September 28, 2015
The relics of St. Elizabeth in Jerusalem
Senior investigator Vladimir Solovyov explained to Interfax that it is a complicated matter involving international relations and delivery, and that negotiations are ongoing with the Russian Orthodox Church as a final decision has yet to be made.
Growing up in Germany, the future Grand Duchess of Russia was raised a Lutheran, but was received into holy Orthodoxy following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After the assassination of her husband she founded the Sts. Mary and Martha Convent in 1909 and the sisterhood became known for its active ministry to the sick and suffering, especially during the First World War. St. Elizabeth was known as the “White Angel of Russia.”
Like Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his family she was arrested by revolutionaries in 1918 and was eventually martyred in an old mine in the Ekaterinburg region. She was canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate as a new martyr.
