Saturday, January 30, 2021

January 30, 1921. Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodoronova of Russia laid to rest.

Funeral ceremony over the remains of Princess Elizabeth, sister of the Czarina and her maid, in the Russian Church of the Magdalene on the Mt. of Olives. Jan. 30th, 1921

Elizabeth of Hesse and By Rhine, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Elizabeth Feodoronova of Russia, was interred on this day at the Russian Church of the Magdalene on the Mount Of Olives.



She had been murdered on July 18, 1918 by the Communists.

She married into the Russian royal family prior to her younger sister, Alix, who became the Czarina.  Indeed, she met the future Czar Nicholas at the wedding of Elizabeth and Sergei, a Russian Grand Duke.  Sergei and Elizabeth were both deeply religious and while Elizabeth had been born Lutheran, she converted, as would Alix, to Russian Orthodoxy.  Sergei was assassinated by a Russian socialist radical in 1905 and Elizabeth did not remarry.   Reflecting her sincere religious nature, she thereafter sold all of her possessions, including her wedding ring, and became a Russian Orthodox nun.


She arrested with members of her family upon the orders of Lenin.  The Cheka murdered her and others by beating them, throwing them in a shaft, and tossing in hand grenades. When even that failed to kill them, evidenced by strains of a Russian Orthodox hymn being sung from below, the shaft was torched.

She was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Mother of seven? What? Ella never had any children.

Pat, Marcus & Alexis said...

You are correct!

Thanks for the correction. I've edited the entry.