Julia Ostrowskaya married Gurdjieff on 30 July 1910 in the
Vladimir Cathedral of Saint Petersburg:
a townsman of the city of Alexandropol, Georgy Ivanov Gurdjieff,
of the Orthodox faith, and the daughter of a peasant from the
village of Brizhev, Lyutsinsky district, Vitebsk province,
Yulia Iosipovna Ostrovskaya, of the Roman Catholic faith,
22 years old.
Julia was also an active participant in Gurdjieff’s work. A prospectus issued by his Institute in Constantinople in 1920 lists her, under the name Yu. I. Ostrovskaya, as an instructor in movement training and ancient Oriental dances.
"Julia Osipovna Ostrovsky was tall of stature, exceedingly finely formed; a very beautiful woman - but not at all like those women of the cultured class who habitually interest themselves in new philosophical teachings. Our first impression was that she was rather remote from her husband’s affairs. But we came to see how deeply and seriously she valued the Work of Mr Gurdjieff. We grew to love her, deeply and sincerely, and she began to feel for us as present friends and future pupils of Mr Gurdjieff. Much later our paths took us through trials together, which brought us close and formed an inner bond that could not be broken by day-to-day occurrences." (Olga de Hartmann - Our Life With Mr Gurdjieff.)
In Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am”, Gurdjieff
wrote movingly of his affection for his wife, describing her as
my uniquely and sincerely beloved wife
.
He recalled her sitting beside him with his mother while he
worked, and described the close understanding the two women
developed despite initially having no common language.
Julia died on 26 June 1926 from cancer. James Moore’s chronology records Gurdjieff’s sustained efforts to care for her during her final illness and notes that P. D. Ouspensky attended her funeral.