Elizabeth of Hungary

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was born on July 7, 1207, in the Kingdom of Hungary, traditionally at Sárospatak (though some place her birth at Pozsony, today Bratislava). Daughter of King Andrew II, she was sent as a child to the court of Thuringia in Germany and, at fourteen, married Louis IV, the landgrave. Their marriage was marked by a shared openness to God’s will, and when Franciscan friars arrived in 1223, Elizabeth embraced the spirit of Saint Francis with ardent love for the poor. During years of famine and plague, she distributed alms freely, even giving away courtly treasures to relieve suffering. Widowed at twenty when Louis died on the way to the Crusade, she chose a life of simplicity and vowed herself to Christ. With her recovered dowry she built a hospital at Marburg, where she personally served the sick and destitute. Elizabeth died there on November 17, 1231, only twenty-four years old. Miracles of healing soon surrounded her tomb, and she was quickly canonized. She is honored as a patroness of the Third Order of Saint Francis and is venerated in places dedicated under her name. Her feast day is November 17.