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St. Elizabeth of Hungary
July 7, 1207 - November 17, 1231
Feast Day: November 17th
Patron Saint of bakers, beggars, brides, charities, death of children, homeless people, hospitals, Sisters of Mercy, Secular Franciscan Order, and widows.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary was born July 7, 1207 the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania. She was betrothed at the age of 4 to Louis IV, son of Hermann I, landgrave of Thuringia, at whose court she was brought up. Elizabeth lost her mother at the tender age of six.
In 1221, at the age of 14, Elizabeth was married to Louis of Thuringia, whom she deeply loved. She bore three children, two of whom became members of nobility and the third entering the religious life, becoming abbess of a German convent.
In 1223, Franciscan monks arrived, and Elizabeth learned about the ideals of Francis of Assisi and started to live them. Louis was not upset by his wife's charitable efforts believing that the distribution of his wealth to the poor would bring eternal reward.
Under the spiritual direction of a Franciscan friar, she led a life of prayer, sacrifice, and service to the poor and sick. Seeking to become one with the poor, she wore simple clothing. Daily she would take bread to hundreds of the poorest in the land who came to her gate. Louis shared his wife’s holiness and compassion for others. Only once, according to legend, did he interfere with her charity. To pacify complaints of the royal court, he forbade her to give away supplies belonging to the castle.
Among the best-known legends about Elizabeth is the one often depicted in art showing her meeting her husband unexpectedly on one of her secret charitable errands to deliver bread to the poor. Her husband asked what she was carrying in her pouch; Elizabeth opened it and the bread turned into roses. This transformation convinced King Louis of the worthiness of her kind endeavors, about which he had been chiding her. He never again questioned Elizabeth.
Once, while attending Mass, Elizabeth fell prostrate before the crucifix, took off her crown, and laid it at the foot of the crucified Christ. Although chastised by others, she believed she couldn’t come before Jesus wearing her regal crown when He wore a crown of thorns.
Louis died in 1227 of plague in Otranto, Italy, en route to the Sixth Crusade. When his brother Heinrich assumed the regency, the grief-striken Elizabeth left, vowed to live forever a life of chastity, and took refuge with her uncle, Bishop Eckbert of Bamberg.
No longer caring for position or wealth, Elizabeth joined the Third Order of St. Francis, a lay Franciscan group. At Marburg she built a hospice for the poor and sick, to whose service she devoted the rest of her life. She put herself under the spiritual direction of Konrad von Marburg, an ascetic of incredible harshness and severity, who belonged to no specific order.
Elizabeth’s health declined and she died on Nov. 17, 1231 in Marburg, Thuringia [Germany] at the age of 24.
Very soon after the death of Elizabeth, miracles were reported that happened at her grave in the church of the hospital, especially miracles of healing. By papal command three examinations were held of those who had been healed: August, 1232, January, 1233, and January, 1235. The investigations, along with testimony from Elizabeth's handmaidens and companions, and the immense popularity surrounding her, provided enough reason for her canonization four year after her death in 1235 by Pope Gregory IX.
This papal charter is on display in the Schatzkammer of the Deutschordenskirche in Vienna, Austria. At Pentecost ( May 28) of the year 1235, during the ceremony of canonization, Elizabeth was called the "greatest woman of the German Middle Ages.” Her body was laid in a magnificent golden shrine … still to be seen today … in the Elizabeth Church (Marburg). It is now a Protestant church, but has spaces set aside for Catholic worship.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary was inspired by God to use her royal position, as a princess by birth and countess by marriage, to help the poor. Instead of ignoring the destitute, she went out looking for the most impoverished, humbling herself to benefit the sick and starving. Elizabeth saw the face of Jesus in the beggar, the homeless, the leper, and devoted her life in the service of such people. Saint Elizabeth’s life of devotion to the poor (for whom she relinquished her wealth) made her an enduring symbol of Christian charity.
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