St. Pachomius Library

Princess Alice of Battenberg

In full, VICTORIA ALICE ELIZABETH JULIA MARIE, PRINCESS ANDREW OF GREECE
XX Century
The mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and sister of Lord Mountbatten. She suffered from deafness, but could lip-read in four languages. She married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903, but did not become Orthodox until 1928, when she and her husband were living as exiles in France after the 1922 revolution. Soon afterwards, she experienced psychological problems, and spent a number of years in mental institutions. In 1938 she moved to Athens, where she devoted her resources to helping the poor. During the German occupation, she hid several Jews from the Gestapo. In 1944, she became an Orthodox nun on the island of Tinos, and in 1949 founded a community called the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, modelled on the one established in Russia by her aunt St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess. After the Coup of the Colonels in 1967, she moved to England, where she died in 1969 at the age of 84.

ABOUT:
- The Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The princess' relics were translated here in 1988. Short article includes a photograph of her sepulchre. --- Russian Jerusalem Mission

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