Royal Monastic: Princess Ileana of Romania

The Story of Mother Alexandra

By: Bev. Cooke

Narrated by: Kristina Wenger

Through a life of selfless sacrifice, Princess Ileana of Romania won her people’s heart so thoroughly she is still revered by Romanians today.

The life of a princess isn’t all fun-filled travel, magnificent banquets, handsome princes, and beautiful clothes. It’s also devotion to duty, sacrifice for your people, and a lot of just plain hard work. And if your country happens to suffer two world wars and a Communist takeover in your lifetime, it means danger and suffering, exile and heartache as well.

Princess Ileana of Romania endured all this and more. But her deeply rooted Orthodox faith saw her through it all, and eventually led her in her later years to the peaceful repose of monasticism. But that life included sacrifice and hard work as well, because as Mother Alexandra she was called to build the first English-language Orthodox women’s monastery in the United States — the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania.

Princess Ileana’s story is a thrilling tale of love and loss, danger and rescue, sacrifice and reward. Her inspiring life stands as a beacon of faith and holiness for young women of all times and nations to follow.

©2008 Bev. Cooke (P)2020 Bev. Cooke

A timely message in today’s troubles.

Royal Monastic
Princess Ileana of Romania

A timely message in today’s troubles.

I found the story of Princess Ileana or Mother Alexandra to be very encouraging. In our current social and political climate it can be so stressful. Listening to her life and all that she suffered as a princess caused me to examine my own life. How am I handling trials that come my way? Am I relying on God as did Mother Alexandra?
Her faith was remarkable. The way she was quick to help those around her, the loss she knew, the exile, the betrayal; I can only hope to one day have her faith!
Having lived near the place of the monastery she established and raising children in the city she took her last earthly breaths, I feel a deep connection to Mother Alexandra. Her story was so captivating that I longed to hear more about her life.
I feel blessed to have learned of her and now can ask for her intercessions.
Mother Alexandra pray to God for us.

Beautiful, The example of a Christian woman!

Any woman seeking advice on how to live a life pleasing to the Lord should read this book and be counseled by the life of this humble Romanian princess. The narrator has a pleasant, clear voice, with good inflection. Reading of the suffering of this gentle soul, and seeing how she truly lived as Jesus lived, a life of meek, loving servitude to her people, has certainly strengthened the hunger in my soul to draw closer to the Lord. The bible verses and sayings of the saints were very well suited, and beautiful. So often, books of the lives of the Saints are only about men, which isn’t a problem, it is inspiring to read of God serving men. But I am thankful for the example of princess Ileana, so that we women may also learn how to be pleasing to the Lord.

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I enjoy listening to Kristina Wenger narrate Princess Illeana books. To me, her voice is that of the Princess. This book is good-- I have listened to the other books.

I agree with a few other posters who mention in their reviews that her life as a child being so obedient and good is hard to believe. but I am willing to believe this aspect of her because life was different for the daughter of a king and queen at the start of the last century than it is now. Ileana was tight with Queen Marie and she wanted to please her mother (and she did and the queen was a loving mother who reciprocated that love). She stresses her duty above all else-- she was a (second?) cousin to the future Queen Elizabeth II, after all-- and this was drilled into her from an early age.

Something else-- this book elaborates on the importance of religious traditions that Ileana knew that she wanted to pass on. Americans had lost the understanding of the importance of monasteries and church Traditions, and this is discussed. It also tells us more about what was happening with Ileana's family in WWI, after the Armistice was signed in Germany and the Red Cross leaving Romania, her relationship with her elder brother Carol I, her marriages and divorces, details about her time in the convent in France and her tonsuring, her time as Mother Alexandra at the convent she founded, her family life with her own children. Her friends as she was growing up. All these concepts help us understand more of what made her as a princess and as a person.

Someone wanting to learn more about the Orthodox church could learn much from this book-- but they need to enjoy historical stories. This is not a scholarly piece about the princess or the Orthodox church, it is someone's story and who lived her faith.

I only wish this had attachments of photos of Princess Ileans's life and Mother Alexandra's tonsuring, but it is a good sign that I have finished the book and wanted more.

I listened to this on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hearing of her struggles and faith has helped me stay focused in my own prayers and worries.

Poignantly Written

I had quite the journey with this book. It is evident throughout that the author has a great love for Princess Ileana who became Mother Alexandra, and has clearly gone through innumerable research sources of interviews, letters, and autobiography. The narrator, too, had clearly put much thought into her performance, using Eastern European pronunciation of names and places. This was greatly appreciated by me, as I likely would have otherwise butchered many beautiful names otherwise! The narrator is also incredibly engaging, and even the parts of the book I struggled with, she had a way of drawing me forward.

I will admit there were some difficult moments for me. Perhaps it is because I am a mother, but the way Princess Ileana is described as a child is, well, hard to believe as real. Even the best, sweetest, most generous children will have times of being tired, cranky, mischievous, and downright disobedient. The idea that Princess Ileana was ALWAYS good, selfless, polite, etc just felt like a work of fiction. The other part I struggled with was the way it appeared she was praised for suppressing her own grief or struggle as she "did her duty" as a princess. As someone who has spent many years in therapy this set off many alarm bells, I don't believe the degree to which Princess Ileana had to bottle herself up and compartmentalize at such a young age is healthy. HOWEVER, once I got beyond those parts I was fascinated by what she experienced, and endured, as she survived World War I, World War II, and the Soviet invasion. For better or worse, the training she had as a child to hide her feelings allowed her to feign compliance with political tyrants so that she could protect her people as best she could. There is no doubt that reading the conditions of those times; food shortages, medical shortages, heating shortages so that they consumed rotten food, had 3 men to a hospital bed, and other horrors put the pains of our current pandemic into a different light. It does not seem quite so hard to stay home, eat boring food, or wear a mask compared to all that!

Most of all though, I had this incredible realization of how close history can seem. When it begins at her birth in 1909 that feels impossibly long ago. The world described feels so foreign it may as well be 1509 or set in a fantasy novel in another realm. And yet, as the dates continued along I realized she was actually alive at the same time as myself, as I was born in 1985 and she reposed in 1991! To think of all the inventions and change she saw, and then for her to bring Orthodox faith with her into America, through all she had seen and been through. To build the first Orthodox women's monastery, and what an immeasurable impact that has had! I finished the book with such a sense of awe and gratitude for Mother Alexandra, which I think is truly the best way to end.

I was supplied a copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Bit Sticky

Some biographies are deep, exhaustive, and richly researched. They are a literal intellectual feast of citations including correspondence, interviews, and historical narratives to hold up the writing. Some biographies are appetizers; a light bite there to whet your appetite and make you want to learn more about the subject. Royal Monastic is an appetizer of a biography. That is not a bad thing, but it was not what I was expecting. Bev Cook, the author did intimately know her subject and provided a lot of information about Princess Ileana’s life for me to have a grasp of who she was and some of what made her who she was. I was still left feeling rather “more-ish.”

That being said, I enjoyed the “Imagine This” slice-of-life scenarios that were sprinkled throughout the book. They were engaining and invite the reader to take part in building the picture Cook was trying to tell. There were some of the imagined conversations that I wasn’t sure about but that is just me.

Narration: Good narration. Sometimes the reader was a bit too “wide-eyed ingenue” for me but she told a good story, although since it is a biography, not a work of fiction based on real life, I feel some of the emotion was a bit overdone. It got sticky sweet at times which threw me off.

All in all I give 4 for content and 3 for narration.

3.5 stars

Full Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to do this, AFP!