St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Their story

Elizabeth was born in 1207, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary. As a small child she was promised in marriage to the son of a German noble family and sent to live at the Wartburg castle in Thuringia. At fourteen she married Ludwig, who became a landgrave, a powerful ruler. Their marriage was a genuinely happy one, and they had three children. Elizabeth used her position to serve the poor. She built a hospital near the castle, cared for the sick herself, and during a famine distributed grain and money to the hungry. Some members of the court criticized her generosity, but Ludwig supported her. A beloved legend tells that when she was carrying bread to the poor, the loaves in her cloak turned to roses. In 1227 Ludwig died on his way to the Crusades. Elizabeth was heartbroken. She left the court, became one of the first members of the Third Order of St. Francis, and built a hospital in Marburg, where she cared for the sick and the poor with her own hands. Worn out by her labors and penance, she died in 1231 at just twenty-four. She was canonized four years later.