Sts Elizabeth & Barbara
+ + +
Saint Elizabeth was born of the Royal House of Hesse in Germany. A convert to the Orthodox Faith, she became Grand Duchess of Russia when she married the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. After the latter’s death she dedicated her life to God and established the Sts. Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow, of which she was Abbess.
On the third day of Holy Pascha in the year of our Lord, 1918, Saint Elizabeth was arrested by the Bolsheviks with two of her nuns. After they had been captive for some time the guards informed her two nuns that they could return to their Convent. Both of the nuns pleaded with the guards to let them stay with their Abbess but they insisted that they return to their Convent and tried to scare them by portraying in words what atrocities they would have to suffer. One complied but Saint Barbara, out of complete loyalty and devotion refused to leave her Eldress and remained by her side.
On the night of the fifth of July, 1918, Saint Elizabeth, together with her ever-faithful companion, Barbara, and the other royal martyrs, Grand Duke Sergei Michailovich, Princes John, Igor, Constantine, and Vladimir, and Theodore Remez, was taken from the prison in Alapaevsk. All, except for the Grand Duke who was first shot in the head, were thrown alive into a nearby mine-shaft of whom Saint Elizabeth was the first. As she was falling a peasant who witnessed the scene heard her utter the words, "Forgive them, they know not what they do!" She and Saint John landed on a ledge halfway down the shaft. Grenades were thrown after them but only succeeded in killing Saint Theodore. For several days Saint Elizabeth, ignoring her own wounds, bound the wounds of the passion-bearer John and sang funeral hymns until she also passed from this corrupt life into the incorrupt and heavenly life of Christ’s Kingdom.
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!
Sts Elizabeth the abbess, Barbara the nun and five other members of the
Russian imperial family along with a secretary were taken to a mine in Alapayevsk and were martyred by the Bolsheviks on July 5/18, 1918. Their bodies, with only the body of St Elizabeth remaining incorrupt, were later found by the Russian White Army. Their coffins were taken through Siberia, and then through Hailar at end of February, 1920, into Harbin at beginning of March, and finally into Beijing, China. They were laid to rest in the crypt of the St Seraphim Cemetery Church outside the northeastern city wall of Beijing on April 3/16, 1920. The coffins with the holy relics of Sts Elizabeth and Barbara were later exhumed and sent from Beijing to Tianjin on November 17/30, 1920, departed on November 18 by steamship and arrived in Shanghai on November 21. The coffins departed Shanghai on December 2/15 by sea and arrived in Jerusalem on January 15/28, 1921, and found their final resting place in the crypt at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives on Sunday January 17/30.
Comments