the shaft.

I ordered real coffins for them and attended the funeral. Knowing that the Grand Duchess always expressed a desire to be buried in Gethsemane in Jerusalem, I decided to fulfill her will - I sent the ashes of her and her faithful novice to the Holy Land, asking the monk to accompany them to their final resting place and thereby complete the feat that had begun.”

In April 1920, the coffins of the sufferers arrived in Beijing, where they were met by the head of the Russian Spiritual Mission, Archbishop Innocent. After the funeral service, they were temporarily placed in one of the crypts at the Mission cemetery and the construction of a new crypt at St. Seraphim Church immediately began.

The coffins with the bodies of the Grand Duchess and nun Varvara, accompanied by Abbot Seraphim (10) and both novices, set off again, this time from Beijing to Tianjing, then by steamship to Shanghai. From Shanghai to Port Said, where they arrived in January 1921. From Port Said, the coffins were sent in a special carriage to Jerusalem, where they were met by Russian and Greek clergy and numerous pilgrims whom the 1917 revolution found in Jerusalem.

The burial of the bodies of the new martyrs was performed by Patriarch Damian, co-served by numerous clergy. Their coffins were placed in a tomb under the lower vaults of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles in Gethsemane.

When they opened the coffin with the body of the Grand Duchess, the room was filled with fragrance. According to Archimandrite Anthony (Grabbe), there was a “strong smell, as if of honey and jasmine.” The relics of the new martyrs turned out to be partially incorrupt.

Patriarch Diodorus of Jerusalem blessed the solemn transfer of the relics of the new martyrs from the tomb, where they had previously been located, to the very temple of St. Mary Magdalene.
May 2, 1982 - on the feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, the holy chalice, the Gospel and the air presented to the temple by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna when she was here in 1886 were used during the divine service.

In 1992, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized the venerable martyrs Grand Duchess Elizabeth and nun Varvara as the holy new martyrs of Russia, establishing a celebration for them on the day of their death, July 5 (18).

Notes:
1. Princess Alice’s mother, Queen Victoria, answering one American’s question about what England’s main strength was, showed him the Bible, saying: “In this little book.”
2. Elizabeth of Thuringia, canonized by Catholics, lived during the era of the Crusades. She was distinguished by deep religiosity and selfless love for people. She devoted her entire life to serving the cause of mercy.
3. For a princess marrying the Grand Duke, it was not necessary to convert to Orthodoxy.
4. The next day after the glorification in the Assumption Cathedral, the mother of the mute girl wiped the coffin with the relics of the monk with her handkerchief, and then the face of her daughter, and she immediately spoke.
5. This cross, along with other personal items, is now kept in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane in Jerusalem.
6. The cross was demolished by the new government in the spring of 1918. At the beginning of 1985, during renovation work on Ivanovo Square in the Moscow Kremlin, workers discovered a well-preserved crypt containing the remains of the Grand Duke. Employees of the Moscow Kremlin museums removed from the burial all objects made of precious metals: rings, chains, medallions, icons, the St. George Cross and sent them “to the fund commission of the Kremlin museums to determine their artistic value and the place of their further storage,” as recorded in the seizure act. A parking lot was built at the burial site of Sergei Alexandrovich. On the ninetieth anniversary of the murder, February 18, 1995, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II served a memorial service in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin and said in a sermon: “We consider it fair to transfer the remains of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to the Romanov burial vault under the cathedral of the Novospassky Monastery. Let us offer a prayer that the Lord may rest his soul in the heavenly abodes.”
7. Published in 1905-1906. in the Bulletin of the Military Clergy.
8. French king Louis XVI (1754-1793), under whom the collapse of the monarchy occurred. The Convention condemned him to death, and on January 21, 1793, Louis XVI ascended the scaffold.
9. By 1918 there were one hundred and five sisters in the monastery.
10. On the slopes of the Mount of Olives there is a place called Little Galilee, where the residence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem is located. In the garden of the residence there are two shrines: the foundation of the house in which the Lord appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, and the chapel built on the spot where Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Mother of God and predicted Her imminent dormition. Next to this chapel, with the blessing of Patriarch Damian, Abbot Seraphim built himself a hut and lived in it until the very end.

“...And I love your soul more than your face...” - A. S. Pushkin

“Beauty will save the world...” - these words are often spoken now. But what beauty did the famous writer-philosopher F.M. speak about? Dostoevsky? The beauty of the body and face cannot be called beauty without the beauty of the soul. If the soul is ugly, then everything else takes on the same ugly features. And if this is not immediately noticeable, then after some time the understanding comes that there is simply no beauty without a soul.

Many moral qualities were destroyed and lost over time. And only love for one’s neighbor can bring them back.

Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna

Now the memory of those who did good deeds, showed mercy or extended a helping hand to the disadvantaged is returning to Russia. Charitable activities in Russia were common for rich people; it was even the rule, not the exception. Rich people knew that the work of mercy is the rule of Christian life, indicated among all others in the Gospel.

A significant part of hospitals, hospice houses and other care and even cultural and educational institutions before 1917 were built with money from donors and patrons. For example, by the beginning of the twentieth century, many hospitals were built, on which hung memorial plaques with the names of benefactors: merchants Morozov, Kashchenko, book publisher Soldatenkov, Prince Shcherbatov.

Orphanages, widows' houses, almshouses, cheap, or even free, apartments, vocational schools were built with money from manufacturers Bakhrushins, Rakhmanovs, Solodovnikovs and other donors. The People's University in Moscow was built by gold miner Shanyavsky.

Among all the names today, on the days of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, I would like to remember the name of the founder of the Martha and Mary Convent, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the sister of the last Russian Empress. She was the wife of the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed by Kalyaev in Moscow in 1905.

The future Grand Duchess married a member of the imperial family, converted to Orthodoxy and immediately began to engage in charitable activities, to which she was accustomed from an early age by her parents, who generously distributed their income throughout her life.

Even as children, Elizaveta Feodorovna and her sisters went to hospitals every Saturday, visiting suffering people. Therefore, for the Grand Duchess, love for her neighbor was the main feature of her character, seemingly soft, but in fact strong and noble. Many contemporaries spoke about her in the same way: “rare beauty, wonderful mind, ... angelic patience, noble heart.”

During the Russo-Japanese War, Elizaveta Fedorovna led the patriotic movement: she organized sewing workshops for the needs of the army, which included women of all classes, equipped several ambulance trains at her own expense, visited hospitals every day, and took care of the widows and orphans of the dead.

When Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich died, she devoted herself entirely to charitable activities. Elizaveta Feodorovna was a deeply religious person, and this is what explained many of her actions. For example, after the death of her husband, she turned to the king to pardon the murderer. After a long period of mourning, she dissolved her court and decided to completely withdraw from the world, devoting her life to serving God and her neighbors, the needy and the suffering.

She divided her entire fortune into three parts: to the treasury and to charitable needs. She left nothing for herself, not even a wedding ring. On Bolshaya Ordynka, the Grand Duchess acquired a small estate with four houses and a garden. A hospital with a house church, a pharmacy, an outpatient clinic, a shelter for girls and other utility buildings were located here. In addition, there was a library, a dining room and a dormitory for sisters.

In 1910, 17 girls of different classes became the first sisters of the new monastery. In 1911, when, according to the project of A.V. Shchusev, the cathedral Church of the Intercession was built, this monastery of goodness and mercy took on a completed architectural appearance, they called it Marfo-Mariinskaya.

The Gospel tells about two sisters Martha and Mary, who combined two main paths in life: the spiritual path - serving God and the path of mercy - serving others. The sisters of the monastery shared equally any work. The best doctors, specialists in their field, worked in her hospital.

Every week, 34 doctors saw patients, and for free, they did not take money from the poor for medicines, others received medicines at a large discount compared to other pharmacies in the city. On Sundays the monastery held classes for the illiterate. In addition to literacy training, the orphanage girls also received medical training.

The personal life of Elizaveta Fedorovna was, one might say, harsh. She slept on a wooden bed without a mattress, observed strict fasting, and on the rest of the days her food consisted of vegetables and a small amount of milk. The Grand Duchess prayed for a long time at night, and during the day she constantly took care of her sisters, distributed assignments to everyone according to her strength, monitored the health of the sisters, and visited all the hospital wards.

Elizaveta Fedorovna cared for the most seriously ill patients herself and even assisted during operations. In addition to her work and worries at the monastery, the abbess visited and helped the poor locally. People learned from each other how much care and love they treat the sick and suffering here at the monastery, and they made requests for treatment, employment, care for small children, and even requests for help in finding a place to study.

The monastery received more than ten thousand requests a year. And besides everything, help came from here in the form of money and clothes. But most importantly, the suffering and sick needed compassion, and they received it here.

And that was not all. Elizaveta Fedorovna visited the doss houses of the “famous” Khitrov market, as she considered the soul of any person to be immortal and honored the image of God in it. And those who inhabited this part of the city were far from divine. But the princess tried to touch the heart of everyone mired in sins and vices, to touch the depths of the soul and turn it to repentance.

Sometimes these same people called themselves: “We are not people, how come you come to us!” She persuaded the parents of small children living in this swamp, as M. Gorky once said, “At the bottom,” to send their children to be raised in the monastery. Girls were raised in an orphanage, and boys were placed in a dormitory.

The sisters of the monastery did not need either fame or reward; all their activities were bound by the Gospel commandments - love for God and neighbor.

By 1914, there were already 97 sisters in the monastery. The war began, some of the sisters went to field hospitals, others worked in a hospital in Moscow.

1917 Chaos began in the country. More than once the German ambassador tried to see Elizaveta Feodorovna, offering her travel to Germany. She did not accept him, but replied that she refused to leave Russia: “I haven’t done anything bad to anyone. The Lord's will be done."

1918 The security officers arrested several sick people from the monastery, then took away all the orphans. On the third day of Easter in April, Elizaveta Fedorovna was also arrested, because everyone who bore the name of the Romanovs was doomed to death, and her good deeds were not included in the calculation.

In the dead of night on July 18, 1918, along with other members of the imperial family, Elizaveta Feodorovna was thrown into the shaft of an old mine. Before her execution, according to an “eyewitness,” she was baptized all the time and prayed: “Lord, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” And when three months later the bodies of the executed were removed, the body of the victim with a bandaged wound was found next to the princess. This is how Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna left earthly life, fulfilling the gospel commandments until the last minute.

After the arrest of the abbess, the monastery, apparently thanks to Krupskaya, continued to exist for about seven years. Then the sisters of the monastery were exiled to Central Asia, and the premises of the monastery were given over to various institutions, and a club was set up in the Intercession Church itself.

The memory of the Grand Duchess will help us find the path for moral and spiritual rebirth.

In 1873, Elizabeth’s three-year-old brother Friedrich fell to his death in front of his mother. In 1876, an epidemic of diphtheria began in Darmstadt; all the children except Elizabeth fell ill. The mother sat at night by the beds of her sick children. Soon, four-year-old Maria died, and after her, the Grand Duchess Alice herself fell ill and died at the age of 35.
That year the time of childhood ended for Elizabeth. Grief intensified her prayers. She realized that life on earth is the path of the Cross. The child tried with all his might to ease his father’s grief, support him, console him, and to some extent replace his mother with his younger sisters and brother.
In her twentieth year, Princess Elizabeth became the bride of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, brother of Emperor Alexander III. She met her future husband in childhood, when he came to Germany with his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who also came from the House of Hesse. Before this, all applicants for her hand had been refused: Princess Elizabeth in her youth had vowed to remain a virgin for the rest of her life. After a frank conversation between her and Sergei Alexandrovich, it turned out that he had secretly made the same vow. By mutual agreement, their marriage was spiritual, they lived like brother and sister.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich

The whole family accompanied Princess Elizabeth to her wedding in Russia. Instead, her twelve-year-old sister Alice came with her, who met here her future husband, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich.
The wedding took place in the church of the Grand Palace of St. Petersburg according to the Orthodox rite, and after it according to the Protestant rite in one of the living rooms of the palace. The Grand Duchess intensively studied the Russian language, wanting to study more deeply the culture and especially the faith of her new homeland.
Grand Duchess Elizabeth was dazzlingly beautiful. In those days they said that there were only two beauties in Europe, and both were Elizabeths: Elizabeth of Austria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, and Elizabeth Feodorovna.

For most of the year, the Grand Duchess lived with her husband on their Ilyinskoye estate, sixty kilometers from Moscow, on the banks of the Moscow River. She loved Moscow with its ancient churches, monasteries and patriarchal life. Sergei Alexandrovich was a deeply religious person, strictly observed all church canons and fasts, often went to services, went to monasteries - the Grand Duchess followed her husband everywhere and stood idle for long church services. Here she experienced an amazing feeling, so different from what she encountered in the Protestant church.
Elizaveta Fedorovna firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy. What kept her from taking this step was the fear of hurting her family, and above all, her father. Finally, on January 1, 1891, she wrote a letter to her father about her decision, asking for a short telegram of blessing.
The father did not send his daughter the desired telegram with a blessing, but wrote a letter in which he said that her decision brings him pain and suffering, and he cannot give a blessing. Then Elizaveta Fedorovna showed courage and, despite moral suffering, firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy.
On April 13 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the sacrament of anointing of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was performed, leaving her former name, but in honor of the holy righteous Elizabeth - the mother of St. John the Baptist, whose memory the Orthodox Church commemorates on September 5 (18).
In 1891, Emperor Alexander III appointed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich as Moscow Governor-General. The wife of the Governor-General had to perform many duties - there were constant receptions, concerts, and balls. It was necessary to smile and bow to the guests, dance and conduct conversations, regardless of mood, state of health and desire.
The residents of Moscow soon appreciated her merciful heart. She went to hospitals for the poor, almshouses, and shelters for street children. And everywhere she tried to alleviate the suffering of people: she distributed food, clothing, money, and improved the living conditions of the unfortunate.
In 1894, after many obstacles, the decision was made to engage Grand Duchess Alice to the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Elizaveta Feodorovna rejoiced that the young lovers could finally unite, and her sister would live in Russia, dear to her heart. Princess Alice was 22 years old and Elizaveta Feodorovna hoped that her sister, living in Russia, would understand and love the Russian people, master the Russian language perfectly and be able to prepare for the high service of the Russian Empress.
But everything happened differently. The heir's bride arrived in Russia when Emperor Alexander III lay dying. On October 20, 1894, the emperor died. The next day, Princess Alice converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra. The wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna took place a week after the funeral, and in the spring of 1896 the coronation took place in Moscow. The celebrations were overshadowed by a terrible disaster: on the Khodynka field, where gifts were distributed to the people, a stampede began - thousands of people were injured or crushed.

When the Russo-Japanese War began, Elizaveta Feodorovna immediately began organizing assistance to the front. One of her remarkable undertakings was the establishment of workshops to help soldiers - all the halls of the Kremlin Palace, except the Throne Palace, were occupied for them. Thousands of women worked on sewing machines and work tables. Huge donations came from all over Moscow and the provinces. From here, bales of food, uniforms, medicines and gifts for soldiers went to the front. The Grand Duchess sent camp churches to the front with icons and everything necessary for worship. I personally sent Gospels, icons and prayer books. At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several ambulance trains.
In Moscow, she set up a hospital for the wounded and created special committees to provide for the widows and orphans of those killed at the front. But Russian troops suffered one defeat after another. The war showed Russia's technical and military unpreparedness and the shortcomings of public administration. Scores began to be settled for past grievances of arbitrariness or injustice, the unprecedented scale of terrorist acts, rallies, and strikes. The state and social order was falling apart, a revolution was approaching.
Sergei Alexandrovich believed that it was necessary to take tougher measures against the revolutionaries and reported this to the emperor, saying that given the current situation he could no longer hold the position of Governor-General of Moscow. The Emperor accepted his resignation and the couple left the governor's house, moving temporarily to Neskuchnoye.
Meanwhile, the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries sentenced Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to death. Its agents kept an eye on him, waiting for an opportunity to execute him. Elizaveta Fedorovna knew that her husband was in mortal danger. Anonymous letters warned her not to accompany her husband if she did not want to share his fate. The Grand Duchess especially tried not to leave him alone and, if possible, accompanied her husband everywhere.
On February 5 (18), 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb thrown by terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. When Elizaveta Fedorovna arrived at the scene of the explosion, a crowd had already gathered there. Someone tried to prevent her from approaching the remains of her husband, but with her own hands she collected the pieces of her husband’s body scattered by the explosion onto a stretcher.
On the third day after the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna went to the prison where the murderer was kept. Kalyaev said: “I didn’t want to kill you, I saw him several times and the time when I had a bomb ready, but you were with him and I did not dare to touch him.”
- “And you didn’t realize that you killed me along with him?” - she answered. She further said that she had brought forgiveness from Sergei Alexandrovich and asked him to repent. But he refused. Nevertheless, Elizaveta Fedorovna left the Gospel and a small icon in the cell, hoping for a miracle. Leaving prison, she said: “My attempt was unsuccessful, although who knows, perhaps at the last minute he will realize his sin and repent of it.” The Grand Duchess asked Emperor Nicholas II to pardon Kalyaev, but this request was rejected.
From the moment of the death of her husband, Elizaveta Fedorovna did not stop mourning, began to keep a strict fast, and prayed a lot. Her bedroom in the Nicholas Palace began to resemble a monastic cell. All the luxurious furniture was taken out, the walls were repainted white, and only icons and paintings of spiritual content were on them. She did not appear at social functions. She was only in church for weddings or christenings of relatives and friends and immediately went home or on business. Now nothing connected her with social life.

Elizaveta Feodorovna in mourning after the death of her husband

She collected all her jewelry, gave some to the treasury, some to her relatives, and decided to use the rest to build a monastery of mercy. On Bolshaya Ordynka in Moscow, Elizaveta Fedorovna purchased an estate with four houses and a garden. In the largest two-story house there is a dining room for sisters, a kitchen and other utility rooms, in the second there is a church and a hospital, next to it there is a pharmacy and an outpatient clinic for incoming patients. In the fourth house there was an apartment for the priest - confessor of the monastery, classes of the school for girls of the orphanage and a library.
On February 10, 1909, the Grand Duchess gathered 17 sisters of the monastery she founded, took off her mourning dress, put on a monastic robe and said: “I will leave the brilliant world where I occupied a brilliant position, but together with all of you I ascend to a greater world - to a world of the poor and suffering."

The first church of the monastery (“hospital”) was consecrated by Bishop Tryphon on September 9 (21), 1909 (on the day of the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the name of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary. The second church is in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, 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 the sisters for the coming day. Those free from obedience remained in the church, where the Divine Liturgy began. The afternoon meal included reading the lives of the saints. At 5 o'clock in the evening, Vespers and Matins were served in the church, where all the sisters free from obedience were present. On holidays and Sundays an all-night vigil was held. At 9 o'clock in the evening, the evening rule was read in the hospital church, after which all the sisters, having received the blessing of the abbess, went to their cells. Akathists were read four times a week during Vespers: on Sunday - to the Savior, on Monday - to the Archangel Michael and all the Ethereal Heavenly Powers, on Wednesday - to the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary, and on Friday - to the Mother of God or the Passion of Christ. In the chapel, built at the end of the garden, the Psalter for the dead was read. The abbess herself often prayed there at night. The inner life of the sisters was led by a wonderful priest and shepherd - the confessor of the monastery, Archpriest Mitrofan Serebryansky. Twice a week he had conversations with the sisters. In addition, the sisters could come to their confessor or the abbess every day at certain hours for advice and guidance. The Grand Duchess, together with Father Mitrofan, taught the sisters not only medical knowledge, but also spiritual guidance to degenerate, lost and despairing people. Every Sunday after the evening service in the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God, conversations were held for the people with the general singing of prayers.
Divine services in the monastery have always been at a brilliant height thanks to the exceptional pastoral merits of the confessor chosen by the abbess. The best shepherds and preachers not only from Moscow, but also from many remote places in Russia came here to perform divine services and preach. Like a bee, the abbess collected nectar from all flowers so that people could feel the special aroma of spirituality. The monastery, its churches and worship aroused the admiration of its contemporaries. This was facilitated not only by the temples of the monastery, but also by a beautiful park with greenhouses - in the best traditions of garden art of the 18th - 19th centuries. It was a single ensemble that harmoniously combined external and internal beauty.
A contemporary of the Grand Duchess, Nonna Grayton, maid of honor to her relative Princess Victoria, testifies: “She had a wonderful quality - to see the good and the real in people, and tried to bring it out. She also did not have a high opinion of her qualities at all... She never said the words “I can’t”, and there was never anything dull in the life of the Marfo-Mary Convent. Everything was perfect there, both inside and outside. And whoever was there was taken away with a wonderful feeling.”
In the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery, the Grand Duchess led the life of an ascetic. She slept on a wooden bed without a mattress. She strictly observed fasts, eating only plant foods. In the morning she got up for prayer, after which she distributed obediences to the sisters, worked in the clinic, received visitors, and sorted out petitions and letters.
In the evening, there is a round of patients, ending after midnight. At night she prayed in a chapel or in church, her sleep rarely lasting more than three hours. When the patient was thrashing about and needed help, she sat at his bedside until dawn. In the hospital, Elizaveta Feodorovna took on the most responsible work: she assisted during operations, did dressings, found words of consolation, and tried to alleviate the suffering of the sick. They said that the Grand Duchess emanated a healing power that helped them endure pain and agree to difficult operations.
The abbess always offered confession and communion as the main remedy for illnesses. She said: “It is immoral to console the dying with false hope of recovery; it is better to help them move into eternity in a Christian way.”
The 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 in Moscow worked at the monastery hospital; all operations were performed free of charge. Those who were rejected by doctors were healed here.
The healed patients cried as they left the Marfo-Mariinsky Hospital, parting with the “great mother,” as they called the abbess. There was a Sunday school at the monastery for female factory workers. Anyone could use the funds of the excellent library. There was a free canteen for the poor.
The abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent believed that the main thing was not the hospital, but helping the poor and needy. The monastery received up to 12,000 requests a year. They asked for everything: arranging for treatment, finding a job, looking after children, caring for bedridden patients, sending them to study abroad.
She found opportunities to help the clergy - she provided funds for the needs of poor rural parishes that could not repair the church or build a new one. She encouraged, strengthened, and helped financially the missionary priests who worked among the pagans of the far north or foreigners on the outskirts of Russia.
One of the main places of poverty, to which the Grand Duchess paid special attention, was the Khitrov market. Elizaveta Fedorovna, accompanied by her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva or the sister of the monastery, Princess Maria Obolenskaya, tirelessly moving from one den to another, collected orphans and persuaded parents to give her children to raise. The entire population of Khitrovo respected her, calling her “sister Elisaveta” 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 uncleanliness, swearing, or a face that had lost its human appearance. She said: “The likeness of God may sometimes be obscured, but it can never be destroyed.”
She placed the boys torn from Khitrovka into dormitories. From one group of such recent ragamuffins an artel of executive messengers of Moscow was formed. The girls were placed in closed educational institutions or shelters, where their health, spiritual and physical, was also monitored.
Elizaveta Fedorovna organized charity homes for orphans, disabled people, and seriously ill people, found time to visit them, constantly supported them financially, and brought gifts. They tell the following story: one day the Grand Duchess was supposed to come to an orphanage for little orphans. Everyone was preparing to meet their benefactress with dignity. The girls were told that the Grand Duchess would come: they would need to greet her and kiss her hands. When Elizaveta Fedorovna arrived, she was greeted by little children in white dresses. They greeted each other in unison and all extended their hands to the Grand Duchess with the words: “kiss the hands.” The teachers were horrified: what would happen. But the Grand Duchess went up to each of the girls and kissed everyone’s hands. Everyone cried at the same time - there was such tenderness and reverence on their faces and in their hearts.
The “Great Mother” hoped that the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, which she created, would blossom into a large fruitful tree.
Over time, she planned to establish branches of the monastery in other cities of Russia.
The Grand Duchess had a primordially Russian love of pilgrimage.
More than once she traveled to Sarov and happily hurried to the temple to pray at the shrine of St. Seraphim. She went to Pskov, to Optina Pustyn, to Zosima Pustyn, and was in the Solovetsky Monastery. She also visited the smallest monasteries in provincial and remote places in Russia. She was present at all spiritual celebrations associated with the discovery or transfer of the relics of the saints of God. The Grand Duchess secretly helped and looked after sick pilgrims who were expecting healing from the newly glorified saints. In 1914, she visited the monastery in Alapaevsk, which was destined to become the place of her imprisonment and martyrdom.
She was the patroness of Russian pilgrims going to Jerusalem. Through the societies organized by her, the cost of tickets for pilgrims sailing from Odessa to Jaffa was covered. She also built a large hotel in Jerusalem.
Another glorious deed of the Grand Duchess was the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Italy, in the city of Bari, where the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra of Lycia rest. In 1914, the lower church in honor of St. Nicholas and the hospice house were consecrated.
During the First World War, the Grand Duchess's work increased: it was necessary to care for the wounded in hospitals. Some of the sisters of the monastery were released to work in a field hospital. At first, Elizaveta Fedorovna, prompted by Christian feelings, visited the captured Germans, but slander about secret support for the enemy forced her to abandon this.
In 1916, an angry crowd approached the gates of the monastery demanding the extradition of a German spy - the brother of Elizabeth Feodorovna, who was allegedly hiding in the monastery. The abbess came out to the crowd alone and offered to inspect all the premises of the community. A mounted police force dispersed the crowd.
Soon after the February Revolution, a crowd with rifles, red flags and bows again approached the monastery. The abbess herself opened the gate - they told her that they had come to arrest her and put her on trial as a German spy, who also kept weapons in the monastery.
In response to the demands of those who came to immediately go with them, the Grand Duchess said that she must make orders and say goodbye to the sisters. The abbess gathered all the sisters in the monastery and asked Father Mitrofan to serve a prayer service. Then, turning to the revolutionaries, she invited them to enter the church, but to leave their weapons at the entrance. They reluctantly took off their rifles and followed into the temple.
Elizaveta Fedorovna stood on her knees throughout the prayer service. After the end of the service, she said that Father Mitrofan would show them all the buildings of the monastery, and they could look for what they wanted to find. Of course, they found nothing there except the sisters’ cells and a hospital with the sick. After the crowd left, Elizaveta Fedorovna said to the sisters: “Obviously we are not yet worthy of the crown of martyrdom.”
In the spring of 1917, a Swedish minister came to her on behalf of Kaiser Wilhelm and offered her help in traveling abroad. Elizaveta Fedorovna replied that she had decided to share the fate of the country, which she considered her new homeland and could not leave the sisters of the monastery in this difficult time.
Never have there been so many people at a service in the monastery as before the October revolution. They went not only for a bowl of soup or medical help, but also for the consolation and advice of the “great mother”. Elizaveta Fedorovna received everyone, listened to them, and strengthened them. People left her peaceful and encouraged.
For the first time after the October revolution, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was not touched. On the contrary, the sisters were shown respect; twice a week a truck with food arrived at the monastery: black bread, dried fish, vegetables, some fat and sugar. Limited quantities of bandages and essential medicines were provided.
But everyone around was scared, patrons and wealthy donors were now afraid to provide assistance to the monastery. To avoid provocation, the Grand Duchess did not go outside the gate, and the sisters were also forbidden to go outside. However, the established daily routine of the monastery did not change, only the services became longer and the sisters’ prayers became more fervent. Father Mitrofan served the Divine Liturgy in the crowded church every day; there were many communicants. For some time, the monastery housed the miraculous icon of the Mother of God Sovereign, found in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow on the day of Emperor Nicholas II’s abdication from the throne. Conciliar prayers were performed in front of the icon.
After the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the German government obtained the consent of the Soviet authorities to allow Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna to travel abroad. The German Ambassador, Count Mirbach, tried twice to see the Grand Duchess, but she did not accept him and categorically refused to leave Russia. She said: “I didn’t do anything bad to anyone. The Lord's will be done!
The calm in the monastery was the calm before the storm. First, they sent questionnaires - questionnaires for those who lived and were undergoing treatment: first name, last name, age, social origin, etc. After this, several people from the hospital were arrested. Then they 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 Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, Elizaveta Fedorovna was arrested and immediately taken out of Moscow. On this day, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon visited the Martha and Mary Convent, where he served the Divine Liturgy and prayer service. After the service, the patriarch remained in the monastery until four o’clock in the afternoon, talking with the abbess and sisters. This was the last blessing and parting word from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church before the Grand Duchess’s way of the cross to Golgotha.
Almost immediately after Patriarch Tikhon’s departure, a car with a commissar and Latvian Red Army soldiers drove up to the monastery. Elizaveta Fedorovna was ordered to go with them. We were given half an hour to get ready. The abbess only managed to gather the sisters in the Church of Saints Martha and Mary and give them the last blessing. Everyone present cried, 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 this 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 over everyone.
Having learned about what had happened, Patriarch Tikhon tried, through various organizations with which the new government reckoned, 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, in school, on the outskirts of the city of Alapaevsk, together with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich (the youngest son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, brother of Emperor Alexander II), his secretary - Fyodor Mikhailovich Remez, 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 security officers began to frighten them with torture and torment that would await everyone who stayed with her. Varvara Yakovleva said that she was ready to sign even with her blood, that she wanted to share her fate with the Grand Duchess. So the sister of the cross of the Martha and Mary Convent, Varvara Yakovleva, made her choice and joined the prisoners awaiting a decision on their fate.
In the dead of night of July 5 (18), 1918, on the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, along with other members of the imperial house, was thrown into the shaft of an old mine. When the brutal 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 security officers began throwing hand grenades into the mine. One of the peasants, who witnessed the murder, said that the singing of the Cherubim was heard from the depths of the mine. It was sung by the Russian new martyrs before passing into eternity. They died in terrible suffering, from thirst, hunger and wounds.

The memory of the Reverend Martyrs Grand Duchess Elizabeth and nun Varvara is celebrated on July 5 (18) and on the day of their martyrdom and the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Biography of the Grand Duchess

Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt was born in 1864 in the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria of England. Second daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. As a German princess, she was raised in the Protestant faith. Elizabeth's sister Alice became the wife of Nicholas II, and she herself married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov in 1884 and became a Russian princess. According to tradition, all German princesses were given the patronymic Feodorovna - in honor of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God. In 1878, the entire family, except Ella (as she was called in the family), fell ill with diphtheria, from which Ella’s younger sister, four-year-old Maria, and mother, Grand Duchess Alice, soon died. Father Ludwig IV, after the death of his wife, entered into a morganatic marriage with Alexandrina Hutten-Czapska, and Ella and Alix were raised by their grandmother, Queen Victoria at Osborne House. From childhood, the sisters were religiously inclined, participated in charity work, and received lessons in housekeeping. A major role in Ella’s spiritual life was played by the image of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, in whose honor Ella was named: this saint, the ancestor of the Dukes of Hesse, became famous for her deeds of mercy. Her cousin Friedrich of Baden was considered as a potential groom for Elizabeth. Another cousin, the Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm, courted Elizabeth for some time and, according to unconfirmed reports, even proposed marriage to her, which she rejected. German by birth, Elizaveta Fedorovna learned the Russian language perfectly and fell in love with her new homeland with all her soul. In 1891, after several years of reflection, she converted to Orthodoxy.

Letter from Elizabeth Feodorovna to her father about accepting Orthodoxy

Elizaveta Feodorovna has been thinking about accepting Orthodoxy since she became the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. But the German princess was worried that this step would be a blow to her family, loyal to Protestantism. Especially for his father, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Darmstadt. Only in 1891 did the princess write a letter to her father: “...Dear Pope, I want to tell you something and I beg you to give your blessing. You must have noticed the deep reverence I have had for the religion here since you were last here, more than a year and a half ago. I kept thinking and reading 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 to be a good Christian. It would be a sin to remain as I am now - to belong to the same church in form and for the outside world, but inside myself to pray and believe the same way as my husband. You cannot imagine how kind he was, that he never tried to force me by any means, leaving all this entirely to my conscience. He knows what a serious step this is, and that he must be absolutely sure before deciding to take it. I would have done this even before, but it tormented me that by doing this I was causing you pain. But you, won’t you understand, my dear Dad? You know me so well, you must see that I decided to take this step only out of deep faith and that I feel that I must appear before God with a pure and believing heart. How simple it would be to remain as it is now, but then how hypocritical, how false it would be, and how I can lie to everyone - pretending that I am a Protestant in all external rituals, when my soul belongs entirely to religion here. I thought and thought deeply about all this, being in this country for more than 6 years, and knowing that religion was “found”. I so strongly wish to receive Holy Communion with my husband on Easter. This may seem sudden to you, but I have been thinking about this for so long, and now, finally, I cannot put it off. My conscience won't allow me to do this. I ask, I ask, upon receipt of these lines, to forgive your daughter if she causes you pain. But isn’t faith in God and religion one of the main consolations of this world? Please wire me just one line when you receive this letter. God bless you. This will be such a comfort for me because I know there will be a lot of frustrating moments as no one will understand this step. I only ask for a small, affectionate letter.”

The father did not bless his daughter to change her faith, but she could no longer change her decision 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 of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, as announced by the Highest Manifesto. The Orthodox wedding was performed by the court protopresbyter John Yanyshev; the crowns were held by Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse, Grand Dukes Alexei and Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Peter Nikolaevich, Mikhail and Georgy Mikhailovich; then, in the Alexander Hall, the pastor of St. Anne’s Church also performed a service according to the Lutheran rite. Elizabeth's husband was both a great-uncle (common ancestor - Wilhelmina of Baden), and a fourth cousin (common great-great-grandfather - Prussian King Frederick William II). The couple settled in the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace purchased by Sergei Alexandrovich (the palace became known as Sergievsky), spending their honeymoon in the Ilyinskoye estate near Moscow, where they also lived subsequently. At her insistence, a hospital was established in Ilyinsky, and fairs were periodically held in favor of the peasants. Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna mastered the Russian language perfectly and spoke it with almost no accent. While still professing Protestantism, she attended Orthodox services. In 1888, together with her husband, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. As the wife of the Moscow governor-general (Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was appointed to this post in 1891), she organized the Elizabethan Charitable Society in 1892, established in order to “look after the legitimate babies of the poorest mothers, hitherto placed, although without any right, in the Moscow Educational house, under the guise of illegal.” The activities of the society first took place in Moscow, and then spread to the entire Moscow province. Elizabethan committees were formed at all Moscow church parishes and in all district cities of the Moscow province. In addition, Elisaveta Feodorovna headed the Ladies' Committee of the Red Cross, and after the death of her husband, she was appointed chairman of the Moscow Office of the Red Cross. Sergei Alexandrovich and Elisaveta Feodorovna did not have any 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 beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Elisaveta Feodorovna organized the Special Committee for Assistance to Soldiers, under which a donation warehouse was created in the Grand Kremlin Palace for the benefit of soldiers: bandages were prepared there, clothes were sewn, parcels were collected, and camp churches were formed. In the recently published letters of Elisaveta Feodorovna to Nicholas II, the Grand Duchess appears as a supporter of the most stringent and decisive measures against any freethinking in general and revolutionary terrorism in particular. “Is it really impossible to judge these animals in a field court?” - she asked the emperor in a letter written in 1902, shortly after the murder of Sipyagin (D.S. Sipyagin - the Minister of Internal Affairs was killed in 1902 by Stepan Balmashev, a member of the AKP BO. Balmashev (involved in the Gershuni terror), acquired a military uniform and, introducing himself the adjutant of one of the grand dukes, when handing over the package, Sipyagin was mortally wounded in the stomach and neck, Balmashev was executed), and she herself answered the question: “Everything must be done to prevent them from becoming heroes... to kill them. They have a 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 no need to feel sorry for those who themselves do not feel sorry for 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 her beloved husband’s body, scattered by the explosion. This tragedy was hard for me. The Greek Queen Olga Konstantinovna, cousin of the murdered Sergei Alexandrovich, wrote: “This is a wonderful, holy woman - she is apparently worthy of the heavy cross that lifts her higher and higher!” On the third day after the death of the Grand Duke, she went to prison to see the killer in the hope that he would repent, she conveyed forgiveness to him on behalf of Sergei Alexandrovich, and left him the Gospel. To Kalyaev’s words: “I didn’t want to kill you, I saw him several times and that time when I had a bomb ready, but you were with him, and I didn’t dare touch him,” Elisaveta Feodorovna replied: “And you didn’t realize that did you kill me along with him? Despite the fact that the killer did not repent, the Grand Duchess submitted a petition for clemency to Nicholas II, which he rejected. After the death of her husband, Elizaveta Feodorovna replaced him as Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and held 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 Martha and Mary Convent there, naming it in honor of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary. On the site there are two churches, a hospital, a pharmacy with free medicines for the poor, an orphanage and a school. A year later, the nuns of the monastery were ordained to the rank 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, telling the sisters of the monastery: “I am leaving the brilliant world, but together with all of you I am ascending to a greater world - 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 camp churches to the soldiers. After Nicholas II abdicated the throne, she wrote: “I felt deep pity for Russia and its children, who currently do not know what they are doing. Isn't it 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, no longer exists. We must direct our thoughts to the Kingdom of Heaven and say with humility: “Thy will be done.”

Martyrdom of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

In 1918, Elisaveta Feodorovna was arrested. In May 1918, she, along with other representatives of the Romanov house, was transported to Yekaterinburg and placed in the Atamanov Rooms hotel (currently the building houses the FSB and the Main Internal Affairs Directorate for the Sverdlovsk Region, the current address is the intersection of Lenin and Vainer streets), and then, two months later, they were sent to the city of Alapaevsk, into exile in the Urals. The Grand Duchess refused to leave Russia after the Bolsheviks came to power, continuing to engage in ascetic work in her monastery. On May 7, 1918, on the third day after Easter, on the day of the celebration of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, Patriarch Tikhon visited the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy and served a prayer service. Half an hour after the departure of the patriarch, Elisaveta Feodorovna was arrested by security officers and Latvian riflemen on the personal order of F. E. Dzerzhinsky. Patriarch Tikhon tried to achieve her release, but in vain - she was taken into custody and deported from Moscow to Perm. One of the Petrograd newspapers of that time - “New Evening Hour” - in a note dated May 9, 1918, responded to this event as follows: “... we don’t know what caused her deportation... It’s hard to think that Elisaveta Feodorovna could pose a danger to Soviet power, and her arrest and deportation can be considered, rather, as a proud gesture towards Wilhelm, whose brother is married to Elisaveta Feodorovna’s sister...” The historian V.M. Khrustalev believed that the deportation of Elisaveta Feodorovna to the Urals was one of the links in the Bolsheviks’ general plan to concentrate in the Urals all representatives of the Romanov dynasty, where, as the historian wrote, those gathered could be destroyed only by finding a suitable reason for this. This plan was carried out in the spring months of 1918. Mother was followed by nurses Varvara Yakovleva and Ekaterina Yanysheva. Catherine was later released, but Varvara refused to leave and remained with the Grand Duchess until the end. Together with the abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent and the sisters, they sent Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, his secretary Fyodor Remez, three brothers - John, Konstantin and Igor; Prince Vladimir Paley. On July 18, 1918, on the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the prisoners - Elisaveta Feodorovna, sister Varvara and members of the Romanov family - were taken to the village of Sinyachikhi. On the night of July 18, 1918, the prisoners were escorted to the old mine, beaten and thrown into the deep Novaya Selimskaya mine, 18 km from Alapaevsk. During her torment, Elisaveta Feodorovna prayed with the words that the Savior said on the cross: “Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” The executioners threw hand grenades into the mine. The following died with her: Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; Prince John Konstantinovich; Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich (junior); Prince Igor Konstantinovich; Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Fyodor Semyonovich Remez, manager of the affairs of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery Varvara (Yakovleva). All of them, except for the shot Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, were thrown into the mine alive. When the bodies were recovered from the mine, it was discovered that some of the victims lived on after the fall, dying of hunger and wounds. At the same time, the wound of Prince John, who fell on the ledge of the mine near the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, was bandaged with part of her apostle. The surrounding peasants said that for several days the singing of prayers and the Cherubic song could be heard from the mine. The martyrs sang until they were exhausted from their wounds. On October 31, 1918, Admiral Kolchak’s army occupied Alapaevsk. The remains of the dead were removed from the mine, placed in coffins and placed for funeral services in the city cemetery church. The Venerable Martyr Elizabeth, Sister Varvara and Grand Duke John had their fingers folded for the sign of the cross. However, with the advance of the Red Army, the bodies were transported further to the East several times. In April 1920, they were met in Beijing by the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archbishop Innokenty (Figurovsky). From there, two coffins - Grand Duchess Elizabeth and sister Varvara - were transported to Shanghai and then by steamship to Port Said. Finally the coffins arrived in Jerusalem. The burial in January 1921 under the Church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane was performed by Patriarch Damian of Jerusalem. Thus, the desire of Grand Duchess Elizabeth herself to be buried in the Holy Land, expressed by her during a pilgrimage in 1888, was fulfilled.

Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, where Elizaveta Fedorovna was kept on the eve of her death

Where are the relics of the Grand Duchess buried?

In 1921, the remains of Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna and nun Varvara were taken to Jerusalem. There they found peace in the tomb of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles, in Gethsemane. In 1931, on the eve of the canonization of the Russian new martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, they decided to open the tombs of the martyrs. The autopsy was supervised by a commission headed by the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Anthony (Grabbe). When they opened the coffin with the body of the Grand Duchess, the whole room was filled with fragrance. According to Archimandrite Anthony, there was a “strong smell, as if of honey and jasmine.” The relics, which turned out to be partially incorrupt, were transferred from the tomb to the church of St. Mary Magdalene itself.

Canonization

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia canonized the martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara in 1981. In 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church, by the Council of Bishops, canonized the Holy New Martyrs of Russia. We celebrate their memory on the day of their martyrdom, July 18 according to the new style (July 5 according to the old style).

Most often, icon painters depict the holy martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna standing; her right hand is facing us, in her left there is a miniature copy of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. Sometimes, in the right hand of St. Elizabeth a cross is depicted (a symbol of martyrdom for the faith since the time of the first Christians); in the left - rosary. Also, traditionally, Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna is written on icons together with the nun Varvara - “Reverend Martyrs Varvara and Elisaveta of Alapaevsk.” Behind the shoulders of the martyrs the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery is depicted; at their feet is the shaft of the mine into which the executioners threw them. Another iconographic subject is “The Murder of the Martyr Elizabeth and others like her.” The Red Army soldiers are escorting Grand Duchess Elizabeth, nun Varvara and other Alapaevsk prisoners to throw them into the mine. In the mine, the icon depicts the face of St. Sergius of Radonezh: the execution took place on the day of the discovery of his relics, July 18.

Prayers to the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna

Troparion voice 1 Having hidden your princely dignity with humility, the godly Elisaveto honored Christ with the intense service of Martha and Mary. You have purified yourself with mercy, patience and love, as if you offered a righteous sacrifice to God. We, who honor your virtuous life and suffering, earnestly ask you as a true mentor: Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, pray to Christ God to save and enlighten our souls. Kontakion voice 2 Who tells the story of the greatness of the feat of faith? In the depths of the earth, as if in the paradise of lordship, the passion-bearer Grand Duchess Elizabeth and the angels rejoiced in psalms and songs and, enduring murder, cried out for the godless tormentors: Lord, forgive them this sin, for they do not know what they are doing. Through your prayers, O Christ God, have mercy and save our souls.

Poem about Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna

In 1884, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov dedicated a poem to Elisaveta Feodorovna. I look at you, admiring you every hour: You are so inexpressibly beautiful! Oh, that’s right, underneath such a beautiful exterior there’s an equally beautiful soul! Some kind of meekness and hidden sadness lurks in your eyes; Like an angel you are quiet, pure and perfect; Like a woman, shy and tender. May nothing on earth, amid the evils and much sorrow of Yours, sully your purity. And everyone, seeing you, will glorify God, who created such beauty!

Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent

After the death of her husband at the hands of a terrorist, Elisaveta Feodorovna began to lead an almost monastic lifestyle. Her house became like a cell, she did not take off her mourning, did not attend social events. She prayed in the temple and observed strict fasting. She sold part of her jewelry (giving to the treasury that part that belonged to the Romanov dynasty), and with the proceeds she bought an estate on Bolshaya Ordynka with four houses and a vast garden, where the Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent of Mercy, founded by her in 1909, was located. There were two temples, a large garden, a hospital, an orphanage and much more. The first church in the monastery was consecrated in the name of the holy myrrh-bearing women Martha and Mary, the second - in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. In the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, the charter of the monastery hostel was in effect. In 1910, Bishop Tryphon (Turkestan) ordained 17 nuns to the title of Cross Sisters of Love and Mercy, and the Grand Duchess to the rank of abbess. Archpriest Mitrofan Serebryansky became the confessor of the monastery. The abbess herself led an ascetic life. She fasted, slept on a hard bed, got up for prayer even before dawn, worked until late in the evening: distributed obediences, attended operations in the clinic, and conducted administrative affairs of the monastery. Elisaveta Feodorovna was a supporter of the revival of the rank of deaconesses - ministers of the church of the first centuries, who in the first centuries of Christianity were appointed through ordination, participated in the celebration of the Liturgy, approximately in the role in which subdeacons now serve, were engaged in catechesis of women, helped with the baptism of women, and served the sick. She received the support of the majority of members of the Holy Synod on the issue of conferring this title on the sisters of the monastery, however, in accordance with the opinion of Nicholas II, the decision was never made. When creating the monastery, both Russian Orthodox and European experience were used. The sisters who lived in the monastery took vows of chastity, non-covetousness and obedience, however, unlike the nuns, after a certain period of time, the charter of the monastery allowed the sisters to leave it and start a family. “The vows that the sisters of mercy made at the monastery were temporary (for one year, three, six, and only then for life), so, although the sisters led a monastic lifestyle, they were not nuns. The sisters could leave the monastery and get married, but if they wished, they could also be tonsured into the mantle, bypassing monasticism.” (Ekaterina Stepanova, Martha and Mary Convent: a unique example, article from the Neskuchny Garden magazine on the Orthodoxy and World website). “Elizabeth wanted to combine social service and strict monastic rules. To do this, she needed to create a new type of women's church ministry, something between a monastery and a sisterhood. Secular sisterhoods, of which there were many in Russia at that time, did not please Elisaveta Feodorovna for their secular spirit: sisters of mercy often attended balls, led an overly secular lifestyle, and she understood monasticism exclusively as contemplative, prayerful work, complete renunciation of the world (and, accordingly, work in hospitals, hospitals, etc.).” (Ekaterina Stepanova, Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent: a unique example, article from the magazine “Neskuchny Sad” on the website “Orthodoxy and the World”) The sisters received serious psychological, methodological, spiritual and medical training at the monastery. They were given lectures by the best doctors in 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. Evgeny Sinadsky.

According to Elisaveta Feodorovna’s plan, the monastery was supposed to provide comprehensive, spiritual, educational and medical assistance to those in need, who were often not just given food and clothing, but helped in finding employment and placed in hospitals. Often the sisters persuaded families who could not give their children a normal upbringing (for example, professional beggars, drunkards, etc.) to send their children to an orphanage, where they were given an education, good care and a profession. A hospital, an excellent outpatient clinic, a pharmacy where some medications were provided free of charge, a shelter, a free canteen and many other institutions were created in the monastery. Educational lectures and conversations, meetings of the Palestine Society, Geographical Society, spiritual readings and other events were held in the Intercession Church of the monastery. Having settled in the monastery, 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, going around the poorest neighborhoods. Together with her cell attendant Varvara Yakovleva, Elisaveta Feodorovna often visited the Khitrov market - a place of attraction for the Moscow poor. Here mother found street children and sent them to city shelters. All of Khitrovka respectfully called the Grand Duchess “sister Elizabeth” or “mother.” She maintained relations with a number of famous elders of that time: Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov) (Eleazar Hermitage), Schema-Abbot Herman (Gomzin) and Hieroschemamonk Alexy (Solovyov) (Elders of Zosimova Hermitage). Elisaveta Feodorovna did not take monastic vows. During the First World War, she actively took care of helping the Russian army, including wounded soldiers. At the same time, she tried to help prisoners of war, with whom the hospitals were overcrowded and, as a result, was accused of collaborating with the Germans. With her participation, at the beginning of 1915, a workshop was organized to assemble prosthetics from ready-made parts, mostly obtained from the St. Petersburg Military Medical Manufacturing Plant, where there was a special prosthetic workshop. Until 1914, this industry did not develop in Russia. Funds for equipping the workshop, located on private property at No. 9 Trubnikovsky Lane, were collected from donations. As military operations progressed, the need to increase the production of artificial limbs increased and the Grand Duchess Committee moved production to Maronovsky Lane, 9. Understanding the full social significance of this direction, with the personal participation of Elisaveta Feodorovna in 1916, work began on the design and construction of the first in Moscow Russian prosthetic plant, which is still producing components for prosthetics.

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 Mother, the sisters of the monastery worked in field hospitals. Revolutionary events affected all members of the Romanov dynasty, even Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who was loved by all of Moscow. Soon 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 not yet worthy of the crown of martyrdom.” After the October Revolution of 1917, the monastery was not disturbed at first; they even brought food and medicine to the sisters. The arrests began later. In 1918, Elisaveta Feodorovna was taken into custody. The Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent existed until 1926. Some sisters were sent into exile, others united into a community and created a small vegetable garden in the Tver region. Two years later, a cinema was opened in the Church of the Intercession, 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 monastery cathedral; the remaining premises were occupied by a clinic 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 nuns are trained at the St. Demetrius School of Sisters of Mercy, help those in need, work in the newly opened shelter for orphan girls on Bolshaya Ordynka, a charity canteen, a patronage service, a gymnasium and a cultural and educational center.

Statues of 20th century martyrs on the west façade of Westminster Abbey: Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Janani Luwum, Grand Duchess Elizabeth 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 and Baltic countries, where more than 7 million people venerated them. According to Patriarch Alexy II, “long lines of believers to the relics of the holy new martyrs are another symbol of Russia’s repentance for the sins of hard times, the country’s return to its original historical path.” The relics were then returned to Jerusalem.

Temples and monasteries

Several Orthodox monasteries in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, as well as churches, are dedicated to the Grand Duchess. The database of the website Temples of Russia (as of October 28, 2012) includes information about 24 operating churches in different cities of Russia, the main altar of which is dedicated to the Reverend Martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna, 6 churches in which one of the additional altars is dedicated to her, and 1 under construction temple and 4 chapels. Operating churches in the name of the Holy Martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna Alapaevskaya (construction dates in brackets) are located in Yekaterinburg (2001); Kaliningrad (2003); the city of Belousovo, Kaluga region (2000-2003); the village of Chistye Bory, Kostroma region (late 20th - early 21st centuries); cities of Balashikha (2005), Zvenigorod (2003), Klin (1991), Krasnogorsk (mid-1990s - mid-2000s), Lytkarino (2007-2008), Odintsovo (early 2000s), Shchelkovo (late . 1990s - early 2000s), Shcherbinka (1998-2001) and the village of Kolotskoye (1993) in the Moscow region; Moscow (temples from 1995, 1997 and 1998, 3 churches from the mid-2000s, 6 churches in total); the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod region (2005); Nizhny Novgorod; village of Vengerovo, Novosibirsk region (1996); Orle (2008); the city of Bezhetsk, Tver region (2000); village of Khrenovoe (2007). Current churches with additional altars of the Holy Martyr Elisaveta Feodorovna of Alapaevsk (construction dates in brackets) include: the Cathedral of the Three Great Hierarchs in the Spaso-Eleazarovsky Monastery, Pskov region, Elizarovo village (1574), additional altars - the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Martyr Elizaveta Feodorovna; Church of the Ascension of the Lord, Nizhny Novgorod (1866-1875), additional altars - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Icon of the Mother of God of the Burning Bush, Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna; Church of Elijah the Prophet in Ilyinsky, Moscow region, Krasnogorsk district, village. Ilyinskoe (1732-1740), additional thrones - John the Theologian, Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna, Theodore of Perga; Church of the Savior Image Not Made by Hands in Usovo (new), Moscow region, p. Usovo (2009-2010), additional thrones - Icons of the Mother of God Sovereign, Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna, Hieromartyr Sergius (Makhaev); Temple in the name of St. Elizabeth Feodorovna (Elizabeth Feodorovna), Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg. Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kursk region, Kurchatov (1989-1996), additional throne (2006) - Martyrs Elizabeth Feodorovna and nun Varvara. The chapels are located in St. Petersburg (2009); Orle (1850s); G. Zhukovsky, Moscow region (2000s); Yoshkar-Ole (2007). The Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh and the Martyr Elisabeth Feodorovna in Yekaterinburg is under construction. The list includes house churches (hospital churches and churches located at other social institutions), which may not be separate structures, but occupy premises in hospital buildings, etc.

Rehabilitation

On June 8, 2009, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office posthumously rehabilitated Elisaveta Feodorovna. Resolution to terminate the criminal case No. 18/123666-93 “On clarifying the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and people from their entourage in the period 1918-1919.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who created such beauty!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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