Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova, what they pray to her for. The light is unquenchable. Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna. Foundation of the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery

This icon still reminds us of the tragic life of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna. Martyr's Cross in right hand The Saint and Cathedral of the Marfo-Mariinsky Monastery - this is how the icon of Elizabeth Feodorovna is depicted.

Memorial Days:

• February 5 – Cathedral of Kostroma Saints
• February 11 – Cathedral of Ekaterinburg Saints
• July 18
• October 11 – Finding of relics

Like the Catholic Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who founded the Eisenach Hospital for the Poor, she became famous for following the ideals of the Church of Christ.

History of Saint Elizabeth Feodorovna

Saint Elizabeth Feodorovna was born in Darmstadt, Germany on October 20 (now November 1), 1864. She became the second child in the family of Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and daughter English Queen Victoria - Princess Alice. Thanks to tradition old England, the children were brought up in strictness - they wore simple clothes and ate ordinary food. Their mother raised them on the basis of Christian precepts and put compassion and love for their neighbors into their hearts. That is why, from childhood, Elizabeth was distinguished by her religiosity and paid her respect to her distant relative, Elizabeth of Thuringia.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth's family lost a child - in 1873, her three-year-old brother, Friedrich, left them. And in 1876, diphtheria took away one of Elizabeth’s sisters, and then her mother Alice. Then Saint Elizabeth became a support to her father and surviving brother and sisters.

At the age of 20, Elizabeth married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. They both lived in a spiritual marriage, as they both took a secret vow to remain virgins for life.

The husband was a very religious person, and the princess supported him in this. Being a Protestant, Elizabeth firmly decided to convert to Orthodoxy, and sent a telegram to her father with the hope of his blessing. However, the father sent his daughter a letter back with lines about pain and suffering about her thoughts. Despite her father’s refusal, Elizabeth, showing courage, secretly converted to Orthodoxy.

On April 13 (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

During the Russo-Japanese War, Elizaveta Fedorovna organized assistance to the front.

In 1905, having buried her husband from a terrorist bomb, the Saint visited her husband’s killer in prison, where she forgave him. The Gospel is what Righteous Elizabeth left behind. The icon and image of which are reflected in the center next to the Royal Passion-Bearers.

Soon, Elizabeth, having collected her jewels, used them to create the monastery of mercy. And in 1909 she herself was dressed in monastic robes. Elizabeth and her sisters raised many adopted children in their monastery.

After the First World War and the Revolution of 1917, all royal family was arrested and soon thrown into an iron mine shaft. Local peasants heard the singing of prayers coming from the mine for several days. Her body, untouched by decay, was transferred to the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem several years later.

The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Saint Elizabeth and Sister Barbara in 1992, and royal passion-bearers in 2000.

Prayer to the Martyr and Celebration

The patroness of the Sisters of Charity department at the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Institute is Elisaveta. The Icon of the Great Saint provides gracious assistance to all believers in need.

The Great Saint is addressed with the following words:

Oh, holy venerable martyr Elizabeth, chosen from the line of the sovereign beauty of the Russian Church, who served well with her abundant love for God and mercy for her neighbors, who laid down her soul for faith in Christ our Lord, adorned with the crown of the glory of Christ and honored to be the bride of Christ!

You shone like a God-bearing star in the lands of Russia, the holy martyr Elizabeth, when you counted wealth and glory as dust, you gave up your life in the hand of God, so that you served Him with fasting and prayer, and you showed love and great mercy to the suffering.

Filled with grace, your venerable relics appeared, the holy venerable martyr Elizabeth, who wanted to save them from reproach and dishonor, pious people brought to the holy city of Jerusalem and buried them in the weight of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, to whom those who fall find relief, consolation and healing.

Likewise, heal us sinners with your prayer and illuminate the path of our life with the light of your virtues. Pray, O our mother, that the Lord may grant us the gift of healing our passions, that He may transform our infirmities into strength for salvation, that we may not perish in the abyss of the cares of life, but may we be able to escape eternal torment and be heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints who have pleased God from all eternity .

O Grand Duchess Elizabeth, the women of Russia are our adornment and joy, accept the sighing of our hearts offered to you with love, and through your intercession to the Lord strengthen the spirit of right faith and piety in us, strengthen us in virtue and mercy, help us cross the cross of sorrows with patience and hope bear, in love and harmony preserve our holy temple, so that we may be worthy to hear the Lord in joy, with the Angels and all the saints to glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages!

Amen!

Below we see one of the images of the Grand Duchess – Elizabeth the Wonderworker is an icon of the Holy Martyr.

The Orthodox Church honors the memory of the Holy Great Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova on July 18 - the only one of the Romanovs whose holiness is perfect.

In 1992, the number of Orthodox saints was replenished with one more name: the church canonized the sister of the last Russian empress, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Veneration is due not only to the tragic passing of the great martyr, but also to the deeds of this woman during her lifetime. Social activities the social beauty took up the business during the lifetime of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was his uncle.

After the death of her husband at the hands of a terrorist, Elizabeth finally devoted herself to charity. The culmination of her efforts was the creation of the Martha and Mary Convent, whose sisters cared for the wounded during the First World War, patronized the poorest residents of Moscow and cared for street children. But even this contribution did not save the princess from the wrath of the revolution.

Childhood and youth

Elizabeth was born in 1864 in Darmstadt, in the Duchy of Hesse. Until 1918 it was separate state, now its lands are part of Germany. Her father was the ruler of the duchy, Ludwig IV, and her mother was the daughter of the Queen of Great Britain, Princess Alice. Their marriage produced 4 more daughters and 2 sons. The eldest son, named Ernst Ludwig, subsequently took his father's throne and remained on it until the revolutionary events of 1918.

For the first two years, the royal couple did not have a residence. The Duke's influential mother-in-law insisted that a palace be built for her daughter using funds from the Hessian treasury, but the son-in-law resisted in every possible way, since there were no resources for this. The family moved from one rented mansion to another.

Over the years, the conflict between Elizabeth's father and her grandmother grew. Relations between the spouses also began to deteriorate. Life together was overshadowed by a tragedy with youngest son Friedrich. When Ella - this is the nickname given to the girl in the family - was eight years old, her two-year-old brother died after falling out of a window. Duchess Alice increasingly spent time with her mother, taking her children to England.

4 years later, the princesses of Hesse-Darmstadt and the future ruler of the duchy were orphaned, having lost their mother and younger sister Maria due to diphtheria. From that time on, both Ella and her sister Alix, the future wife of the Russian emperor, were raised mainly in the palace of the British crown, located in the city of East Cowes. Classes on housekeeping, religion, and etiquette are provided for girls. They are attracted to participate in charity.

Personal life

The influential grandmother hoped to marry Elizabeth to one of the girl’s cousins: both Frederick of Baden and Crown Prince Wilhelm ruled lands in Germany. But in the end, the girl’s marriage strengthened relations with the Romanov dynasty. In 1884, the 19-year-old princess married the 27-year-old Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of the ruling Russian Empire. Ella had known him since childhood and maintained friendly relations.

The couple had no children. This fact fueled the gossip circulating in Moscow and St. Petersburg about the homosexual orientation of Elizabeth’s husband. The alleged lovers were officers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, whose commander the prince was appointed at the age of 30. However, correspondence with his wife testifies to a warm, tender relationship that the couple maintained until the death of Sergei Alexandrovich in 1905.

Being a follower of the Lutheran Church, seven years after moving to Russia, Elizabeth decided to change her religion and converted to Orthodoxy. By this time, she had studied Russian so much that she spoke without an accent.

Social activity

In 1891, the husband of the granddaughter of the Queen of Great Britain received the post of Governor-General of Moscow. Elizabeth supports the position of the wife of the city leader by deed, creating the Elizabeth Benevolent Society. The association takes care of children whose parents are unable to provide food and care due to poverty. The demand for help is indirectly proven by the fact that branches of the Society are appearing one after another in the counties of the region.

Elizabeth is alarmed by the growth of revolutionary sentiments and the tacit approval of acts of violence against members of the nobility. She writes to her husband’s nephew, Nikolai Alexandrovich, who ascended the throne, so that he uses tough measures to discourage terrorists from fighting using such methods.

“There is no need to feel sorry for those who do not feel sorry for anyone!” the Grand Duchess urges in a letter of 1902.

With the outbreak of the war with Japan, the wife of the Moscow Governor-General creates the Committee for Assistance to Soldiers. They collect parcels and clothes for the soldiers, prepare bandages and medicines, and accept donations to organize camp churches. Whether it is this activity, the stories of the participants in the battles, or her faith that changes her, but a year later, when her husband dies as a result of an assassination attempt, Elizabeth finds the strength not only to visit the killer, but also to forgive him.

Unlike his wife, Sergei Alexandrovich did not gain sympathy from his subjects. Outwardly, the prince gave the impression of a man indifferent to the needs and troubles of the townspeople. In addition, his name was associated with the failure of organizing a feast on the Khodynskoye field and the subsequent disaster.

Added fuel to the fire and Political Views- he was an ardent opponent of reforms, and rumors about the vices of a representative of the imperial dynasty. The shooting of a peaceful demonstration on January 9, 1905 was the last straw. A month after Bloody Sunday, a terrorist from the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Ivan Kalyaev, threw a bomb at the carriage with the prince. Both Nicholas II’s uncle and his coachman were killed.

Elizabeth was one of the first at the scene of the tragedy - the explosion occurred next to the governor's palace. According to eyewitnesses, she tried to collect the remains of her husband. The prince's widow spent several days in prayer, and then visited the arrested man in his cell. According to the convoy, when Kalyaev asked who she was, the princess replied:

“I am the wife of the one you killed; tell me why you killed him?”

Elizabeth told the prisoner that “knowing the good heart” of her husband, she conveyed his forgiveness, and blessed the prisoner. They spoke without witnesses. The widow of Sergei Alexandrovich asked the emperor to pardon the criminal, but the king refused.

“The Grand Duchess is kind, but you are all evil,” Kalyaev said to the guard after meeting with Elizabeth.

However, at the trial, the terrorist stated that he believed that the investigators deliberately sent a widow to him in order to force him to repent and compromise the military organization by showing the weakness of one of its participants.

The princess became the first woman to chair the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and remained there until 1917. Before her, the association, which dealt with interaction with lands in Israel and the development of pilgrimage, was led by Sergei Alexandrovich.

The tragedy with her husband changed her life. Social entertainment, former acquaintances, trips - everything has now faded, and Elizabeth chose the path to which she had been going all her life. Having sold the jewelry collection partly to acquaintances and partly to the treasury, in 1909 the prince’s widow bought a mansion on Bolshaya Ordynka, surrounded by several buildings. The Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent of Mercy, founded by the princess, is located here. Elizabeth became its abbess.

The institution was not a monastery in the full sense of the word. The sisters of mercy who worked here took a number of vows, but, unlike the nuns, they could leave the ministry at any time and return to life in the world forever. All novices, along with spiritual guidance, studied medicine and chose one of three areas of work.

Active service included assistance in the hospital and pharmacy. The educational direction ensured the upbringing and education of street children who lived in the shelter opened at the monastery. And the guardianship direction required the sisters to visit the poorest families and patronize them.

Elizabeth actively participated in all directions, believing that only by personal example could she attract others to zealous service. Grand Duchess Romanova paid a lot of attention to women's education. The monastery operated a Sunday school for townswomen. The girls in the orphanage received not only care, but also training as nannies and maids with seamstress skills. The abbess, whose portrait is still in the Martha and Mary Convent, bequeathed to bury herself on its territory, but her will was not destined to be fulfilled.

Death

Chekists arrested the abbess in May 1918. She was escorted to Yekaterinburg, and in July she was taken to Alapaevsk. On the night of July 18, she was shot by the Bolsheviks along with other princes of the Romanov dynasty. The execution, as ordered, took place at a mine outside Alapaevsk. The wounded were pushed to the bottom, where they died of hunger and wounds.

In the fall, the territory came under the control of the white army, and the remains of the dead were taken abroad. Elizaveta Feodorovna, like the sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, Varvara, who was killed with her, is buried in Jerusalem. After the collapse of the USSR, she was canonized, and in 2009 she was posthumously rehabilitated by law enforcement agencies.

Memory

• Several Orthodox monasteries in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, as well as churches and chapels are dedicated to the Grand Duchess.
• The monument to the Grand Duchess was erected on the territory of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in 1990. In 2017, another monument was unveiled, installed at the Elizabeth Hospital in Perm.
• In 1993 city ​​Hospital in St. Petersburg is named in honor of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth.
• In 2018, on the centenary of the death of the princess, it was released documentary"White Angel of Moscow"

Holy Martyr Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova

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

Grand Duchess of Hesse and Rhineland Alice with her daughter Ella

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

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

Princess Elisabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse and the Rhine

Artist - Henry Charles Heath

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

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

Grand Duke Sergey Aleksandrovich

Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

Elizaveta Fedorovna with her husband Sergei Alexandrovich.

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

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

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova.

F.I. Rerberg.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova.

Zon, Karl Rudolf -

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova.

A.P.Sokolov

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

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

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

On April 13 (25), on Lazarus Saturday, the sacrament of 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).

Friedrich August von Kaulbach.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna, V.I. Nesterenko

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

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

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

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

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Room of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

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

Two sisters Ella and Alix

Ella and Alix

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

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

When did it start Russo-Japanese War, 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 with icons and everything necessary for worship to the front. I personally sent Gospels, icons and prayer books. At her own expense, the Grand Duchess formed several ambulance trains.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

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

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

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

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

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

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, V.I. Nesterenko

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Princess Elizaveta Feodorovna

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

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

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

Meeting of Elizaveta Fedorovna and Kalyaev.

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

Elizaveta Fedorovna in mourning after the death of her husband

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

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

Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova.

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

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

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

Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent

Archpriest Mitrofan Srebryansky

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

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Varvara Yakovleva

Princess Maria Obolenskaya

Khitrov market

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

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

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.

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

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

The Grand Duchess had a native Russian love of pilgrimage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nikolai Konstantinovich Konstantinov

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

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

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

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

Mikhail Nesterov

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

Mikhail Nesterov

Mikhail Nesterov

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

The ark with the right hand of the holy martyr Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna and with a particle of the relics of the martyr nun Barbara arrives in Minsk on May 19 from the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign.

Saint Elizabeth is one of the greatest ascetics of the 20th century, the patroness of philanthropists, doctors and social service workers.

Believers turn to Elizabeth with requests for deliverance from illness, for spiritual help in different situations, for the blessing of children and families.

Biography

The Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth was born in 1864 into the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, she became the second daughter.

At the age of 20, the princess married Prince Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, the wedding took place according to the Orthodox rite in the church of the Grand Palace of St. Petersburg. The prince was a deeply religious man: he strictly observed all church canons.

Elisaveta Feodorovna (Elizaveta Feodorovna) intensively studied the Russian language, and therefore spoke it perfectly, attended Orthodox services, while professing Lutheranism. In 1888, she and her husband made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1891 she converted to Orthodoxy, although this was not easy for the princess: Elizabeth asked for a blessing to be able to convert to Orthodoxy. However, the father wrote her a letter in response, indicating that such a decision hurt him and that he could not bless his daughter. Despite this, the Grand Duchess still decided to convert to Orthodoxy.

A year later, in 1892, she organized the Elizabethan Charitable Society. After a short amount of time in all county towns Elizabethan committees were formed in the Moscow province and at all Moscow church parishes.

© Sputnik /

In 1904, when the Russian-Japanese War began, Elisaveta Feodorovna organized the Special Committee for Assistance to Soldiers - under it, a donation warehouse was created in the Grand Kremlin Palace for the benefit of soldiers.

On February 4, 1905, the princess's husband Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by the revolutionary and terrorist Ivan Kalyaev. At the place of death, her wife Elisaveta Feodorovna erected a monument in the form of a cross, which was made according to the design of the artist Vasnetsov. The words “Father, let them go, they don’t know what they’re doing” were written on the monument.

After the death of her husband, Elisaveta Feodorovna acquired an estate with four houses and a large garden. There she founded the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in 1909.

The sisters who lived in the monastery took a vow of chastity, obedience and non-covetousness (denial of not only earthly riches, but also any property). However, after some time it was possible to leave the monastery and start a family.

At the monastery, the princess led an ascetic life: during the day she walked around poor neighborhoods, and at night she looked after seriously ill people and prayed.

People noted that, despite her high position, the princess never put herself above people from the slums and the poor.

During the First World War, she actively helped the Russian imperial army: wounded soldiers, prisoners of war in hospitals.

In 1916, the princess personally took part in the design and construction of the first prosthetic plant in Moscow.

Death of the princess

Despite the Bolsheviks coming to power, Elisaveta Feodorovna continued her ascetic activity. On May 7, 1918, on the third day after Easter, by personal order of Felix Dzerzhinsky, she was arrested by security officers and Latvian riflemen. She was taken into custody and expelled from Moscow to Perm.

In the same month, Elisaveta, like other representatives of the Romanov dynasty, was transported to Yekaterinburg, and a little later to Alapaevsk. Last months Elizabeth spent her life in prison.

On the night of July 18, 1918, the princess was killed by the Bolsheviks: almost everyone who died with her was thrown alive into a mine. It was later discovered that some people survived the fall, but died from wounds and starvation. For example, the wound that Prince John received was bandaged with part of the princess’s apostle.

© Sputnik /

The peasants also said that for several days the singing of prayers could be heard from the mine into which Elisaveta Feodorovna and others were thrown.

In October 1918, the remains of those killed in the mine were removed, after which they were placed in coffins and held for funeral services. Due to the advance of the Red Army, the bodies of the dead were taken further and further to the East. Two years later, in April 1920, Archbishop Innocent, the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, met the coffins in Beijing, from where the remains of Grand Duchess Elizabeth and sister Varvara were later transported to Shanghai, and from there to Port Said.

As a result, the coffins were brought to Jerusalem; in 1921, in accordance with the desire of the Grand Duchess to be buried in the Holy Land, the body was buried under the Church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane.

Canonization

In 1981, Grand Duchess Elizabeth and sister Varvara were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which is located in New York.

In 1992, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church were canonized and included in the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Relics

Today, the relics of Grand Duchess Elizabeth and nun Varvara are located in Gethsemane, in the monastery of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. The Holy Right Hand was transferred to the United States in 1981.

Where and when will the shrine be in Minsk

Holy Spirit Cathedral (Cyril and Methodius St., 3):

• May 19 (Saturday) from 17:00 to 22:00;
• May 20 (Sunday) from 6:00 to 15:00.

St. Elisabeth Monastery, temple in honor of the “Derzhavnaya” Icon of the Mother of God (Vygotsky St., 6):

• from May 20 (Sunday) from 17:00 to May 22 (Tuesday) until 21:00 around the clock.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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