Born: 7 July 1207, Hungary
Died: 17 November 1231
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet, Svätá Alžbeta Uhorská, Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231), was the daughter of King Andrew II and his queen, Gertrude. When not yet four years of age, Elizabeth was betrothed to Louis, son of Hermann, landgrave of Thuringia, to whom she was married in 1221. Though Elizabeth was only fourteen she was already distinguished for her piety and tender pity for the poor. Her husband, with whom she lived happily, did not oppose her excessive charities. In 1223 her first child was born, and each of her four children she dedicated to God from infancy. During her husband’s absence in Italy in 1226, a dreadful famine devastated Thuringia. Elizabeth did everything that was possible for the relief of the poor and suffering, and nursed the sick and dying with the utmost tenderness. Every day nine hundred persons were fed in the courtyard of the castle, and countless instances are cited of her boundless generosity and thoughtfulness. She also founded a hospital near the castle, which in 1331, a hundred years after her death, was replaced by a convent, founded in her honor. The district still bears the name of the “Valley of Elizabeth,” and a well of pure water where the duchess was wont to wash the clothes of the poor, bears her name to this day.
The following year, in 1227, Louis died while on the way to the holy land, and Elizabeth, in her grief retired to Marburg ,which had been conceded to her for life with all its privileges and revenue, in order to be under the immediate guidance of her confessor, Conrad of Marburg. She joined Franciscans, wore the poorest dress and lived on the scantiest food, spending all her income in works of charity. Here she built a hospital which she visited every day nursing the patients, and attending those afflicted with loathsome diseases.
At Conrad’s behest, she gave up her children, dismissed her friends, and so far submitted to him as to receive physical chastisement at his hands. In 1231 when she was but twenty-four, she died of a fever, her body was carried to the small chapel of St. Francis, and after four days she was buried there in the presence of an immense crowd of people. It is said that many wonderful cures were accomplished at her tomb; the blind, the halt, and those afflicted with diseases were healed by touching it, and by prayers to the good saint.
Elizabeth belongs to the sweetest female characters of the Middle Ages. With a loving heart, capable as well as desirous of absolute devotion, she early felt the drawing from on high and followed it, with a life of deep and sincere piety.
In 1907 a new impulse was given to her veneration in various parts of Europe by the celebration of the seven hundredth anniversary of her birth. St. Elizabeth is generally represented as a princess graciously giving alms to the wretched poor, or as holding roses in her lap; in the latter case she is portrayed either alone or as surprised by her husband, who, according to a legend met her unexpectedly as she went secretly on an errand of mercy, and, so the story runs, the bread she was trying to conceal was suddenly turned into roses.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Elizabeth of Hungary, daughter of Andreas II., king of Hungary, was born at Presburg in 1207. At the age of four she was affianced to the Landgraf of Thuringia, Louis IV., and was brought up to his court in the Wartburg, near Eisenach, to be educated under the eyes of the parents of her future husband. She early displayed a passion for the severities [sic] of Christian life. She despised pomp and ambition; her conduct even as a girl astonished the Thuringian court. The marriage took place when Elizabeth was fourteen. Louis, far from blaming the devout girl whom he made for his wife, for her long prayers and ceaseless almsgiving [sic], was himself partially attracted to a similar mode of life. A boy and two girls were the fruit of their union. Louis died as a crusader at Otranto in 1227.
Great misfortunes soon befell the saintly Elizabeth. She was deprived of her regency by the brother of her deceased husband, and driven out of her dominion on the plea that she wasted the treasure of the state by her charities. At last she found refuge in the church, where her first care was to thank God that He had judged her worthy to suffer.
When the warriors who attended her husband in the crusade returned from the East, she gathered them around her, and recounted her sufferings. Steps were taken to restore to the unfortunate princess her sovereign rights. She declined the regency, however, and would only accept the revenues which accrued to her as landgravine [sic]. The representations of other potentates soon induced her brother-in-law to allow her to return to Marburg, and to draw a yearly revenue of 500 marks.
She now devoted herself wholly to a life of asceticism, but put on a nun’s raiment, and took up her residence in a cottage at the foot of the hill on which stood her castle of Marburg. The remainder of her days were given up to incessant devotions, almsgivings [sic], and mortifications [sic]. All her revenues were given to the poor, and what she required for personal expenditures she earned with her own hands. She died November 19, 1231.