Dan Koski, Jerusalem Ecclesiastical Mission, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
From Golgotha to Gethsemane
St. Elizabeth Feodorovna and the Russian Orthodox Church in the Holy Land
Wednesday 25th September, 12.00 c.t.
Institute for Ecumenical Research/Lucian Blaga University
Mitropoliei 30, 550179 Sibiu
In this lecture, the life story of Saint Elizabeth Feodorovna, New Martyr of Holy Russia and sister to Empress Alexandra, will serve as a medium to examine the history of the Russian Orthodox presence in the Holy Land from the origins of the Russian mission in the 19th century to the present date, taking special note to the division and reunification of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 2007.
Born in 1864 to a noble family of Hesse and by Rhine in the German Confederation, her marriage to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov led to her devout conversion to the Orthodox faith, eventually becoming an Abbess of a sisterhood of her own making following the assassination of her husband. Exiled to Siberia and then murdered a day apart from her sister the Empress, Tsar Nicholas II and the heirs to the Romanov dynasty, her remains were taken to the convent of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem in 1920. Nearly a hundred years later, her relics and the convent of Mary Magdalene which she endowed as a young Duchess on Gethsemane have become a symbol of the reunification and resurgence of the Russian Orthodox Church. The story of Saint Elizabeth is the story of Christian grace and pious dignity in the face of upheaval and tragedy; of reconciliation and unity over bitterness and division, and the continual restorative power of Jerusalem to Christian communities in times of struggle.