St. Elizabeth of Hungary


(1207-1231) St. Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess, the daughter of King Andrew of Hungary. In 1221 she married Prince Ludwig of Thuringia and they had had four children.

In addition to caring for her children, Elizabeth was devoted to caring for the poor, the sick, and the aged. She built a hopsital at the foot of the mountain on which her castle stood and cared for the patients herself. Her family opposed this, but she insisted she could only follow Christ's teachings, not theirs. Once when she was taking food to the poor and sick, Prince Ludwig stopped her and looked under her mantle to see what she was carrying; the food had been miraculously changed to roses.

Upon Ludwig's death in 1227, Elizabeth became a Franciscan tertiary, sold all that she had, and worked to support her children. Her gifts of bread to the poor, and of a large gift of grain to a famine - stricken Germany, led to her patronage of bakers. She is also the Patroness of third order members and of hospitals.

Elizabeth died in exceptional poverty and was canonized in 1235.
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