Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna: Path to Holiness
Opens Friday: In a four-day "pop-up" exhibit, the Museum of Russian Art is presenting an intimate show of about 50 photos of Elizabeth Feodorovna and her family. A granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria, Elizabeth (1854-1918) was a German princess who married a Russian prince and was widowed when her husband was assassinated in 1905 by a revolutionary terrorist. Retreating into piety, she sold her jewels and built a convent, hospital and orphanage in Moscow, where she worked with the poor. Her charitable endeavors earned no sympathy from the Bolsheviks when they took power in 1917. A day after her brother-in-law, Czar Nicholas II, and his family were murdered in 1918, Elizabeth and her family were thrown into a mine shaft that was then blown up and burned. Her remains were eventually retrieved and carried to Jerusalem, where they are enshrined in a Russian Orthodox Church. Remarkably, photos of Elizabeth as a beautiful bride, young mother and mourning widow survive, along with images of those she loved and cared for. (Aug. 28-31 at 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri. & Mon., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Av. S., Mpls. $5-$9. 612-821-9045 or tmora.org)
Mary Abbe
