Alexandra of Oldenburg
Alexandra von Oldenburg , full name Alexandra Friederike Wilhelmine von Oldenburg (born May 21, jul. / 2. June 1838 greg. In Saint Petersburg , † April 13 . Jul / 26. April 1900 . Greg in Kiev ), was a German princess from the Russian branch line from the house of the Gottorf Oldenburgers . By marriage she became Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna Romanovna and after entering the monastery she took the name Sister Anastasia . Like her father, she grew up with her siblings as a descendant of Tsar Peter I in St. Petersburg. The family saw themselves as Russian and were considered part of the imperial family.
Life
Alexandra was the eldest daughter of Duke Peter von Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese Wilhelmine von Nassau-Weilburg (1815–1871), daughter of the future Duke Wilhelm von Nassau (1792–1839) and his first wife Princess Luise von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (1794 -1825). Her paternal grandparents were Prince Georg von Oldenburg and Grand Duchess Katharina Pawlowna , later Queen of Württemberg. Her great grandfather was Tsar Paul I of Russia . Her father served in the Russian army and was a scholar and philanthropist. She enjoyed extensive training. She found a particular interest in medicine and social work.
When she was engaged to the third son of Tsar Nicholas I in 1855 , her parents had arranged a connection to the imperial house of Romanow-Holstein-Gottorp . Before the wedding, Alexandra converted to the Orthodox faith and from then on called herself Alexandra Petrovna. On February 6, 1856, she married Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Romanov (1831-1891) in the Winter Palace . The marriage had two sons:
- Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Romanow (1856–1929)
- ⚭ 1907 Princess Anastasia of Montenegro (1868–1935)
- Peter Nikolajewitsch Romanow (1864–1931)
- ⚭ 1889 Princess Militza of Montenegro (1866–1951)
She was less interested in the court of the tsars than in her religion and preference for medicine. She was a talented painter . She was not particularly attractive, but was sincere and natural, which earned her sympathy in the family, especially with her sisters-in-law, Maria Alexandrovna and Alexandra Iosifovna . At first, her husband took her ideas seriously and, together with her father, financed a hospital in St. Petersburg to test her theories in practice. She often worked there and founded a nursing school. During the Russo-Ottoman War (1877-1878) , when both her husband and brother Alexander participated, she financed a hospital train from private funds .
After the birth of their second child, marital relationships cooled down, and her husband made the ballerina Yekaterina Tschislowa (1846–1889) a mistress . The relationship should have five children. In the Nikolai Palace built for the couple as a wedding present, the couple lived in different wings, so that they hardly saw each other and only appeared together on official occasions. Bitter about the failure of her marriage, Alexandra Petrovna often withdrew to a monastery near Kiev.
In 1880, Alexandra Petrovna left Saint Petersburg and first lived in the Marijinskyj Palace in Kiev. She later retired entirely to the Pokrovskyi Monastery , which she founded in 1889 . However, she refused a divorce her husband had requested. Alexandra's health was not very stable due to a carriage accident and Nikolai now hoped to become a widower soon, so that he could do the same as his father, who had married his mistress after the death of his wife. But Alexandra outlived her husband and Ekaterina by a few years. When her husband died in 1891, she refused to organize and attend his funeral. On November 3, 1889, Alexandra Petrovna became a nun and took the name Sister Anastasia . She founded another hospital with an adjoining nursing school in Kiev. The relationship with her sons and two daughters-in-law was very cordial.
On April 26, 1900, Sister Anastasia died of stomach cancer and was buried in the monastery garden of the monastery in Kiev. In 2009 she was canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate .
Name in different phases of life
- 1838–1856 Duchess Alexandra von Oldenburg
- 1856–1889 Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna Romanowa ( Russian Александра Петровна Романова )
- 1889–1900 sister Anastasia
literature
- Zoia Belyakova: The Romanov Legacy. The Palaces of St. Petersburg. Hazar Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-874371-27-X
- David McIntosh: The Russian Oldenburgs.
- Charlotte Zeepvat: The Camera and the Tsars. Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7
- Ever. W. Ptschelow: Monarchs of Russia (Монархи России), Olma-Press, Moscow 2003, page 516 (Russian)
Web links
- Biography , The House of the Romanovs (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Huno von Oldenburg: The Russian branch line of the House of Oldenburg and other members of the house in Russian service. Published in: Jörg Michael Henneberg u. a. (Ed.): History of the Oldenburger Land. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-402-12942-5 , p. 171 ff.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oldenburg, Alexandra von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Oldenburg, Alexandra Friederike Wilhelmine von (full name); Romanovna, Alexandra Petrovna; Романова, Александра Петровна (Russian); Sister Anastasia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German princess, grand duchess of Russia and nun |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1838 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Petersburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 26, 1900 |
| Place of death | Kiev |