The Russian Orthodox Church recently “canonized” Tsar Nicholas II and his family, who were killed in the Revolution. Do not scoff until you read their story. Czar Nicholas, the Empress, and particularly the eldest daughter, Olga, were outstanding in their devotion to Christ, blessing their captors, and holding fast to their faith all during their captivity.
“Aunt Ella” – the Tsar’s aunt – became a nun after the assassination of her husband, and with several other sisters was thrown into a well and left to die there. It is said that they sang hymns to their last breath.
Perhaps not a canonized “saint” but a woman of great devotion and valor in the Greek Orthodox Church is the mother of England’s Prince Philip. Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, also became an Orthodox nun (she attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in her habit). After having been exiled from Greece, she worked for war relief in France, then returned to Athens, where she sheltered a Jewish family from the Nazis in her private apartment. She has been honored by the state of Israel as a “righteous gentile” and is buried near “dear Aunt Ella” (who died in the well) in the Garden of Gethsemane monastery in Jerusalem.
