Olga's Poems and Notes

You are filled with anguish
For the suffering of others.
And no one's grief
Has ever passed you by.
You are relentless
Only toward yourself,
Forever cold and pitiless.
But if only you could look upon
Your own sadness from a distance,
Just once with a loving soul -
Oh, how you would pity yourself,
How sadly you would weep.
-Olga Romanov, April 1917


Send us the patience, Father, to support us in this year of dark days and tempests, these persecutions of the people and these tortures of our executioners. Give us the strength, O just God, to pardon the wickedness of our neighbors, and to carry the heavy bloody cross with your humility. And in these riotious days, when our enemies strip us, help us, Saviour God, to suffer the shame and the insults. Master of the world, bless us with your prayer and give the peace to our soul appeased at this terrible hour and unbearable. And at the gates of the tomb, make us born again with the lips of your slaves the superhuman force of humble prayer for our enemies.
- A Prayer Olga Wrote