Alexandra Petrovna

Alexandra Frideric Wilhelmina Princess of Oldenburg was born on May 2 ( 14 ), 1838 ^[2] in St. Petersburg in the family of Peter Georg of Oldenburg and Theresa-Wilhelmina of Nassau . Her father, the son of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna , was in Russian service and had Russian citizenship, since 1845 - the title of Imperial Highness granted by Nicholas I. Princess Alexandra had a common matrilineal ancestor with her future mother-in-law - Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, wife of Emperor Nicholas I, as well as with Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna - wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich .

In baptism according to the Protestant rite, she received the name of Alexander Frederick Wilhelmina. On January 25, 1856, she converted to Orthodoxy with the name of Alexander and entered into marriage with Nikolai Nikolayevich the Elder, who was her cousin uncle. In this marriage two sons were born:

• Nicholas ( 1856 - 1929 )
• Peter ( 1864 - 1931 ).

Like her father, Alexandra was engaged in charity work: shortly after her marriage, she founded the Pokrovskaya Community of Sisters of Charity, a hospital, an outpatient clinic, an orphanage department, and a nurse's school (later a girls' gymnasium ) in St. Petersburg. The Grand Duchess also played an active role as a representative of the Council of Children's Shelters of the Department of Institutions of the Empress Maria Fedorovna , which was managed by her father, Prince of Oldenburg. Thanks to the care of the Grand Duchess, capital was drawn up, from which 23 shelters for 5 thousand orphans were kept. During the Russo-Turkish war, at her own expense, she organized a sanitary detachment.

The family life of the Grand Duchess did not work out: the marriage was concluded without love, although at first the husband treated the princess with due courtesy. But, as Count Sergey Dmitrievich Sheremetev wrote, “He was worthy of a better fate, he was worthy of more attention to him, more care, more warmth, but Alexandra Petrovna could not give him all this. With him she was harsh and mocking. It pushed him sharply, coldly inadmissibly. She thirsted for activity, sought popularity, pretended to be a Russian princess, not understanding the spirit of Orthodoxy, loved the bustle of charity, as a sport, not an attraction of the heart. Proud, dry, domineering, but also unusually witty and sarcastic, she willingly pretended to be humble and simple. By her ambition, she needed a husband of great intelligence and willpower ^[3] . ”

The spouse, a passionate lover of ballet, had a lover - ballerina Ekaterina Gavrilovna Chislova , with whom he cohabited openly and who gave birth to five children from him. After 10 years of marriage, Nikolai Nikolayevich expelled his wife, publicly accusing her of infidelity with his confessor - rector of the house church of the Nikolaev Palace, Archpriest Vasily Lebedev. Alexandra Petrovna was forced to leave the capital.

In 1879, the Grand Duchess, who suffered from breast cancer, went abroad for treatment and a year later settled in Kiev.

In March and May 1885, she wrote to Chief Prosecutor K. P. Pobedonostsev ^[4] , asking him to ask Emperor Alexander III for awards for his confessor, Metropolitan Archpriest V. I. Lebedev - Order of St. Anna of the 1st degree or rent ^{[ 5]} - to her birthday. At the report of Pobedonostsev to the emperor that followed in connection with the request, the latter wrote: “There are so many more worthy of help, and even so they have to refuse, and I don’t find this gentleman at all suitable for rent; - and without that he does not forget himself and dragged decent money from himself to. book .; I know, because I have to pay. ” ^[6] Alexandra Petrovna herself attributed the refusal of the reward to the account of“ slanderers informing the tsar of untruth ” ^[7] .

In a letter to Alexander III dated November 30, 1889, Pobedonostsev, among the measures to reduce the expenses of the Grand Duchess, proposed, in view of the fact that she moved to the monastery and she no longer needed the abbot of the house church (according to him, Lebedev received from the Grand Duchess to 1 thousand rubles a month, and in addition, continued to be enrolled at the church Nicholas Palace in St. Petersburg), "completely withdraw from the Kiev this truly worthless priest", ordering Protopresbyter Yanysheva , which he was in the formal jurisdiction, cause him to St. Petersburg, and then volit for staff; Alexander put the resolution on the report: “I will talk about this with Yanyshev. I believe that this is not difficult to arrange. ” ^[8] . At the beginning of 1890, Pobedonostsev forwarded to Alexander III an extract from a letter from the Governor-General of Kiev, Count A.P. Ignatiev (dated January 4, 1890) about the work of the commission for paying off the debts of the Grand Duchess, in which he, among other things, wrote: “Regarding Archpriest Lebedev I have to say that sometimes my mind stops when I want to explain myself to him. Princesses. Apparently, she was tired of her, and she would not mind to break free; but on the other hand, she gives him all sorts of respect <...> She gave him two receipts that she took from him at the same time 40 thousand rubles. The commission will contribute this debt to the liquidation plan conditionally and lastly for payment, and then submit it to P-burg for final permission. In any case, Lebedev’s stay here is completely useless for us, and I would consider it as soon as possible to leave from here in all respects <...> I repeat that, in the aggregate of everything I heard and saw, I came to the conclusion that Fr. Lebedev will only be harmful in the future ”; On the report of Pobedonostsev, the emperor left a note: “In any case, we will remove Lebedev from Kiev” ^[9] .

Foundation of the Pokrovsky Monastery

After the death of her husband (April 13, 1891; the marriage was not formally dissolved) she secretly accepted monastic tonsure with the name Anastasia in the Pokrovskaya community founded by her in Kiev in 1889 (subsequently converted to a convent). On the report of Pobedonostsev to the emperor on November 18, 1889, with a copy of a letter from Alexandra Petrovna ^[10] , in which she says that she’s “looking for a private loan”, assuring that “she feels the strength and the ability to turn around and set up a business,” Alexander III wrote: “According to all the information I have collected, I conducted business. the princess is in a sad state, thanks to her undertakings and constructions, and most importantly, it is not known who operates her and who runs all her financial affairs. <...> He led the debts. the princesses stretch from 300-400 thousand, and all this starts to bother me greatly ” ^[11] .

At the Pokrovsky monastery a modern hospital was opened for the poor with the only x-ray room in Kiev, a free pharmacy, a school and a shelter for orphaned girls, shelters for terminally ill women and for the blind were established. Despite the strict Studio charter operating in the monastery, the number of people who wanted to enter there in the first year was 400 people, while the monastery could accept only 150 nuns.

Anastasia lived in a simple cell, gave all the money for the maintenance of the institutions she founded. She performed the duties of an assistant surgeon in operations, supervised the hospital routine, nutrition and spiritual life of patients, and was on duty at the operated beds.

In 1897 , when the typhoid epidemic threatened the city, it organized several specialized hospitals. The “Princess” monastery, as the Pokrovsky monastery was called, had missionary and educational significance: book and icon shops worked here, leaflets of religious and moral content were issued in large numbers; placed in the monastery of the sectarian-stundist thanks to gentle treatment and conversations with the Grand Duchess, they returned to Orthodoxy .

She died on April 13, 1900, having survived her husband for 8 years. On April 15, her burial was headed by Metropolitan of Kiev Ioannikiy (Rudnev) ; buried east of the altar of the Intercession Church of the monastery ^[12] . About her death, the Highest manifesto was given, recognizing the merits of the deceased in the field of charity and calling her “Our Most Beloved Cousin Our Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna, nuns Anastasia” ^[13] . On the day of her burial, April 15, Emperor Nicholas II and the Empress were present at the memorial service in the Moscow Kremlin Palace Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Seny ^[14] .

Canonized by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of November 24, 2009 as a locally revered saint of the Kiev diocese ^[1] under the name of the Monk Anastasia of Kiev; memory: October 20 according to the Julian calendar and Thursday of the Bright Week . ^[15] The celebration of worship took place on January 24, 2010. ^[16] Her relics were acquired on November 2, 2009 and are now openly resting in the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the monastery.