St. Elizabeth the New Martyr - Humility & Service

St. Elizabeth the New Martyr—once Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, of Russia—died in 1918 at the hands of the Soviet Government. Throughout her life, despite her royal blood and wealthy upbringing, she demonstrated a dedication to humility and service.

 

Elizabeth was raised in part by her grandmother, Queen Victoria of Britain, after the age of 14, once she had been orphaned. In time, she married the Grand Duke Sergei of Russia in June of 1884. After a number of years, as she fell in love with the Church and the people of Russia, Elizabeth converted to Orthodoxy of her own volition in 1891.

When her Lutheran family initially expressed grief at her decision to convert, Elizabeth wrote to them, "I am sure God's blessing will accompany my act which I do with such fervent belief, with the feeling that I may become a better Christian and be one step nearer to God."

She later encouraged her younger sister, Alexandra Fyodorovna, to convert to Orthodoxy and marry the Grand Duke Nicholas, heir to the Russian throne, which she did in 1894. Alexandra and Nicholas later died in 1918 as the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia.

How to Balance Fun & Games With the Rest of OCF Life

In my last post on the OCF blog, I wrote about how to bring more students to an OCF meeting. I touched on the importance of consistency and diversity in chapter meetings, but that's not all it takes to run a successful OCF chapter!

Once you get your OCF members in a room together for a meeting... what do you do next?

This question has plagued many the OCF group, who have experimented with everything from pizza parties & game nights to book studies & guest lectures. To some students, it seems like their chapter has the same meeting every week. For others, their chapter seems scattered and disorganized because no meeting has the same focus!