GRAND DUKE’S ROMANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3730, 11 December 1906, Page 4

GRAND DUKE’S ROMANCE.

Dies in Exile.

In Gries, near Bozen (South Tyrol), there died last month a priest named Baleisis. It is now known that this priest was formerly a Russian Grand Duke. He was born in 1875, the son of the Grand Duke, Michael, brother of Alexander 11., and was named Sergius. The boy, owing to the weak health of the immediate descendants of the crown, enjoyed great prospects. His Imperial uncle gave him, at fifteen the rank of captain in the Guards and advanced him later to colonel. After the death, in 1894 of Alexander, Sergius went to Paris, where he fell in love with the beautiful Princess Mercedes of Beaulieu, to whom he proposed. As the Princess was a Catholic, Sergius entered that Church in order to obtain her hand.

In consequence of this change of faith, and his marriage with a lady not belonging to a sovereign house, Sergius was banished for ever from Russia and deprived of his rank, title and wealth. With the small income remaining he adopted the title of Baleiais, the name of a small Polish estate formerly belonging to his mother’s family. His marriage was a happy one, until the countess was suddenly seized at Nice with a nervous fever, of which she died after two-days' illness.

Count Baleisis devoted himself at Paris to theological studies, and became a Catholic priest* As such, notwithstanding the danger of being exiled to Siberia, he returned to Russia, and was at first assistant priest and then priest of Jitomar. Owing to a weakness of the lungs, he removed to Gries, near Bozen, where he died after two years’ residence.