The Lord has Called unto Himself the Most August Mother of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna

Announcement of the Death of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna

The Chancellery of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna, announces, with great sorrow, that on the night of 23-24 May 2010, in Madrid, the 96 year old mother of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, passed away.

Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna was born on 23 September/6 October 1914 in Tiflis. Her parents were His Royal Highness, Prince Georgii Aleksandrovich Bagration of Mukhrani, the Head of the Georgian Royal House, and Her Royal Highness Princess Elena Sigismundovna Bagration of Mukhrani (née Novina-Zlotnitskaia).

On 31 July/13 August 1948, in Lausanne, at the Church of St. Gerasimos, Her Royal Highness married the Head of the Russian Imperial House, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich. Since then, she was the constant and faithful supporter and reliable companion to her most august husband; and after his death in 1992, to her most august daughter, the current Head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna.

The departed grand duchess was the last member of the Russian Imperial House to be born before the Revolution of 1917. She was the guardian of the foundations of the Dynasty and ensured the preservation of the immutable family laws and traditions for the generations in the House of Romanoff that followed and descended from her.

Her Imperial Highness’s health began to deteriorate last week. On 10/23 May, on the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity, the rector of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Madrid, a Russian Orthodox parish of the Moscow Patriarchate, Fr. Andrei Kordochkin, visited the grand duchess and gave her Holy Communion. That evening, Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna was taken to hospital. Her most august daughter, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna, was constantly at her side. At 11:55pm local time, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna departed this life for the Lord.

A.N. Zakatov

Director of H.I.H.’s Chancellery

Moscow , 24 May 2010