Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Queen and Franciscan Tertiary
(1207–1231)

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was born in 1207, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary. At the age of four she was sent to the court of Thuringia as the betrothed of the young Landgrave Ludwig, where she was raised alongside her future husband. Despite the unusual circumstances of this early separation from her family, Elizabeth and Ludwig grew into genuine and deep love, and their marriage in 1221 was a genuinely happy one. They had three children together.

From her earliest years at the Thuringian court Elizabeth showed an intense devotion to the poor that sometimes scandalised those around her. She gave away her jewels and fine clothing, served the sick with her own hands, built a hospital at the foot of the castle of Wartburg where she nursed the sick personally, and gave away food from the royal stores during a famine despite the protests of Ludwig's councillors. The famous miracle of the roses is associated with her: when intercepted by her husband or his steward while carrying food to the poor beneath her mantle, the loaves turned to roses when the mantle was opened.

When Ludwig died of plague while on the way to the Crusade in 1227, Elizabeth's world collapsed. She was expelled from the Wartburg castle by her brother-in-law and wandered with her three children in the depth of winter, finding shelter where she could. She eventually made her way to Marburg, where she came under the direction of the harsh confessor Conrad of Marburg, to whose discipline she submitted with remarkable obedience. She founded a hospital at Marburg and spent her remaining years serving the sick and poor.

She died on November 17, 1231, at the age of twenty-four, worn out by her austerities and her service to the poor. She was canonised by Gregory IX in 1235. Her feast is celebrated on November 17th.