Saint Elizabeth was born on October 20, 1864, into a Protestant family of the Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse-Darmstadt and Princess Alice, daughter of the English Queen Victoria. In 1884, she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of the Emperor of Russia, Alexander III.
After the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Elizabeth Feodorovna helped the front in many ways, aiding Russian soldiers, working to the point of complete exhaustion. On February 5, 1905, a terrible event occurred: Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a bomb explosion from a revolutionary. Elizabeth Feodorovna, without harboring hatred for the murderer, dedicated her life to serving the Lord and established a convent of labor, mercy, and prayer in Moscow.
In the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, she led an ascetic life, sleeping on a wooden bed, often no more than three hours, and strictly observing fasts. With the onset of World War I, she organized assistance to the front, forming sanitary trains and sending field churches to the front.
The Grand Duchess was arrested on the third day of Holy Pascha in 1918. On July 5 (18), 1918, in Alapayevsk, she and other martyrs were killed. Elizabeth Feodorovna crossed herself and prayed: 'Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do!'
The memory of Saint Elizabeth is celebrated on July 5 (18) and on the day of the Assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
