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Tragically, Elizabeth's husband was assassinated [[February 18]], 1905, while on duty in the Kremlin, by socialist-revolutionary Ivan Kalyayev. Afterwards, Grand Duchess Elizabeth became a [[nun]], giving away her jewelry and selling her most luxurious possessions. With the proceeds she opened the Martha and Mary Home in Moscow to foster the [[prayer]] and charity of devout women. For many years she helped the poor and orphans in this [[Moscow]]home. Here there arose a new vision of a [[diaconate]] for women, one that combined intercession and action in the heart of a disordered world. In April 1909 Elizabeth and seventeen women were dedicated as Sisters of Love and Mercy. Their work flourished: soon they opened a hospital and a variety of other [[philanthropy|philanthropic]] ventures arose.
In 1918, the Communist government exiled her to [[Yekaterinburg]] and then to [[http://life.orthomed.ru/st-elizabeth/palom_e.htm Alapaevsk]], where she was violently killed by the local Bolsheviks on [[July 18]], 1918, along with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; the Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich, and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and [[Nun Barbabara|Varvara Yakovleva]], a sister from the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's convent. They were herded into the forest, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft, into which grenades were then hurled. An observer heard them singing Church [[hymn]]s as they were pushed into the mineshaft. After the Bolsheviks left, he could still hear singing for some time. The last thing Elizabeth did as she lay dying in the mineshaft was to bandage the wounds of Prince Ioann with her handkerchief. Later the White Army briefly recaptured this area, and her [[relics]] were recovered and the account of the person who witnessed it recorded. Her relics were first taken by the White Army to Beijing and placed in the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, and then they were taken to [[Jerusalem]] and placed in [http://www.jerusalem-mission.org/convent_magdalene.html the Church of St. Mary Magdalene], which she and her husband had helped to build.
She was [[Glorification|glorified]] by the [[ROCOR|the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia]] in 1981, and by the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] as a whole in 1992 as ''New-Martyr Elizabeth''. Her principal [[shrine]] in Russia is the [[Ss. Mary and Martha Convent]] she founded in [[Moscow]]. She is one of the 10 20th-century martyrs from across the world who are [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Westminster_Abbey_C20th_martyrs.jpg depicted in statues above the Great West Door] of [http://www.westminster-abbey.org/tour/martyrs/4_elizabeth_of_russia.htm Westminster Abbey] in [[London]].