Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia:
New Martyr of the Communist Yoke
By Lubov Millar
The biography of an extraordinary woman, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, who consciously adopted the Orthodox Christian Faith and sacrificed everything – including her life – to show mercy, compassion and love for her fellow man in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The strikingly beautiful Grand Duchess married Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, uncle of Tsar Nicholas II. When she felt the blast that assassinated her husband, she ran outside the palace to help collect his remains, strewn about the Moscow Kremlin square. Following this episode, she sold her jewels and used the money to open the Saints Mary and Martha Convent, which quickly manifested itself as a sisterhood that loved the poor and suffering. She ransomed women from Moscow’s slums destined for prostitution and taught them marketable careers in sewing and nursing; opened a hospital that received cases abandoned by doctors as hopeless; and other good works. In spite of giving her life to serve Russians, she was arrested and in 1918 cruelly martyred with other royal family members by being butted with a rifle and thrown into a mine shaft into which grenades were then tossed.
Lubov Millar gathers a wealth of materials including letters written by the Grand Duchess and dozens of photographs to present the magnificent, heroic life of New-martyr Elizabeth. Written as an evocative fine novel, the reader will find it difficult to set down this book once it is opened.
Hardcover, 388 pgs.
From the text:
Abbot Seraphim writes of a case in which the Grand Duchess, in looking after a patient, inspired an unbeliever with faith:
A woman was brought to the convent hospital for what turned out to be a prolonged stay. Her husband was a factory worker and a hardened atheist. Fed by revolutionary propaganda at work, he had come to despise the existing regime and was led to believe that all members of the Romanov family were motivated solely by selfish interests. He had heard similar stories about the Grand Duchess: that she was haughty and egotistical. Nevertheless, in the course of his daily visits to the hospital, he could not help but be impressed by the excellent nursing care his wife received. He noticed one nurse in particular, who was exceptionally kind and solicitous towards his wife: she would sit down on her bed, caress her, speak words of comfort, administer medicines and even bring her sweets. He saw this same sister attending other patients and encouraging them to receive Holy Communion. When she proposed this to his wife, she agreed.
The woman’s case, however, was hopeless, and her final days were spent in agony. This sister spent the whole night at her bed, trying all she could to lessen the patient’s suffering. When the woman died, the sister washed and dressed the body. Then the priest came and celebrated the first service for the newly departed.
The husband wondered at all this. Embittered though he was, he could not help but weep. Who was this sister who had shown his wife such loving care? He thought to himself that not even a mother could have done more. When told that it was the Grand Duchess herself, he broke down, sobbing like a child. Straightway he went to the Grand Duchess to thank her and ask her forgiveness for the insults he had uttered in the company of his comrades and for the hatred he had nurtured against her. Elizabeth Feodorovna kindly assured him of her forgiveness. The man was so moved by all these acts of Christian charity that his heart was converted and he became a believer. Doubtless, at this time his attitude towards the Royal Family also changed.
