An Unbroken Unity: A Memoir of Grand-Duchess Serge of Russia 1864-1918 by EM Almedingen, 137 pages
Elisabeth was born into the royal house of Hesse, and married Grand-Duke Sergei of Russia, an uncle of the future Tsar Nicholas II. She was related in one way or another to all the royals of Europe - Queen Victoria was her grandmother - but the ties to the Romanovs were stronger than others - her aunt was the wife of Tsar Alexander II, while her sister was the Alexandra who married Nicholas II. After several years of marriage, Elisabeth joined the Russian Orthodox Church, a move which inevitably influenced her sister, whose reluctance to convert from Lutheranism was an impediment to her proposed marriage to the Tsar.
Elisabeth's conversion was not primarily dictated by political or family pressures - she fully embraced her new faith, without losing her own Western perspective. After her husband was murdered by socialist terrorists in 1905, she founded an order of nuns following a rule she devised herself, modifying the Basilian rule standard in Russian convents. The order was devoted to the service of the poor, primarily by operating a hospital, an orphanage, and outreach in the slums of Moscow. After the Bolsheviks seized power, she chose to remain in her convent, and was ultimately arrested and brutally murdered by being savagely beaten and thrown down a mine shaft.
Almedingen has constructed a solid hagiography, writing about a time and place that she knew well. As a hagiography, it has certain limitations, and more cynical readers will find plenty to roll their eyes at. Yet the most compelling elements are also the most undeniable.
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