Alexandra Feodorovna | |||||
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Alexandra Feodorovna, 1908
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Empress consort of All the Russias | |||||
Tenure | 26 November 1894 – 15 March 1917 | ||||
Coronation | 26 May 1896 | ||||
Born | Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine 6 June 1872 , Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire |
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Died | 17 July 1918 Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR |
(aged 46)||||
Burial | 17 July 1998 Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation |
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Spouse | Nicholas II of Russia (m. 1894) | ||||
Issue | |||||
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House | Hesse-Darmstadt | ||||
Father | Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine | ||||
Mother | Princess Alice of the United Kingdom | ||||
Religion |
Russian Orthodox prev. Lutheranism |
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Signature |
Full name | |
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English: Alice Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice German: Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix Russian: Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova |
Saint Alexandra Romanov | |
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Icon of Saint Alexandra Feodorovna
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Saint, Tsarina and Passion bearer | |
Venerated in | Russian Orthodox Church |
Canonized | 1981 and 2000 by Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Russian Orthodox Church |
Major shrine | Church on Blood, Yekaterinburg, Russia |
Feast | 17 July |
Alexandra Feodorovna (6 June 1872 – 17 July 1918) was Empress of Russia as the spouse of Nicholas II—the last ruler of the Russian Empire—from their marriage on 26 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. Originally Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, she was given the Christian name and patronymic Alexandra Feodorovna upon being received into the Russian Orthodox Church and—having been put to death along with her immediate family while in Bolshevik captivity in 1918—was canonized in 2000 as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer.
A granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Alexandra was, like her grandmother, one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease. Her reputation for influencing her husband's resistance to the surrender of autocratic authority over the country and her known faith in the Russian mystic, Grigori Rasputin, severely damaged her popularity and that of the Romanov monarchy in its final years.
Alexandra was born on 6 June 1872 at the in Darmstadt as Princess Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse and by Rhine, a Grand Duchy that was then part of the German Empire. She was the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and his first wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, the Prince Consort. As an infant, she was noted to be very pretty, and resembled her elder sister Elisabeth, having the same delicate features and long dark lashes.