"I am leaving a glittering world where I had a glittering
position, but with all of you I am descending into a greater
world - the world of the poor and the suffering."
ELIZABETH of Hesse-Darmstadt was born on 1 November 1864. She
was named after Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-31), a Catholic saint
of her own family. Her mother died when she was a child, and she
came to England to live under the protection of her grandmother,
Queen Victoria. If her childhood was Lutheran, the religious
culture of her adolescence was distinctively Anglican. In 1884
Elizabeth married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son
of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Elizabeth found Orthodoxy
increasingly absorbing, and in 1891 she adopted the faith.
Although her life had assurance and all the comforts of
eminence, it rested on fragile foundations. The Tsarist state
maintained its grip over a changing society by repression. Talk
of revolution persisted, and grew louder. Acts of terrorism
mounted. On 18 February 1905, the Grand Duke Sergei was
assassinated.
This marked a turning point in Elizabeth's life. Now she gave
away her jewellery and sold her most luxurious possessions, and
with the proceeds she opened the Martha and Mary home in Moscow,
to foster the prayer and charity of devout women. Here there
arose a new vision of a diaconate for women, one that combined
intercession and action in the heart of a disordered world. In
April 1909 Elizabeth and seventeen women were dedicated as
Sisters of Love and Mercy. Their work flourished: soon they
opened a hospital and a variety of other philanthropic ventures
arose.
In March 1917 the Tsarist state, fatally damaged by the war
with Germany, collapsed. In October, a revolutionary party, the
Bolsheviks, seized power. Civil war followed. The Bolshevik party
was avowedly atheistic, and it saw in the Orthodox Church a
pillar of the old regime. In power, it persecuted the Church with
terrible force. In time, hundreds of priests and nuns were
imprisoned, taken away to distant labour camps, and killed.
Churches were closed or destroyed. On 7 May 1918 Elizabeth was
arrested with two sisters from her convent, and transported
across country to Perm, then to Ekatarinburg, and finally to
Alapaevsk. On 17 July the Tsar and his family were shot dead.
During the following night Elizabeth, a sister from SS Mary and
Martha named Varvara, and members of the royal family were
murdered in a mineshaft.
In the Soviet Union Christianity survived in the face of
periodic persecution and sustained oppression. But Elizabeth was
remembered. In 1984 she was recognized as a saint by the Russian
Orthodox Church Abroad, and then by the Moscow Patriarchate in
1992.