From Princess to Nun_ Queen Victoria s Great-Granddaughter in America

Ancient Art & Jewelry
1 Video View·Oct 5, 2026

She was Queen Victoria's great-granddaughter, a princess Romania adored, until her own brother, the new king, made sure she could no longer live there.
Princess Ileana of Romania was the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania, herself a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Married in 1931 to Archduke Anton of Austria, a Habsburg, she was barred from making her home in her own country. She came back during the Second World War, founded the Hospital of the Queen's Heart beneath Bran Castle, and in January 1948 was driven out by the new communist regime with her six children.
In this video, we follow her from the palaces of Bucharest to exile in Switzerland, Argentina and America: lecture halls, two marriages, the loss of a daughter, and a choice no one in her family could have imagined. A black habit, a monastery in the hills of Pennsylvania, and a new name: Mother Alexandra.