About Me
I was the Maternal granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria, I was killed in 1918 by Bolsheviks, thrown down a Urals mine shaft just one day after the slaughter of the imperial family.I was a remarkable woman overshadowed by my more famous sister, Alexandra. I led a life of high drama. Rejecting the overtures of my conceited cousin, Prince William of Prussia (the future Wilhelm II of Germany), I married another cousin?haughty, taciturn Serge, grand duke of Russia. My belated discovery of his homosexuality and my eventual repulsion at his bigotry (he expelled all of Moscow's Jews in 1891) made my marriage a hollow formality. After witnessing Serge's assassination by a bomb thrower in 1905, I, a convert to Russian Orthodoxy and a vegetarian, immersed myself in religion; I founded an order of nuns, built hospitals and an orphanage, tended to the poor and sick. I accepted the union of my sister, Alexandra, to the future Nicholas II, but I vehemently opposed Alexandra's involvement with self-proclaimed holy man Grigory Rasputin, and I approved of his assassination. Though scanty on interpretive analysis, my biography penetrates the core of an emotionally rigid woman who bore tragedy with dignity and who lived by my conscience.Notes: This Orthodox Ballard was based on the book Grand Duchess Elizabeth Of Russia by Lubov Millar, Nikodemos Orhtodox Publication Society 1991Grand Duchess Elizabeth carried her cross;
She cared for the sick, and the wounded of heart.
She served Holy Russia with untiring love.
Now learn her story, and how this woman's faith in God, overcame the darkness of that time.
Who could have known…When she left her home in Germany,
and married the Grand Duke, Serge Alexandrrovich, her one and only love.
Devoted to his people, understanding their needs.
Her radiating beauty, won the very heart and soul of all,
"rich and poor"; she touched their lives by the meekness of…Her spirit yearned for the faith of the simple peasant folk -
deeply were they founded in this true belief.
Orthodoxy was the deep confession of their hearts.
With a pure conscience, and the strong conviction of her soul;
she converted to this Holy Faith.
After seven years…Of life amid the simple beauty of the quiet countryside,
Freely seeking solitude away from social life.
Then came revolution, and its waves of unrest.
In the shadow of danger, a terrorist bomb hit the Grand Duke;
In a single instant he was dead.
She gathered up…His remains for burial, and feel to her knees,
the mournful hymns in the chapel could be heard.
Elizabeth decided to sell all that had to build the Martha and Mary Convent of mercy,
dedicated to her fellow man.
To serve the poor…And afflicted. There was no one every turned away.
In the slums of Hitrovka, she walked through alleyways,
Seeking out the children, desolate and cold;
Clothing for the naked, and food for the hungry soul.
She was their "Matushka": little mother.
How can one speak?…Of the innocent arrest of two women of love:
Mother Elizabeth and the nun Barbara.
The Red Beast waved its flag, in a country gone mad.
Human life was worthless to the Red Cheka executioners.
They threw them down a dark mine pit, a blast was heard…From the hand grenades hurled at them, eight victims in all.
A peasant witnessed the callous massacre.
He saw that she was praying and crossing herself;
Even at they beat her, her last words to them repeatedly:
Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they doGrand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the wife of a cousin to Tsar Nicholas II. After the assassination of her husband she founded the Martha-Marty Convent of Mercy in Moscow. St. Elizabeth the New Martyr of Russia was martyred by the Communists with Sister Barbara, along with others on July 18, 1918.Grand Duchess Elizabeth is known in the Orthodox Church as both Royal Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and St. Elizabeth the New Martyr of Russia.Matushka is Russian for "little mother."
