Catherine Caradja

Romanian princess

Princess Catherine Olympia Caradja (born Ecaterina Olimpia Creţulescu; 28 January 1893 – 26 May 1993) was a Romanian aristocrat and philanthropist. Born in Bucharest, she grew up in England and France, and lived in Romania from 1908 to 1952, when she escaped from the communist regime on a Danube boat. An expatriate in the United States for 35 years, and a longtime resident of the Hill Country of Texas, she returned after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 to Bucharest, where she died a centenarian.

Princess Caradja is known for her humanitarian work in the interbellum, and especially for her efforts to ease the burden of captivity for over a thousand American and British airmen, taken prisoner during the bombing of Romania in World War II. She cared for them on her property and in the hospitals she ran; those activities earned her the nickname "Angel of Ploieşti" among the crews. In 1977, she was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

She was born in Bucharest, the daughter of Romanian nobleman Radu Creţulescu and Princess Irina Cantacuzino. Caught in a financial struggle between her parents' families, she was abducted at the age of three by her father, who took her to England, and placed her in an orphanage under an assumed name. Her mother (who divorced her father, and remarried to Prince Nicolae Ghica) kept looking for her, but died in 1906. The princess was accidentally found in 1908 in a French convent by an aunt, who helped her escape, and brought her back to Romania, where the courts put her in custody of the Cantacuzino family. She was raised by her maternal grandmother and her maternal grandfather, Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, the Prime Minister of Romania at the turn of the 20th century. The princess was educated in England, France, Romania, and Belgium, and spoke five languages. In 1914, just before the start of World War I, she married Prince Constantin Caradja (1892 1962), a member of the Caradja family. After German troops entered Romania in 1916 (see Romanian Campaign (World War I)), she fled from Bucharest with her two daughters, Irène Mathilde Catherine (born the year before) and Marie Constance Lucie (born ten days before). After taking refuge in Moldavia, she started working as a volunteer in a 30 bed hospital for typhus patients (she contracted the disease herself). One of the pilots who survived crash landing, and escaped thanks to her efforts, was Richard W. Britt, who recounted the story in a book, many years later. After the Communist regime was established in Romania, her orphanages and foundation were nationalized in 1949. Her daughter, who had left for Paris in 1948, helped the princess escape in early 1952, with assistance from the French secret services;

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the new Romanian government refused to give back any of her goods, included her Home Estate or Orphanage. In mid 1991, she went back to her native country, taking up residence in the attic of her old orphanage, which is nowadays occupied by the City Hall of Bucharest. She died at age 100 on 26 May 1993. She was buried in the family tomb, in Bucharest. A memorial service was held at the historic Kretzulescu Church. Her daughter, Alexandra Caradja (aka. "Tanda" Bragadiru Moevs ), died in 1997; she is survived by her granddaughter, Princess Brianna “Hélène” Caradja (b. 1960, ex wife of Mr. Bruce Johnson), and two great grandsons, Constantin Caradja Johnson (1989) and Maximilien Caradja Johnson (1990) She was also survived by her son, through adoption, Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco (10 October 1940 – 17 November 2007)