Maria Feodorovna was the wife of Russian Emperor Paul I, a German princess, who, before converting to Orthodoxy, was named Sophie Dorothea Augusta Louise of Württemberg. The princess received an excellent education at home. She was instilled from childhood with a love of arts and crafts. She sang, played the clavichord, was engaged in clay modeling, satin stitch embroidery, carved figurines from amber and ivory, engraved, carved cameos from stone and glass. While in Russia, she learned the technique of metal casting, making glass pastes and working with wax.

Maria Feodorovna was also fond of drawing and painting, first of all having mastered the pastels technique. The Russian Museum contains a still life in the style of the ‘Little Dutchmen’, painted by her in 1787.
Maria Feodorovna was also remembered by her contemporaries for her charity work. She took under her protection a mental hospital and looked after the sick herself. Examining babies in orphanages, she used to say, 

Maria Feodorovna is depicted with the Order of St. Catherine in the portrait from the collection of the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Fine Arts.

This highest Dame order was established by Emperor Peter I the Great in 1714 in memory of the Prut campaign against the Turks being called originally the Order of the Liberation. It was a difficult campaign for Peter I: in July 1711, Russian troops were surrounded by an army of almost two hundred thousand men on the banks of the Prut River. Only the bribery of Turkish ambassadors saved the Russians from captivity and shame. Catherine, Peter’s wife, was with him and donated all her jewels for a “gift” to the Turkish Commander-In-Chief. The charter of the order stated that it was “established in honor of the most noble and saint Great Martyr Catherine.”

The Order of St. Catherine ranked second in the overall hierarchy of Russian orders, just after the Order of the St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called. They were the dynastic insignia of the Russian Empire as they were awarded to members of the Imperial House even during baptism while representatives of foreign Ruling Houses were awarded during the formation of political and dynastic alliances, as well as to reinforce such alliances.

The insignia of the Order of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, like other insignia, were a set of jewelry. In the royal family, they were often inherited. So, in the will of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I, among hundreds of treasures, the insignia of the Order of St. Catherine the Great Martyr is also mentioned. Maria Feodorovna left them to her granddaughter Maria.