Saint Elizabeth Feodorovna: royal nun martyred by Bolsheviks
The post recounts the life of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, older sister of Empress Alexandra of Russia. Known in Moscow for her charitable work among the poor, she responded to the 1905 assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, by visiting the revolutionary killer in prison, forgiving him, giving him a Gospel, and petitioning Tsar Nicholas II for clemency.
She then renounced her wealth, became a nun, and founded the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary, where she and her sisters cared for the sick and destitute. After the Bolshevik Revolution, she was arrested as both a Romanov and a religious leader. In July 1918, Bolshevik guards threw her and several royal relatives alive into an abandoned mine shaft near Alapayevsk and tossed grenades after them.
Witnesses and some of the killers later reported hearing hymns sung from the depths. Months later, the White Army recovered the bodies. Her remains were transported to Jerusalem and buried in the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives, a site she had chosen. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia glorified her as a saint in 1981, and the Moscow Patriarchate followed in 1992. The post ends by asking readers whether they had heard of her.
Key moments
- Elizabeth was the older sister of the last Empress of Russia and was known throughout Moscow for her kindness toward the poor.
- In 1905 a revolutionary threw a bomb that killed her husband.
- A few days after the murder she went to the killer's prison cell, told him she forgave him, gave him a copy of the Gospel, and begged the Tsar to spare his life.
- She then gave away all her jewels, became a nun, and opened a convent where she and her sisters cared for the sick and the poor.
- After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917 they targeted her both as a member of the royal family and as a religious leader.
- In the summer of 1918 the Bolsheviks took her and several royal relatives to an abandoned mine in the mountains, pushed them down the shaft alive, and threw grenades after them.
- Some of the killers later swore they could still hear her singing hymns from the bottom of the shaft.
- Months later the White Army recaptured the area, recovered the bodies, and her body was carried to Jerusalem to the church on the Mount of Olives where she had said she wished to be buried; the Orthodox Church now honors her as a saint.