Akathistos

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia (February 24, 1864 – July 18, 1918) Elizabeth was the second child and daughter of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria. In the winter of 1878, diphtheria swept through the Hesse household, killing both Elizabeth’s youngest sister and her mother, Princess Alice. Elizabeth was not in Hesse at the time and was the only member of the family not affected by this outbreak.

Orphaned at the age of 14, she was partly brought up by her grandmother, Queen Victoria. She married Grand Duke Sergei of Russia in June 1884. She and her husband, Grand Duke Sergei never had children of their own, but their Il’yinskoye estate was usually filled with parties that Elizabeth organized especially for children. They eventually became the foster parents of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, Sergei’s niece and nephew.

The Grand Duchess was received by Chrismation on Lazarus Saturday, 1891, and then during that Holy Week she was able to receive Holy Communion with her husband for the first time.

Tragically, Elizabeth’s husband was assassinated with a bomb on February 18, 1905, while on duty in the Kremlin, by socialist-revolutionary Ivan Kalyayev.  After this, she sold all of her possessions and became a nun.  Using the money from the things she had sold, she opened the Martha and Mary Home in Moscow to foster the prayer and charity of devout women.  She also opened a  hospital, a chapel, a pharmacy and an orphanage on its grounds.  In April 1909, Elizabeth and seventeen women were dedicated as Sisters of Love and Mercy.

In 1918, the Communist government exiled her to Yekaterinburg and then to Alapaevsk, where she was violently killed by the local Bolsheviks on July 18, 1918, along with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; the Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei’s secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Nun Barbara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess Elizabeth’s convent.

They were herded into the forest, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft, into which grenades were then hurled. An observer heard them singing Church hymns as they were pushed into the mineshaft. After the Bolsheviks left, he could still hear singing for some time. The last thing Elizabeth did as she lay dying in the mineshaft was to bandage the wounds of Prince Ioann with her handkerchief. Later the White Army briefly recaptured this area, and her relics were recovered and the account of the person who witnessed it recorded. Her relics were first taken by the White Army to Beijing and placed in the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, and then they were taken to Jerusalem and placed in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which she and her husband had helped to build.

Although, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth the New Martyr was never the biological mother of children, she did take in Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, Sergei’s niece and nephew.  After she became a nun, the grand duchess paid special attention to the unfortunate children who were born in the turbid slums of Moscow. Many of them were taken into the orphanage built for them where they were quickly revived spiritually and physically.

Troparion, Tone 4:

Causing meekness, humility and love to dwell in thy soul,

Thou didst earnestly serve the suffering,

O holy passion-bearer Princess Elizabeth;

Wherefore, with faith thou didst endure sufferings and death for Christ, with the martyr Barbara.

With her pray for all who honor you with love.

Kontakion, Tone 4:

Taking up the Cross of Christ,

Thou didst pass from royal glory to the glory of heaven,

Praying for thine enemies, O holy martyr Princess Elizabeth;

And with the martyr Barbara thou didst find everlasting joy.

Therefore, pray ye in behalf of our souls.