The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe

This account on x did an AI color version of the wel known blac and white portrait of Princess Ileana of Romania wearing the tiara left to her by her mother, Queen Marie, as recounted below.

As we all know, after many travails, Princess Ileana became Abbess Alexandra of an OCA convent she founded in 1967 in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, the Orthodox Convent of the Transfiguration



"Here's the story about that tiara :

Princess Ileana had got word that her mother was dying, so she and her Habsburg husband, Archduke Anton, legged it to Bucarest. They motored overnight, had to get a visa to enter Romania in Hungary, the consulate was closed, their car broke down. Finally they took a train. Whew.

When she got off the train, who were there to greet her but her two sisters, the Queens.

You all know Stabby Eyes, Queen Elizabeth of Greece.

And middle sis, Queen Marie of Yugoslavia, who was nice but avaricious"


As they were hugging their baby sister, with tears in their eyes, they whisper in her ear:

"Mummy left you money, Bran Castle, and her best tiara.

You can keep the tiara and the Castle
We are taking the money."

Ileana was too stunned to reply.


That's their eldest brother, King Carol II of Romania, looking on as Ileana greets Mignon of Yugoslavia in an earlier occasion.

The reason Ileana had to get a visa to enter her own country is that he had barred his sister from living in Romania. He was jealous of her popularity.

Queen Marie and King Ferdinand of Romania had 6 kids.

But except for Ileana and the baby Mircea, who died, they were like snakes to each other.


https://x.com/vbspurs/status/2053892109950980329

It's little known that Princess Ileana and her Habsburg husband spent 2 years in Argentina, from 1948 to 1950

AI summary, edited :

"Following her exile from Romania in 1948, Princess Ileana lived in Buenos Aires with her husband, Archduke Anton of Austria-Tuscany, and their six children, she supported the local Romanian exile community before moving to the United States.

After the communist takeover of Romania, Ileana was forced to leave in 1948, traveling through Switzerland before settling in Argentina.

In Buenos Aires, her home became a meeting point for European aristocrats exiled after World War II.

During her stay, she worked to support other Romanian refugees fleeing the Soviet bloc.

Due to economic instability and personal challenges, she moved to the United States in 1950, eventually becoming a nun (Mother Alexandra).

Later, her eldest daughter, Marie Ileana, and her husband died in a plane crash in Brazil.

The family in Argentina

"Princess Ileana (and the entire Royal Family) was deported by the Soviets from the land of her birth because they had taken over after the Iron Curtain fell.
She was lucky to escape with her life, considering how some royalties fared at the hands of Communists."[i.e. the Tsar and his relatives in Russia]


She had spent WWII as a field hospital nurse and had been so good at it that she even become a surgeon in her own hospital! She had somehow managed to open up her own hospital (named for her mother, Queen Marie) by cajoling, begging, demanding supplies fr Generals and politicians

Because modern people hear "royalty", some folks think these Princes and Princesses and Kings are simply rolling in wealth.

What I need you to understand is that it is true that they have land and some possessions, but these folks are usually cash poor.

That was Ileana's case.

I have had conflicting information from several sources as to how much Ileana got for the tiara when she sold it to Cartier. This includes from her own children!

But the conservative estimate is that she got 100k US dollars for it.

She used about 40k of that to purchase a house

And this folks, is the house Princess Ileana bought with the tiara money.

This is just one estimate.

Others put the estimate for this rambling home in Newton at 5m US dollars today.



The Princess who grew up surrounded by dozens of servants suddenly had to cook supper on her own.

This is Ileana in her 1950s kitchen.

She had bought some of the furniture and pans at Goodwill and Filene's basement.

Doesn't that put a smile on your faces?

The Princess greeting her neighbourhood postman, who usually had some deliveries for "The Habsburgs". Heh


Princess Ileana holds her oldest son's gift to her that Christmas: pots and pans he bought at Woolworth's.

Were they poor? Of course not.

But money was tight.


The Princess didn't buy herself a Mercedes. But she did buy a German car -- a little Volkswagen Beetle, because Stefan, the oldest, could fix it easily if it broke down.

That's why Princess Ileana of Romania had to sell her mother's precious historic tiara. To live again.


Remember I told you she had also taken a bit of Romanian soil with her alongside the tiara? [We missed that, somehow]

She kept that. She called it "her greatest treasure."

Some things aren't for sale."