The life of a princess isn't all glamor, 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. 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 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.
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Here is a book that makes sanctity believable as well as attractive. At the end of the book, we feel that we truly know the saintly protagonist, and wish that we could get to know her even better. Although we cannot meet this remarkable woman on earth, we can rely on her heavenly prayers, and rejoice in her life, thanks to this wonderful new volume. --Fr. Lawrence Farley, author of Shepherding the Flock: The Pastoral Epistles from St. Paul the Apostle to Timothy and to Titus
Royal Monastic is an excellent and engaging historical biography of a truly remarkable princess turned monastic. As the founder of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Elwood City, Pennsylvania, Mother Alexandra, Princess Ileana of Romania, is an example of Orthodox Christian virtues of love, suffering and self-sacrifice. --Chrissi Hart, author of The Hermit, the Icon, and the Emperor: The Holy Virgin Comes to Cyprus and Under the Grapevine: A Miracle by St. Kendeas
Royal Monastic is a portal into a small and vital corner of Eastern European life during a time of great struggle. Princess Ileana's commitment to Orthodox monasticism in the latter part of her life, as Mother Alexandra, has left the royal seed of Orthodox altruism planted on American soil, leaving a lasting and growing vine of Truth. This is a history well worth reading. --Claire Brandenburg, author of Song of the Talanton, The Monk Who Grew Prayer, and Daniel and the Lion
Royal Monastic is an excellent and engaging historical biography of a truly remarkable princess turned monastic. As the founder of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Elwood City, Pennsylvania, Mother Alexandra, Princess Ileana of Romania, is an example of Orthodox Christian virtues of love, suffering and self-sacrifice. --Chrissi Hart, author of The Hermit, the Icon, and the Emperor: The Holy Virgin Comes to Cyprus and Under the Grapevine: A Miracle by St. Kendeas
Royal Monastic is a portal into a small and vital corner of Eastern European life during a time of great struggle. Princess Ileana's commitment to Orthodox monasticism in the latter part of her life, as Mother Alexandra, has left the royal seed of Orthodox altruism planted on American soil, leaving a lasting and growing vine of Truth. This is a history well worth reading. --Claire Brandenburg, author of Song of the Talanton, The Monk Who Grew Prayer, and Daniel and the Lion
About the Author
Bev. Cooke is the author of Keeper of the Light (Conciliar Press, 2006) and Feral (Orca Book Publishers, 2008). She lives in Canada.
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I was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, and moved to the west coast of Canada in 1979. I decided to become a writer in 1983, and published my first work in 1989, a humorous nonfiction piece about the difference between the myths of new motherhood, and the realities they forget to mention, like the "helpful" suggestions you get, or the difficulty in walking and sitting, and the fact that you and sleep become distant acquaintances.
It took me so long to become a writer because while I'm an avid reader, I didn't make the connection between the books that are always in my hand, and the scribblings I'd been doing since kindergarten until I was in my mid-twenties. It never occurred to me that anyone would actually publish my writing, and pay me for it. Having had an abiding love of children's literature I naturally started writing for children. Some would say that's because I never grew up. I've never denied the charge.
In and around writing, submitting and being rejected, Bev. married - a computer programmer who looks on her passion with bemusement, but seems proud of her achievements over the twenty-seven years they've been married. We have two grown children, two cats and a bird who rules the house - cats and humans both.
These days, I write for an online zine on a social media network, coach writers and edit other people's manuscripts when I'm not fighting my way through my latest novel or playing video and computer games.
It took me so long to become a writer because while I'm an avid reader, I didn't make the connection between the books that are always in my hand, and the scribblings I'd been doing since kindergarten until I was in my mid-twenties. It never occurred to me that anyone would actually publish my writing, and pay me for it. Having had an abiding love of children's literature I naturally started writing for children. Some would say that's because I never grew up. I've never denied the charge.
In and around writing, submitting and being rejected, Bev. married - a computer programmer who looks on her passion with bemusement, but seems proud of her achievements over the twenty-seven years they've been married. We have two grown children, two cats and a bird who rules the house - cats and humans both.
These days, I write for an online zine on a social media network, coach writers and edit other people's manuscripts when I'm not fighting my way through my latest novel or playing video and computer games.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Princess Ileana to Mother Alexandra in one life time,
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This review is from: Royal Monastic: Princess Ileana of Romania (Paperback)
If you enjoyed the 1952 I Live Again by Princess Ileana of Romania and wondered what she did in the years until 1991, this book will take you through her life. Princess Ileana's deep Orthodox faith gave her strength to live through two world wars, suffering under both German and communist regimes, while raising six children. Her life of sacrifice led Princess Ileana to become a monastic in France and to later to build and open the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Pennsylvania. This inspiring book is highly recommended.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Remarkable Life,
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This review is from: Royal Monastic: Princess Ileana of Romania (Paperback)
A fascinating portrayal of an Orthodox "royal" whose life was one of love and self-sacrifice during the turbulent years of the Second World War and communist take over of eastern Europe. Her privileged childhood was no impediment to the deep Christian faith which sustained her and eventually led her to the monastic life, and the desire to share this life with those in her adopted country of America. Bev Cooke has done a masterful job of bringing to life Mother Alexandra, nee Princess Ileana of Roumania.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biography Lite, like lite beer, can sometimes be satisfying...,
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This review is from: Royal Monastic: Princess Ileana of Romania (Paperback)
There are certain types of Royal histories and biographies I usually don't collect or read: ones that should have been annotated but are not, ones that do not distinguish between quoted letters/memoirs and "imaginary dialogue" concocted by the author, ones whose publishers have a religious or political bias.On all the above counts, I should have not ended up with "Royal Monastic" in my library. But life is most interesting when things cease to fit the usual pattern... I recently had a common type of surgery and for over a week was unable to do little more than walk around, rest, or read in a lounge chair. I quickly found that my abdominal muscles were not happy with my holding heavy books so I picked through my books and created a small library of items that weigh almost nothing. The other day I picked up the slim paperback "Royal Monastic." A quick flip-through sent my "inner historian" to ringing all the alarm-bells, but as I was not in the mood to get up and shop around for another book, I decided to plunge in... Well, there is no doubt that if this book were a an American beer, it would have the word "Lite" as a suffix. To be honest, the book was moderately appealing once I decided to suspend judgement as to which dialogue and scenes were imagined and which possessed a degree of historical accuracy, and just go with the flow. Clearly on the agenda is the promotion of Christian faith, hope and charity as well as the virtues of monasticism, but having attended Catholic grade school, high school and college, "nun" of that was particularly distracting to me. Like many lesser members of reigning families, Ileana did not leave behind a massive and easily navigable paper-trail, so the US-based Ms. Cooke certainly did not have at her disposal mountains of original research material. Nevertheless, the author successfully rooted out archival material (correspondence), several lesser known articles and lecture notes, and appears to have been accorded ready access to anything Mother Alexandra's convent had to offer. (On becoming a nun, Ileana was known as Mother Alexandra.) Cooke's tale also benefitted from her familiarity with some of the better biographies of Ileana's mother as well as Ileana's and Queen Marie's autobiographies. Though her book is chronological in its approach, Ms. Cooke uses a simplistic back-and-forth style that I found unusual for a royal biography. Rather than analyze it here, I will leave it to her readers to make what they will of it: there is the underlying straitghtforward narrative, with a recurring overlay of texts titled either "Imagine this..." or "Ileana remembers..." Burp. - Excuse me, that must have been the Biography Lite... I met Ileana's late second ex-husband in the 1990s. At the time he was having photocopies made of mountains of correspondence to Ileana, mostly from Queen Marie. How Ileana's ex-husband came to have custody of the correspondence, I did not dare ask! If I recall correctly, he was preparing to send the originals to the Archives at Windsor. There was also a French author writing a book about Ileana's mother in the 1990's, but apparently by the time he received copies of the correspondence, the book was too far along. Too bad -- the letters Queen Marie wrote to her daughter were full of juicy stuff relating to the serious strife within the Royal Family during the 1930's. It surely would have been fascinating had the talented and thoughtful Ms. Cooke been able to use that material in the telling of her tale. Finally, without giving anything away as regards what is fresh and new in Cooke's tale (and also what is totally ignored or overlooked- hence my withholding of a star), I will say that those who are well-read on the Romanian Royal family will find at least one interesting revelation/explanation in the book regarding a certain "black mark" long associated with Princess Ileana. For me, even without being able to gauge the merits of the explanation, this alone made "Royal Monastic" worth reading.
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