#grandduchesses

[theholymartyrs]

Olga & Tatiana

[victoria-mendonca]

On 14 May, the day of the Coronation, in all the churches in St. Petersburg, the liturgy was read and prayers of thanksgiving recited. The metropolitan cathedrals could not accommodate all the worshippers, in view of which prayers were also recited in the squares near a number of cathedrals and some churches, as well as in the Horse Guards.

The coronation ceremony began at 10 am[clarification needed], with the emperor, his mother, and his wife seated on thrones on a special raised platform installed in the middle of the cathedral. The emperor sat on the throne of King Mikhail Feodorovich, Empress Maria Feodorovna on the throne of King Alexy Mikhailovich Tishayshy, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on the throne of Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia.

The ceremony was presided over by Metropolitan Palladium, of St. Petersburg, the preeminent member of the most Holy Synod (the Synod at the time of the coronation having been transferred to Moscow). During the liturgy, the metropolitan con-celebrated with the metropolitans of Kiev, Ioanikiy (Rudnev), and of Moscow, Sergius (Lyapidevsky). At the end of the liturgy the emperor and empress were anointed and then took communion of the Holy Mysteries at the altar. In the ministry of the liturgy, among others, John of Kronstadt also took part.

[russianprincesses]

Empress Alexandra with her eldest daughters and soldiers in the yard of the lazaret, 1915. Colored by me

[thinkingimages]

Maria, Tatiana, Olga and Anastasia at the Alexander palace, 1916 

[victoria-mendonca]

Elizabeth Feodorovna

A granddaughter of Queen Victoria and an older sister of Alexandra_ the last Russian Empress_, Elizabeth became famous in Russian society for her beauty and charitable works among the poor. After the Socialist Revolutionary Party´s Combat Organization assassinated her husband with a bomb in 1905, Elizabeth publicly forgave Sergei's murderer and campaigned without success for him to be pardoned. She then departed the Imperial Court and became a nun, founding the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent dedicated to helping the downtrodden of Moscow. In 1918 she was arrested and ultimately executed by the Bolsheviks, even though she neves had nothing to do with politics.  In 1981 Elizabeth was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate.

[russianprincesses]

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia aboard the Polar Star, 1907

This is my first coloring and I’m very proud of it! I intend to do more pictures in the future

[victoria-mendonca]

Grand Duchess Maria wearing a Kimono.