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I think it happened for a reason, for it surely couldn’t be for nothing! Because precisely on the birthday of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth (November 1), in my files I stumbled upon a draft article I had compiled almost ten years ago. I had totally forgotten about it and didn’t save the photos or contacts—nothing but the text. But such stories don’t have limitation of time and they don’t require exact dates, as they never lose their value!
This is a story about a true example of mercy and charity from a German woman, our contemporary—not with toward her compatriots, but to children from Belarus. I’ll tell you why. Our editorial office where I was working at the time had received the following letter:
“My name is Irina Fyodorovna Averina. I am originally from Pinsk. For more than fifteen years, our public organization called “Our Children” have been working with children whose parents are alcoholics and drug addicts. With God’s help, we were able to achieve very much; the children in our care receive Communion and make efforts to lead a Christian life. But I am writing to you about a completely different matter.
“We know a lady from northern Germany who helps us provide food and clothing to our children here. We met over twenty years ago, and she told us an amazing story about her father who was taken prisoner near Stalingrad in 1943. He was dying from hunger in the prison camp, when one Russian woman came to his aid. The captured German soldier survived and returned home. Years later, he told this story to his daughter Frauke Niessen.
“Many years have passed and when we met with her, Frauke expressed her feelings to me. She was anxious to help us. She was able to achieve a great deal during those twenty years that she helped deaf children and the children under our care.
“I am well advanced in years now and my only wish is that this story would edify our children in the future. An unknown Russian woman sowed the seeds of kindness, the seeds of Christian love. Many decades later, those seeds sprouted up in the German land. But they bore fruit in the lands of Belarus as help to the children from Pinsk.”
When Irina Averina answered my questions, this story suddenly gained a different meaning: a warm memory about our saint, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, came to the fore as a person, also a German by birth, who performed works of love and mercy on the Russian land.
* * *
—Irina Fyodorovna, tell me the story in greater detail.
—A Russian woman with uncommonly long hair came to the barbed wire fence and somehow managed to signal the captives that she had potatoes hidden under her hair behind her back, and they could take them. He ate the potatoes—and survived. However, Frauke didn’t know why it was her father whom she chose to help… I also don’t know how long this went on, but when the soldier returned to his home country, he shared his story with his daughter.
—But how did you get to know Frauke Niessen?
—I have an adopted son. When he traveled to Germany with a group of children, he stayed with the family of a local journalist. Later, Tilla Lorenzen came here and said to me: “Listen, Irina, you have quite an unconventional family! How can I help you?” I was working with deaf children at the time, and we had a girl named Verochka, an orphan. So I said: “I don’t need help, but do help this girl Verochka! She has absolutely no one in this world.” She says: “Okay, let’s try. I will write an article once I return home.
—Why did your guest call your family unconventional?
—We were unconventional for her, but for me it was totally normal, in a Russian way. My family adopted a child, who was my nephew twice removed. We took custody of him when he was thirteen. My cousin died and we took him to live with us.
—And how about Verochka? Did you take her in as well?
—Yes. So, when this journalist published that article, the Niessen family wrote a response. Frauke’s husband is an acoustician who works with hearing aids. She invited us to come to Germany, so Verochka and I went there. That’s how Frauke and I met.
—So, journalism is facilitating good deeds!
—That’s true—it helped. Sadly, my beloved Tilla has died. She was wonderful! And then Frauke and her husband began to help Verochka. She didn’t completely lose her hearing. The girl had been examined thoroughly and had received her hearing aids. But still, it didn’t mean she became like everyone else. Generally speaking, there is no such thing as a totally deaf person—it happens rarely in nature. But in order to fit a child with a hearing aid, there must first be an extensive examination.
Frauke told me: “I am going to tell you about my father… Let’s help other children too!” Six months later, I was back there with another eight deaf children.
Frauke told me: “You know, Irina, my heart as if turns upside down at such a story. I am going to tell you about my father… And how about helping other children?” Six months later, I was there with the eight deaf children…
—Could it be that only the memory of her father’s rescue and gratitude motivated her to help the children, who weren’t German but Belarusian? Is she religious?
—I think she learned about the faith from our children. Not the deaf ones, but our charges at our social organizatioin. The children always prayed before meals, no matter where they were and under any circumstances. Our German guests would simply sit quietly at first. Then, they would stand up, one-by-one. With time, they’d say to each another: “Shhh, be quiet!” And so, over time, this group came to the faith. Maybe not deeply, but still seriously believing.
You know, Frauke and I couldn’t trust one another for a long time. A wealthy Westerner, she looked askance at me, and I also looked askance at her, but for different reasons. I just couldn’t understand what motivated her. And she was unable to explain it: “It is right here, you see, here,” and she’d point to her heart. But her husband would say, “God is telling us to do this.” Frauke thinks that it’s all up to God. She and her husband really put their trust in the Lord…
—Are they Catholics or Lutherans by faith?
—Formerly Protestants. But overall, Frauke is really beautiful, just gorgeous! I never met anyone more beautiful than her in my life.
—Do you mean in appearance?
—She has such harmony, both inwardly and outwardly. She also senses people intuitively and even though she knows practically no Russian, she will always know, either by our gestures or expressions, what we are talking about. This is how it often is with people who are spiritually mature.
—I also remember another German who amazingly struck a balance between inner and outer beauty—
Life Principles of Grand Duchess ElizabethThe letters of Grand Duchess Elizabeth reveal the principles which laid the foundation of her life and relationships with people around her. These letters help us understand the reasons why the high-society beauty became a saint in her lifetime.
“>Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.
—When we had just started helping disadvantaged children, we began our ministry with the book by Liubov Miller entitled, Grand Duchess Elizabeth. I’ve been to Darmstadt and read a lot about the holy martyr. At I saw her reflection in Frauke… I met Frauke’s father, a tall and stately man who wore glasses. He had very nice, restrained manners. Despite that, Frauke would always say: “I come from a peasant family.” She was so unbelievably good inside. Just like Holy Martyr Elizabeth, she could simply walk in the room, quickly place a candle on some napkin, arrange a bouquet or a single flower somewhere—and the room would be transformed. Everything turned into beauty because of her. She truly embodied harmony in every way.
Meanwhile, she would go and hug the children of alcoholic parents, wipe away their runny noses, and give them a kiss. I have never seen so much love as this woman possessed. Every time she got ready to leave, the children would gather around her and give her hugs… She’d say: “I won’t wash my shirt for a long time, because it is covered with their tears. These children have no place to return; where do they go?” People typically shy away from such children because they are unable to understand that it is their parents who are sick. But Frauke somehow was able to understand it. She also managed to persuade her husband, a businessman, to see the world in a different light. As he would say, “she implanted her perception in his being…” At the same time, she often hadn’t the strength to go on, because the Germans didn’t understand her ministry. They assume that Germany has its own problems.
—Why is Frauke like that? The story of her father’s rescue is sufficient to inspire her descendants to do charitable work, but by far not everybody would have the resolve to carry it out.
—All of our responsibilities come from on high. Frauke and I often say that our feelings, the bridge we’ve built between the East and the West, the more than twenty years of our common effort, is already quite a lot. But we have also run into many obstacles. She would respond by saying, “God assigned it to us.” And that’s all. I agree with her. God is not in might, but in truth. This is what makes a person indefatigable and strong.