Eva Aurora Charlotta Karamzin née Stjernvall, (1/7 August 1808 – 13 May 1902) was a Finnish Swede philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

. She was the founder and supporter of various charities. She was best known as Princess Aurora Demidova and Aurora Karamzina, the names and title she acquired after her first and second marriages, respectively.

Early life and family

She was born in Björneborg (now Pori

Pori

Pori is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäenjoki river, which is the largest in Finland. Pori is the most important town in the Satakunta region....

), Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, as daughter of Lord Carl Johan Stjernvall (Maaskeskis, Padasjoki

Padasjoki

Padasjoki is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....

, Häme

Häme

Häme is the name of a geographical region in Finland. It is an ancient Finnish word, etymologically related to sápmi, the endonym of the Sami people...

, 10 September 1764 - Vyborg

Vyborg

Vyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, to the northwest of St. Petersburg and south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...

 (now Viipuri), 6 February 1815), a high official of the Grand Duchy of Finland

Grand Duchy of Finland

The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

's administration, ultimately Governor of the Viipuri Province

Viipuri Province

The Viipuri Province was a province of independent Finland from 1917 to 1947 but had already been founded in 1743.-History:The province was established in 1743 by separating the city of Viipuri and territories ceded from the Swedish Empire to Russia by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, from the Saint...

. Her mother, whom he married in Åbo or Turku

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

 on 2 August 1799, Baroness Eva Gustava von Willebrand (Finland, 18 February 1781 - 1 December 1844, a remote niece of Gustav I

Gustav I of Sweden

Gustav I of Sweden, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known simply as Gustav Vasa , was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death....

, King of Sweden), was soon widowed, and became the wife of Carl Johan Walleen, Lord Procurator of Finland.

Aurora had an older brother, Emil (1806-1890) and two sisters, Emilie (1811-1846, married Vladimir Musin-Pushkin) and Alexandra (Aline) (Vyborg (now Viipuri), 4 October 1812 - Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, 1 January 1851), married on 4 August 1839 as his second wife José Maurício Correia Henriques, 1st Baron, 1st Viscount and 1st Count de Seisal (5 November 1802 - 7 February 1874, married firstly on 2 December 1820 to Adèle Louise, Comtesse de Paoli-Chagny (5 February 1799 - 10 April 1838), by whom he had one daughter), a Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 Diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, created the 76th Commander of the Royal Order of Our Lady of the Concepcion of Vila Viçosa (6 July 1836) - a natural son of Azorian

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

 Liberal

Liberal Wars

The Liberal Wars, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, the War of the Two Brothers, or Miguelite War, was a war between progressive constitutionalists and authoritarian absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 1828 to 1834...

 José Anselmo Correia Henriques (died in exile in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, 1831) -, by whom she had issue. She had also three half-brothers from her mother's second marriage. Her brother Emil Stjernvall-Walleen became Minister State Secretary for Finland and was baronized.

Life

Aurora was appointed a lady-in-waiting

Lady-in-waiting

A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...

 of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna the elder, consort to Emperor Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 and a lady of the bedchamber of their Imperial Majesties Empress Alexandra Feodorovna the younger and Empress Maria Feodorovna. She was made a dame of the Order of Saint Catherine, the highest honor for ladies in Imperial Russia. Evgeny Baratynsky

Evgeny Baratynsky

Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky was lauded by Alexander Pushkin as the finest Russian elegiac poet. After a long period when his reputation was on the wane, Baratynsky was rediscovered by Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky as a supreme poet of thought.- Life :Of noble ancestry, Baratynsky was...

 dedicated a poem to her both in Russian and French ("Go and breathe inspiration into us, you the namesake of dawn... for whom you will become the sun of happiness?"), as did to her sister Countess Emilia Musin-Pushkin Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...

. An impoverished beauty, she was married in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 on 9 January 1836 to Prince and Count Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov (1798-1840), a scion of a Russian family whose immense wealth was derived from mines in Nizhni Tagilsk, Ural. Her husband died in 1840, and six years later, she married a Russian officer, Colonel

Polkovnik

Polkovnik is often a military rank in Slavic countries which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states. However, in the Ukraine, polkovnyk was an administrative rank similar to a governor...

 Andrei Nikolaievich Karamzin, son of the historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Nikolai Karamzin, who died in the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 in 1854.

After the death of her second husband, she occupied herself with the practical matters of her Järvenperä manor in Espoo

Espoo

Espoo is the second largest city and municipality in Finland. The population of the city of Espoo is . It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its eastern border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen....

, Finland, and with her growing interest in charity. Aurora used her immense wealth, inherited from her first husband, to create benefactory institutions in Helsinki, such as schools, public kitchens, and the Deaconess Institution of Helsinki. She was a great benefactor in many cities such as St. Petersburg and Florence.

Aurora's only child was Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (9 October 1839 – 26 January 1885). In 1870, he succeeded his childless uncle, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, as the 2nd Prince of San Donato.

Her granddaughter and namesake Princess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova married Arsen Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia and became the mother of the Yugoslav Regent, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević , was Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II. Peter was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I...

. Aurora of Yugoslavia's granddaughter is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

-Arms:HRH Princess Jelisaveta was granted heraldic arms in June 2008. Her motto translates into English as Service Is Love In Action.-Ancestry:-See also:*Politics of Serbia*Serbian presidential elections, 2004*Prince Paul of Yugoslavia*-References:...

, a politician in Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

 and the mother of actress Catherine Oxenberg

Catherine Oxenberg

Catherine Oxenberg is an American actress known for her performance as Amanda Carrington on the 1980s American prime time soap opera Dynasty. The daughter of HRH Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Oxenberg is a descendant of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty.-Early life:Though born in New York City,...

.

She died in Helsinki.

External links

• Princely House Demidov de San Donato
• http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=174094