Royal British, Greek, and Danish Connections To The Convent
As a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Grand Duchess Elizabeth is closely related to the Greek, Danish, and British Royal families.
Elizabeth's older sister was Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven, whose daughter Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. Princess Alice became the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and later founded a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, the "Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary". This was modelled on the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent that her aunt had founded in Russia, but the order eventually failed for want of suitable applicants. Princess Alice was buried near Grand Duchess Elizabeth in the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalen on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
In 2002, HRH Prince Charles commissioned the British composer and convert to the Russian Orthodox Church, John Tavener, to write a choral piece in memory of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The work was entitled "Elizabeth Full of Grace" and celebrates the life, death and glorification of Saint Elizabeth the Grand Duchess. It was premiered at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on 28 February 2003 by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra. Proceeds from the performance went to benefit the charitable work of the Saints Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy.
Read more about this topic: Marfo-Mariinsky Convent
Famous quotes containing the words royal, connections and/or convent:
“Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa, wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“A foreign minister, I will maintain it, can never be a good man of business if he is not an agreeable man of pleasure too. Half his business is done by the help of his pleasures: his views are carried on, and perhaps best, and most unsuspectedly, at balls, suppers, assemblies, and parties of pleasure; by intrigues with women, and connections insensibly formed with men, at those unguarded hours of amusement.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Come, all sad and solemn shows,
That are quick-eyed Pleasure’s foes!
We convent nought else but woes,
We convent nought else but woes.”
—John Fletcher (1579–1625)