On October 10, 1962, the Head of the Imperial House of Russia, Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich, and his wife Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, were involved in a serious car accident.

 

Their Imperial Highnesses were on their way from France to Madrid. The Grand Duke was driving. The trip had gone by without incident, but about 120 kilometers from Madrid the Imperial Couple turned onto a road without any speed limit signs or other road signs indicating turns or intersections. It was an autumn day, and at half past seven in the evening it was already getting dark. Suddenly, on a winding stretch of road, the Grand Duke saw that literally 20 meters away two oxen pulling a plow followed by two mules were crossing in front of him from right to left. The two men guiding the animals from behind did not see the oncoming car.

• The Imperial Family The Imperial Family
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• Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna and Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna and Generalissimo Francisco Franco of Spain
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• H.I.H. Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich and H.I.H. Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna on the Mount of Olives H.I.H. Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich and H.I.H. Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna on the Mount of Olives
• Abbess Tamara (by birth Princess of the Imperial Blood Tatiana Konstantinovna) Abbess Tamara (by birth Princess of the Imperial Blood Tatiana Konstantinovna)
• 1962-11-25. Letter from Abbess Tamara (p. 1) 1962-11-25. Letter from Abbess Tamara (p. 1)
• 1962-11-25. Letter from Abbess Tamara (p. 2) 1962-11-25. Letter from Abbess Tamara (p. 2)
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The Grand Duke swerved to avoid a collision, sharply turning the steering wheel to the left in order to skirt past the oxen on the left. But there was too little time to react, and his car caught one of the oxen with the right side and windshield of the car. The violent collision, which shattered glass and ripped back the roof of the car, happened precisely at the height of the Grand Duchess’s face.

 

Wladimir Kirillovich never lost control of the car and stopped on the right side of the road. But then, to his horror and despair, he saw that his wife showed no signs of life, and her face was terribly lacerated and covered in blood. The first thought was whether she was still alive. Others traveling this road soon arrived, provided first aid, and helped to extract the Grand Duchess from the wrecked car. Fortunately, she soon regained consciousness, and it became clear that there was hope that she would be fine. The Grand Duchess was taken to the nearest village in one of the cars that had stopped to render assistance, and from there it was possible to call to Madrid for an ambulance, as well as to alert the family’s personal doctor. It was not until midnight that Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna arrived at hospital.

 

Everything was already prepared for surgery when the Grand Duchess arrived. She was in the operating room for approximately 4 hours. The surgeon skillfully sewed up the multiple wounds on her face so that later there were almost no traces of any prior injury at all. But the concussion she suffered was extremely severe, and the Grand Duchess was in and out of consciousness for 9 days. After her condition stabilized, Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna spent another week in hospital, and was released only on October 26, the feast of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. She gradually regained her strength.

 

As stated in the Announcement of the Chancellery of the Head of the Imperial House of Russia, dated November 30, 1962, and disseminated by N.E. Vuich, “the fact that the Grand Duchess survived, and that the Grand Duke was uninjured, is surely a miracle, which is so deeply felt by Their Imperial Highnesses, and in which they see a doubtless manifestation of the God’s Mercy.”

 

To this we can add that, by the grace of God, Grand Duchess Maria of Russia had also miraculously escaped mortal danger in this terrible accident. It had originally been planned that the entire Imperial Family would travel together on this trip. In those days, children were not prohibited as they are today from sitting in the front seat of a car, and the young Grand Duchess often sat in the front so she could better see the road and passing scenery. Thus she could well have been sitting where her mother was sitting and been killed in the accident. But because the young Grand Duchess was supposed to start school soon, she was sent with a teacher by train to Madrid a few days before her father and mother left Paris.

 

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Other special days of commemoration when members of the House of Romanoff were miraculously saved from death or injury:

 

- Feast of the Venerable George of Mount Maleon (4/17 April) (the miraculous saving of Emperor Alexander II’s life during the first attempt on his life);

 

- Feast of the Holy Prophet Hosea and the Hieromartyr Andrew of Crete (17/30 October) (the miraculous saving of Emperor Alexander III and his family at the derailment of the Imperial train at Borki, near Kharkov, in 1888);

 

- Feast of the Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (March 31/April 13) (the rescue of the future Emperor-in-Exile Kirill Vladimirovich during the sinking of the battleship Petropavlovsk in 1904);

 

- Epiphany (6/19 January) (the miraculous survival of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearer Emperor Nicholas II, when he was accidentally wounded during a cannon salute at the Ss. Peter and Paul Fortress in 1905);

 

- Feast of the Holy Martyr Callistratus and his companions, and the Holy Apostles Mar, Aristarchus, and Zenon of the Seventy (27 September /10 October) (the miraculous saving of the lives of Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich and Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna in a car accident near Madrid in 1962);

 

- Ss. Cosmas and Damian (November 1/14) (the miraculous saving of the life of Grand Duke George of Russia in a car accident on Sinopskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg in 2019).

 

 

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HISTORICAL DOCUMENT.

 

Letter from the Abbess of the Ascension Monastery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Abbess Tamara (by birth a member of the Imperial House: Her Highness Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna of Russia, daughter of Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Constantine of Russia), to the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich, and his spouse Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, thanking them for their letter and expressing her prayerful concerns in connection with the injuries sustained by Grand Duchess Leonid Georgievna in the automobile accident. Manuscript. Jerusalem, November 12/25, 1962.

 

[Letterhead of Abbess Tamara in both English and Arabic]

Abbess Tamara

SUPERIOR

OF THE RUSSIAN CONVENT

ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

P.O. Box 229

JERUSALEM – OLD CITY

JORDAN

 

25 November 1962

 

Dear in the Lord Wladimir and Leonida,

 

We thank you very, very much for Your kind letter and we are deeply saddened by the serious injuries that you have suffered. And we thank the Lord that Leonida has returned home from hospital and we are praying in litanies, so that all the sisters hear, and we all pray together for Leonida’s full recovery.

 

My father [Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich – ed.] said: “it is not the one who is sick that suffers, but the one who takes care of the sick.” We therefore especially express our sympathy to You, dear Wladimir, because You suffered and worried so much for Leonida, and we truly hope that, with God's help, everything will now turn out well, and that Marie rejoices that her mother has returned to her.

 

I kiss you on the shoulder, in the monastic way.

 

Your sinful aunt, Abbess Tamara

 

With love, in Christ

ARID, f. 8, op. 4, d. 3