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The Life of St. Elizabeth the New Martyr
Celebrated July 5
 The life of St.
Elizabeth is one focused on the love of neighbor and merciful service to
the poor and outcast of society. For St. Elizabeth, acts of mercy and
the proclamation of the Gospel were inseparable.
St. Elizabeth was born in 1864,
the second of seven children. She was the daughter of Ludwig IV,
Grand-Duke of Hessen-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen
Victoria. In 1884, at the age of nineteen, Elizabeth
married the Grand Duke Sergei, the son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia
in two ceremonies, one Orthodox, the other Lutheran. Although drawn to
eastern Christianity, Elizabeth was hesitant to join the Orthodox Church
for fear of upsetting her immediate family. After two years of study and
prayer, Elizabeth chose by conviction to become an Orthodox Christian.
She was received into the faith on the eve of Holy Week in 1891. Of her
entire family, only her grandmother, Queen Victoria, offered
encouragement and support.
That same year, her husband was appointed
Governor of Moscow. Himself a devout Christian, Sergei actively
supported the Russian Orthodox Mission in Palestine, building schools,
orphanages, and churches and providing aid and support for Arab
Christians. Elizabeth also devoted herself to charitable work, caring,
in particular, for victims of war. They continued this way happily for
14 years. Then, in 1905, while leaving her home for work Elizabeth heard
a loud explosion. Her husband had been murdered in a political
assassination.
The shock of the murder caused a profound
change in Elizabeth. On the day of his funeral, she arranged free meals
for the poor and homeless of Moscow. She frequently visited her
husband’s assassin in prison and even brought him a copy of the Bible.
As expected, the government pressed for a speedy execution. Elizabeth
passionately defended the killer’s life, pleading for mercy from the
authorities. Eventually she lost this struggle and her husband’s
assassin was executed. Soon after, Elizabeth abandoned her royal title
and withdrew from social life, drawing public criticism and the
disapproval of her friends. Using her wealth and personal resources, she
purchased a home and a large piece of land in Moscow, where she
established a community dedicated to Sts. Martha and Mary.
Elizabeth wanted her new community to
reflect the table fellowship and hospitality of the home of Martha and
Mary,
which was visited by Christ in the New Testament, and where our Lord
shared a meal with their brother Lazarus. Women from all
classes joined Elizabeth, devoting their lives to the sick and to the
poor and becoming surrogate mothers for the street children of Moscow.
Like the great deaconess, St. Olympia (who was also a widow) Elizabeth
gave all her wealth to Christian charity. She established a rent-free
hostel for young women workers and students, a free hospital, a clinic,
a school for nurses, a library and a soup kitchen. She had hoped that
her ministry might help revive the ancient vocation of deaconess: women
ordained for merciful service.
As in the case of St. John Chrysostom,
Elizabeth faced powerful opposition both from the government and church
authorities. Responding to public criticism of her new social ministry,
Elizabeth wrote, “This is no new creation or concept; neither do I
depart from the Church traditions. I only repeat what the Church
teaches; for it is Christ who said, ‘Love your neighbor’, and the divine
Theologian who thundered, ‘If you do not love the brother whom you see,
how will you be able to love God whom you do not see?’”
 In 1909, Elizabeth’s community was formally
established as the “Convent of Mercy of St. Martha and St. Mary.” That
day, Elizabeth addressed her companions, “I am leaving the brilliant
world where I occupied a high position, and now, together with all of
you [my sisters], I am about to ascend into a much greater world, the
world of the poor and afflicted.” Elizabeth and the other sisters
visited the sick, did housework for struggling families and took care of
abandoned children, visiting the poorest and most dangerous parts of
Moscow. She took Sergei’s place as president of the Russian Palestine
Society, continuing his ministry to Palestinian Christians and looking
after the needs of Russian pilgrims to the Middle East. Elizabeth also
established a community garden for children on the convent grounds.
Writing of her ministry in a letter to Tsar Nicholas, she said, “I am
espousing Christ and His cause. I am giving all I can to Him and to our
neighbors.” In 1910 Elizabeth was made Abbess of the Convent, which by
then was home to 45 sisters.
When the Revolution came in 1917, Abbess
Elizabeth continued to live as before, boldly preaching the Gospel in
Moscow, attending church services, nursing the sick and caring for the
poor. She turned down the offer of a Swedish Cabinet Minister to leave
Russia, saying that she wished to share the destiny of her country and
its people. At first ignored by the Bolshevik regime, on the third day
of Pascha in 1918, the Abbess Elizabeth was ordered to leave Moscow.
That same day, Elizabeth had shared her last visit with St. Tikhon.
Almost immediately after he left the convent, a car with commissars and
Red Army soldiers came to arrest her. Escorted by the guards, she was
taken to the town of Alapayevsk where she was imprisoned together with
two nuns, Catherine and Barbara. From her cell she wrote letters of
encouragement to the sisters in Moscow:
“Remember everything I told you, my dears.
Always be not only my children, but obedient disciples. Keep together
and be like one soul - everything for God - and say like St. John
Chrysostom [as he was sent into exile]: “Glory to God for all things!” I
live in the hope of being with you again soon and I want to find you all
together. Apart from the Gospels, read the letters of the Apostle,
together.
“The Lord has found that it is time for us
to bear His cross...blessed be the name of the Lord.”
 Elizabeth and her companions were imprisoned
in Alapayevsk on May 20, 1918, until the fateful night of July 18. It
was the feast-day of St. Sergius of Radonezh, her husband's namesday.
That night, Elizabeth and Barbara were murdered, along with five members
of the Imperial Family and their secretary. The sisters were
blindfolded, beaten and thrown alive into a mine-shaft along with the
others. Elizabeth was the first to be thrown in. As the soldiers mocked
Elizabeth and beat her, she repeated the prayer of Christ, “Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do.” This was also the inscription
engraved on the cross she planted at the site of her husband’s murder.
After pushing their victims in, the soldiers tossed hand grenades down
the mine. Like the early Christian martyrs, Elizabeth, mortally
wounded, was heard praying and singing hymns to God until the following
day.
In September, the White Army liberated
Alapayevsk and discovered the mine. The soldiers found the body of
Elizabeth, not at the bottom of the 200-foot deep mine-shaft, but on a
ledge about fifty feet down. Elizabeth was lying next to the Grand Duke
John. It was later discovered that she had attempted to dress his wounds
before her own death. On her chest she held the icon of Christ which
had been given to her by Sergei on the day of her chrismation.
 Before becoming Orthodox, the Grand Duchess
had expressed her desire to be buried in Palestine, at the Convent of
St. Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane. She had been with Sergei at the
consecration of that very church in 1888. Through the patient efforts of
her elder sister, Victoria, Marquess of Milford Haven, Elizabeth’s body
was moved to the Middle East for burial. In January of 1921, her relics
were solemnly received in Jerusalem by Patriarch Damian, Russian, Greek,
and Arab clergy, members of the British authorities and innumerable
Orthodox faithful. To this day, her relics are kept in that church,
where they are venerated by faithful Christians from throughout the
world.
Troparion (Tone 4)
Emulating the Lord's
self-abasement on earth,
overflowing with compassion for the suffering,
you gave up royal mansions to serve the poor and disdained.
In meekness, you took
up a martyr's cross,
perfecting the Savior’s image within you.
O wise Elizabeth,
together with your brave companion, Barbara,
entreat Christ our God to save us! |
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