Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna, Queen Victoria’s grand-daughter, in 1906, a year after her husband Sergei was murdered in a terrorist attack. Elizabeth was by this time a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, “without any influence being brought to bear upon her,” she told Bishop Bury “and entirely from conviction that it was best for her own religious life in her adopted country.” Now widowed, she became a nun and dedicated herself to the care of Moscow’s poor until she herself was assassinated by the Bolsheviks, atheistic Communists, on July 5th, 1918. See St Elizabeth the New Martyr and on the Bolsheviks, The Machinery of State.
I WAS told lately of a touching incident which occurred at a great service in Russia (the translation of the remains of a great saint) at which the Grand Duchess Serge was present, and, when she arrived, had gone quietly up to a gallery pew, arranged for her and other great ladies. Soon afterwards an old peasant woman, to whom she had once shown a kindness, arrived, and at once began to inquire:—
“Has Elizabeth come yet?” — the Grand Duchess’s Christian name — “I want Elizabeth. She told me when next I came where she was to be sure and ask for her. Where’s Elizabeth?”
The Grand Duchess in her exalted gallery caught something of what was going on, and, hearing her own name, at once came down.
“Here I am, little mother!” And then with “Dear Elizabeth!” the old woman threw her arms about her neck and began her story.
Such a thing is only possible in Russia.
Précis
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna was in church when an old lady insisted on seeing her. Leaving the VIP’s gallery, Elizabeth sought out the plaintive peasant, who proved to be someone Elizabeth had once helped. The duchess called her ‘little mother’, the old lady embraced her and called her ‘dear Elizabeth’ and, social distinctions easily forgotten, told her all her news. (60 / 60 words)
