Elisabeth of Hungary

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Elisabeth of Hungary
Elisabeth by Simone Martini
Born	1207, Sárospatak [1], Hungary
Died	1231, Marburg, Germany
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church
Canonized	1235, Perugia, Italy
Major shrine	Elisabeth Church (Marburg)
Feast	November 17 (formerly November 19)
Attributes	Crown, Roses, Tending to Beggers
Patronage	hospitals, nurses, bakers, brides, countesses, dying children, exiles, homeless people, lacemakers, tertiaries and widows
Saints Portal

St. Elisabeth of Hungary (German: St. Elisabeth von Thüringen, Hungarian: Szent Erzsébet, b. 1207 – 17 November 1231) spend most of her short life in Germany. At age 4, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1175–1235) and Gertrude of Andechs-Merania was brought to the court of the Rulers of Thuringia in Central Germany, to become a future bride in order to reinforce political alliances between the families. Elisabeth was married at age 14, widowed at age 20, relinquished her wealth to the poor, built hospitals, and became a symbol of Christian charity in Germany and elsewhere after her death at age 24.

1 Early life and marriage
2 Widow at age 20
3 Legacy
4 External links

[edit] Early life and marriage

Her mother sent the infant Elisabeth to Germany to grow up there in order to assure her loyalty and the acceptance by the locals there.

At the age of thirteen, Elisabeth was betrothed to Ludwig IV of Thuringia, called the Blessed. Some have suggested that Ludwig's brother Hermann was in fact the eldest, and that she was first betrothed to him until his death in 1216, but this is doubtful. An event of this magnitude would almost certainly be mentioned at least once in the many original sources at our disposal, and this is not the case. In addition, the only source document that might support this by putting Hermann's name before Ludwig's relates to a monastery in Hesse which in fact supports the theory that Hermann was the younger of the two, as Hesse was traditionally the domain of the second son. It would therefore be normal to put his name first, as this document deals with his territory.

In 1221, at age 14, Elisabeth married Ludwig, and the marriage appears to have been happy. In 1223, Franciscan monks arrived, and the teenage Elisabeth not only learned about the ideals of Francis of Assisi, but started to live them. Ludwig was not upset by his wife's charitable efforts believing that the distribution of his wealth to the poor would bring eternal reward; he is venerated in Thuringia as a saint (without being canonized by the Church, unlike his wife).

It was also about this time that the inquisitor Konrad von Marburg — a harsh man and a true product of his age — gained considerable power over Elisabeth as he became her religious advisor and confessor.

In the spring of 1226, when floods, famine, and plague wrought havoc in Thuringia, Ludwig, a staunch supporter of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, represented Frederick II at the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) in Cremona. Elisabeth assumed control of affairs and distributed alms in all parts of their territory, even giving away state robes and ornaments to the poor. Below the Wartburg Castle, she built a hospice with twenty-eight beds and visited the inmates daily to attend to them.

Elisabeth's life changed irrevocably on 11 September 1227 when Ludwig, en route to join the Sixth Crusade, died of the plague in Otranto, Italy. His remains were buried in 1228.

[edit] Widow at age 20

A wax figure of Elisabeth in a museum in Keszthely

With Ludwig's death, his brother Heinrich Raspe of Thuringia assumed the regency during the minority of Elisabeth's eldest child, landgrave Hermann II, Landgraf of Thuringia (1222–1241).

After bitter arguments over the disposal of her dower, in which Konrad had been appointed as her defensor by Pope Gregory IX, Elizabeth left the court at Wartburg and moved to Marburg in Hesse. The popular tradition is that she was cast out by Heinrich, but this does not stand up to critical examination.

Similar to a nun, Elizabeth had made pledges to Konrad regarding celibacy in case of her husbands death (which prevented her from becoming the wife of Emperor Frederick), as well as obedience to Konrad. Konrad's treatment of Elisabeth was extremely harsh, and he held her to standards of behaviour which were almost impossible to meet. Among the punishments he is alleged to have ordered were physical beatings and separation from her three children.

Elisabeth's second child Sophia (1224-1284) married Henry II, Duke of Brabant and was the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse, as in the War of the Thuringian Succession she won Hesse for her son Heinrich I, called the Child. Elisabeth's third child, the Blessed Gertrude (1227-1297), was born several weeks after the death of her father; she became abbess of the convent of Altenberg near Wetzlar.

After unsuccessful attempts to force her to remarry, she joined the Third Order of St. Francis, a lay Franciscan group, and built a hospital at Marburg for the poor and the sick.

In 1231, Elisabeth died in Marburg at only 24 years of age, either from physical fatigue due to Konrad's treatment, or from disease.

[edit] Legacy

Elisabethkirche in Marburg

Floorplan of Elisabethkirche

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.

Elisabeth is perhaps best known for the legend which says that whilst she was taking bread to the poor in secret, her husband asked her what was in the pouch; Elisabeth opened it and the bread turned into roses. This miracle is commemorated with a statue in Budapest, in front of the neo-Gothic church dedicated to her at Roses' Square (Rózsák tere) [2]. The architect of the church was Imre Steindl, architect of the Budapest Parliament.

The most popular story about St. Elisabeth is an account by Dietrich of Apolda. In the story, it is said that she laid a leper in the bed she shared with her husband. When Ludwig discovered what she had done, he is said to have snatched off the bedclothes in great indignation, but at that instant “Almighty God opened the eyes of his soul, and instead of a leper he saw the figure of Christ crucified stretched upon the bed.”

By papal command three examinations were held of those who had been healed: August, 1232, January, 1233, and January, 1235.

She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235. This papal charter is on display in the Schatzkammer of the Deutschordenskirche in Vienna, Austria. At Pentecost (28 May) of the year 1235, during the ceremony of canonization she was called the "greatest woman of the German Middle Ages"^{[citation needed]}. Her body was laid in a magnificent golden shrine — still to be seen today — in the Elisabeth Church (Marburg). It is now a Protestant church, but has spaces set aside for Catholic worship. Marburg became a centre of the Teutonic Order which adopted St. Elisabeth as its second patroness. The Order remained in Marburg until its official dissolution by Napoleon I of France in 1803.

Elisabeth's shrine became one of the main German centres of pilgrimage of the entire 14th century and early 15th century. During the course of the 15th century, the popular cult of St. Elisabeth slowly faded. However, this was to some extent replaced by an aristocratic devotion to St Elisabeth, as through her daughter Sophia she was an ancestor of many leading aristocratic German families.

Three hundred years after her death, one of Elisabeth's many descendants, the Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous" of Hesse, a leader of the Protestant reformation and one of the most important supporters of Martin Luther, raided the church in Marburg and demanded that the Teutonic Order hand over Elisabeth's bones, in order to disperse her relics and thus put an end to the already declining pilgrimages to Marburg.

Philip also took away the crowned agate chalice in which St. Elisabeth's head rested, but returned it after being imprisoned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The chalice was subsequently plundered by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War and is now on display at the National Museum in Stockholm. St Elisabeth's skull and some of her bones can be seen at the Convent of St Elisabeth in Vienna; some relics also survive at the shrine in Marburg.

The rose miracle is commemorated with a statue in Budapest, in front of the neo-Gothic church dedicated to her at Roses' Square (Rózsák tere) [3]. The architect of the church was Imre Steindl, architect of the Budapest Parliament.

The legend of the miracle of the roses is taught in all Portuguese schools as having happened with Queen St. Elizabeth of Aragon (1271–1336, Raínha Santa Isabel), wife of Portuguese King Denis of Portugal. When Portuguese tourists visit Germany or Hungary and are surprised to hear the same legend, it is explained to them that the Portuguese Queen, a grand-daughter of the second wife of Andrew II of Hungary, was named after her step-great-aunt.

The legends are very similar - the Portuguese Queen, when admonished by her husband that she was too generous with the poor who took advantage of her charity, let her folded apron fall and say "But they are only roses, m'Lord!" and the bread became roses.

Like many medieval legends this one seems to exist in at least two countries far away from the actual places in Germany. Probably, similar legends exist elsewhere. She was always a very loving and kind person. We remember her today as a great saint who always cared for the sick, young, and those who live in poverty.