St Alexandra the Passion-Bearer

Princess Alix of Hesse was born in 1872 and lost her mother as a child. She married Tsar Nicholas II in 1894. After long and sincere searching she embraced Orthodoxy with her whole heart and received the name Alexandra. She was a devoted wife and the mother of four daughters and a long-awaited son, Alexei, who suffered from a grave hereditary illness. Her hidden sorrow as the mother of a suffering child drove her to constant prayer. During the First World War she trained as a sister of mercy and, with her elder daughters, nursed wounded soldiers with her own hands. In captivity she remained the heart of the family's prayer, reading Scripture and the Fathers and forgiving their persecutors. She was martyred with her husband and children at Yekaterinburg on the night of 16-17 July 1918. The Church glorifies her as a passion-bearer.

Name days: an Alexandra traditionally celebrates on the day of a saint Alexandra she is baptized for. In Russian usage the classic name day is the Holy Martyr Empress Alexandra of Rome (in the Menaion on 23 April Julian = 6 May, with St George; some calendars give 21 April). The Empress was named for that martyr at her chrismation. Since 2000, many Russian women named Alexandra also keep the passion-bearer Empress's own feast, 4/17 July, as their name day. ROCOR calls her a 'Royal Martyr' (1981); the Moscow Patriarchate calls her a passion-bearer (2000).