She is the granddaughter of Queen Victoria (Queen of England) and the daughter of the governor of Hesse in Germany. She was born in Germany on the first of November 1864 AD. She married Grand Duke Serge Romanov, governor of Moscow, brother of the then Tsar of Russia and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II. She was, originally, a Lutheran. Then she converted with conviction to Orthodoxy, despite the opposition of her people. It took place on April 13, 1891. She began her life in Tsarist Russia as a society lady. She played a special role in her circles because her personality was characterized by simplicity, intelligence, and humor. She had great love in her dealings with people. In this way she shined as the First Lady of Moscow.
Her husband was assassinated on February 18, 1905, by a bomb thrown by a rebel named Ivan Kaliaev. Despite her great sadness, she visited the killer in prison two days after the crime and encouraged him to repent. Then she submitted a request for mercy to the Tsar and continued to pray for him throughout her life.
After that, she devoted her life to serving people. She collected all her jewelry and sorted them into three groups: the first was gifts from the imperial family, which she returned to the state treasury. The second she wanted to present to her relatives, and the third wanted to use it to achieve a project that had been on her mind for a long time: building a monastery in the name of Saints Mary and Martha.
She founded a Monastery of Mercy and became a nun. I treated patients. And those who mourn. She cared for orphans. She sheltered the homeless. She radiated holiness and enlightened those around her. She was a dispenser of peace and joy. She was arrested after the outbreak of the Communist Revolution, and was crowned with martyrdom on July 5, 1918, with her companion, the nun Barbara, and with some members of the royal family.
Her remains were transferred to Jerusalem and placed in the Monastery of Mary Magdalene. The Russian Church outside Russia (reunited with the Church of Russia) declared her a saint in 1981, and the Russian Church declared her a saint in 1991.
Among her sayings: “It is easier for a weak straw to resist a raging fire than for the nature of evil to resist the power of love. We must develop this love in our souls so that we can take our place with all the saints, because they were the joy of God through their love for their brothers.”
It is worth noting that the monastic order of the Monastery of Saint George - Monastery of Al-Harf had translated her biography into a book called “Grand Duchess Elizabeth, a New Martyr from Russia.”
The church celebrates it on July 5
