Changes

[[Image:elisabethhesse.gif|thumb|Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, 1894]]

Elizabeth was the second child and daughter of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria. She was also the elder sister of [[Alexandra Fyodorovna]], the last empress of Russia. Elizabeth was affectionately called '''Ella''' by her family.

== Life in Russia ==

She and her husband, Grand Duke Sergei, adopted and raised the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch and his sister Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna after their mother died during Dmitri's birth.

:''The grand duchess, of her own volition decided to unite herself to the Orthodox Church. When she made the announcement to her spouse, according to the account of one of the servants, tears involuntarily poured from his eyes. The Emperor Alexander III himself was deeply touched by her decision. Her husband blessed her after Holy [[Chrismation]] with a precious [[icon]] of the Savior, "Not Made by Hands" (a copy of the miraculous icon in the Chapel of the Savior), which she treasured greatly throughout the remaining course of her life. Having been joined to the Faith in this manner, and thereby to all that makes up the soul of a Russian, the grand duchess could now with every right say to her spouse in the words of the Moabite Ruth, "Your people have become my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16).''<ref>Metropolitan Anastassy, ''Life of the Holy New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth'', ''Orthodox Life'', vol. 31, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct., 1981), pp. 3-14. <http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/duchess.aspx></ref>

[[Image:Elisabeth Fyodorovna.jpg|thumb|Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna as a nun after her husband's death]]

Holy Royal Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth'', March 27, 2007 <http://www.serfes.org/lives/grandduchess/life.htm></ref>

Afterwards, Grand Duchess Elizabeth became a [[nun]], giving away her jewelry and selling her most luxurious possessions. With the proceeds she opened the Martha and Mary Home in Moscow to foster the [[prayer]] and charity of devout women. For many years she helped the poor and orphans in this Moscow home. 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 [[philanthropy|philanthropic]] ventures arose.

== Martyrdom ==

In 1918, the Communist government exiled her to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg] and then to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alapaevsk Alapaevsk], where she was violently killed by the local Bolsheviks on [[July 18]], 1918, along with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; the Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and [[Nun Barbabara|Nun Barbara Yakovleva]], a sister from the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's convent. They were herded into the forest, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft, into which grenades were then hurled. An observer heard them singing Church [[hymn]]s as they were pushed into the mineshaft. After the Bolsheviks left, he could still hear singing for some time. The last thing Elizabeth did as she lay dying in the mineshaft was to bandage the wounds of Prince Ioann with her handkerchief. Later the White Army briefly recaptured this area, and her [[relics]] were recovered and the account of the person who witnessed it recorded. Her relics were first taken by the White Army to Beijing and placed in the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, and then they were taken to [[Jerusalem]] and placed in [http://www.jerusalem-mission.org/convent_magdalene.html the Church of St. Mary Magdalene], which she and her husband had helped to build.

== Glorification ==

She was [[Glorification|glorified]] by the [[ROCOR|the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia]] in 1981, and by the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] as a whole in 1992 as ''New-Martyr Elizabeth''. Her principal shrine in Russia is the [[Ss. Mary and Martha Convent]] she founded in Moscow. Most of her relics remain in [[Gethsemene]], but in in 2004, a reliquary containing portions of her relics, as well as those of the Nun-Martyr Barbara, were taken to Russia, and visited 61 dioceses of the Russia and the Common Wealth of Independent States, and were venerated by over 10 million people.<ref> From Sedmitza.ru, as posted on

the Official Web site of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, ''The Relics of Holy New Martyrs Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna and Nun Varvara are Greeted at Christ the Savior Church'', February 22, 2005 <http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/01newstucture/pagesen/news05/elizfed.html></ref> A portion of these relics were given to the Ss. Mary and Martha Convent, and remain there.<ref> From Interfax/Sedmitza.ru, as posted on