The Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1824-1880), wife of Tsar Alexander II, is generally known only from the shadows of historiography. But this princess, coming from the German ruling house of Hesse-Darmstadt, would in due course convert to Orthodoxy and go down in history as a deeply Churched philanthropist. Amongst her many benefactions, it was by her gift that the Diocese’s Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross in Geneva was built.
On 28th May 2023, Irek Suleymanov, a scholar of Germanic studies and candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, gave a talk at the Cathedral about the fate of this outstanding personality, including the trials of fate and the role of the Orthodox Faith in the life of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, as well as her connections with Switzerland. Since 2017, he has been deciphering the written heritage of Maria Alexandrovna and other Hessian princesses (Including the the Grand Duchess St Elizabeth and the Holy Passion-Bearing Martyr Empress Alexandra).
https://orthodox-europe.org/content/empress-maria-alexandrovna-geneva/
https://orthodox-europe.org/content/empress-maria-alexandrovna-geneva/