 Convent of St. Elizabeth: Etna, CaliforniaThe Convent of St. Elizabeth is a dependency of the Holy Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina in Athens, Greece. Services are conducted in English, Greek, Slavonic, and Swedish. The ten nuns in residence come from the US, England, New Zealand, Greece, and Sweden, giving the convent a uniquely international character. They are known for their fine quality liturgical vestments and prayer ropes.
Saint Elizabeth, for whom the Convent is named, was born in 1864 in Germany, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England, and a sister of the last czarina. She became a Grand Duchess of Russia when she married the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. She was a convert to the Orthodox faith who founded the Convent of Sts. Martha and Mary after her husband's assassination in 1905, and became its abbess. The convent operated a hospital, a chapel, a pharmacy and an orphanage on its grounds. Elizabeth and her nuns worked tirelessly among the poor and the sick of Moscow, doing all they could to help alleviate suffering.
In 1918, Elizabeth and her companions were martyred by the Bolsheviks. Elizabeth was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981, and by the Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia in 1992 as New-Martyr Elizabeth. 
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