Her parents had not been that religious neither had her brother. Except from Princess Karl there was nobody in the family with such an attitude.
I didn't say that those persons were NOT religious at all. The Grand Duchess came to struggle with her belief in a much more intellectual way rather than being a bigot (read Strauss's book). Elisaveta Feodorovna was definitely religious - but she left Germany and in that way a constant influence on her sister when the latter was not even 12 years old and when she was still far from converting and becoming a genuine orthodox christian. The chapel at Wolfsgarten you mention was errected in order to separate the Grand Ducal House from a quarrel between the clergies of Langen and Egelsbach. Ernst Ludwig had, being the head of his state, of course the duty to show a ceratin religious input. I don't think he took it too serious - judging from his own words (my personal impression).
You're absolutely right, you did not say they were not religious at all.
I think, however, that the fact that GD Alice went through a serious religious crisis at all - even when it was in an 'intellectual' way - shows that religion
did play an important part in her life. The letters she wrote to her mother include several lines to support this; e.g. in 1862 she commented on the importance of God/religion in her everyday life as follows: "Trust in God ! ever and constantly. In my life I feel that to be
my stay and my strength, and
the feeling increases as the days go on." And in 1866, under more difficult circumstances: "These dangerous times make one very serious and anxious ; the
comfort of faith and trust in God, who does all well and for the best,
is the only support." She does not strike me as someone who was "not that religious". (Just my opinion)
Ella indeed left Darmstadt when Alix was still young. She may not have had much influence on Alix in this field, but I think Ella's religiosity shows that Alix was certainly not the only one in the family who was religious and that Alix' religiosity wasn't necessarily the result of Gretchen's influence.
The chapel in the park of Schloss Wolfsgarten was indeed built only in later years, a quarrel between clergies being the immediate reason. Yes, Ernst Ludwig's position required that he showed a certain interest in religion. Yet if he was not that religious, he could easily have gone to church less frequently, when and where it suited him, in Darmstadt or in a village near Schloss Wolfsgarten - didn't Moerfelden have a church? He didn't have to built a private chapel in the park of Wolfsgarten Castle. Yet he
did built a chapel in the park. He also had ministers from all over Hesse come to preach every other Sunday. Also, his works
Bonifacius and
Ostern had clear religious themes. He may not have read as many books on religion as Alix did, but he does not strike me as someone who did not take religion too serious.
But I think the deep dependance and belief was due to Gretchen Fabrice
I did not say that Margarethe von Fabrice was the first one to awake religiosity within the princess - I merely said that she deepened her belief and it seems that she was the paragon for the bigot in Alexandra; no other person - apart from her paternal grandmother who died when Alexandra was still a child - was as much into religion as to be a paragon her. We know that even in her sparetime she would read religious books. I do not believe that a person at 16 has developed religious views to such a degree that they are unchangeable - one should always and at any age be able to change ones mind. And what changes us more than meeting other persons?
Whom you - by the way - describe as a mere "staffmember" was much more to the Empress. I think she hardly would have a more loving and truer friend than Gretchen Fabrice.
I'm sorry, Thomas, but you stated that you thought that Alix's "deep dependence and belief
was due to Gretchen", suggesting that Gretchen's influence went much further than that she merely "deepened her [Alix's] belief". I wrote that Gretchen came into her life when she was at an age "when most people have formed views on religion, have developed an inclination towards religiosity - or a disinclination for religion". I never said anything about her views being unchangeable at that age. Of course Alix's beliefs were not unchangeable when she was 16 - in fact, they
did change over the years - but that wasn't the point. The point I tried to make was that Alix' religiosity was something she probably had already in her
before she met Gretchen, meaning that Gretchen "may have intensified some views and inclinations", but that Alix' religiosity was not "due to Gretchen", which was exactly what you apparently had meant to say. For the record: I did not refer to Gretchen as "a mere staffmember", but as "a friend/staff member".
At least they discussed those questions - Gretchens mentiones how deeply the issue agitated both of them. One of Gretchen's grand-daughters being a close friend of mine I have discussed that topic with her - she was the one getting to read and transcribe the Livadia letters at the RAs. Judging from her daughter's private memoirs nobody can deny that influence of Gretchen's. And to me this is an absolutely credible source; first-hand source.
Yes, they discussed the issue of a possible conversion, as one might expect friends to do - I'm not questioning that. I rather doubt that it was Gretchen who made Alix ask Father Yanishev those "questions on abstruse points of theology which he had never heard even from [Orthodox] theologians".
