St. Elisabeth of Hungary

St. Elisabeth of Hungary (1207 - 17 November 1231) was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1175-1235) and his wife Gertrude of Meran (d. 1213), and because she was widowed, relinquished her wealth to the poor, and built hospitals, is the patron saint of hospitals, nurses, bakers, brides, countesses, dying children, exiles, hobos, homeless people, lacemakers, and widows, and is a symbol of Christian charity.

Her feast day is 17 November.

As an infant she was betrothed to a son of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia, and was raised with his family.

When her betrothed died in 1216, she became engaged to his brother, Ludwig IV of Thuringia, and they were married in 1221. The marriage was happy: Ludwig was not upset by the distribution of his wealth but rather believed that his wife's charitable efforts using his money enhanced his chances of eternal reward. But Ludwig died on 11 September 1227 of plague at Otranto, Italy en route to the Sixth Crusade.

With Ludwig's death, his brother Henry assumed the regency, and Elisabeth and her three children were turned out. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, a lay Franciscan group. She built a hospice at Marburg for the poor and sick and put herself under the spiritual direction of Konrad von Marburg, who was harsh and severe and often beat her.

She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235.

Her body was enshrined in a church in Marburg which was named for her (it is now a Protestant church).

Three hundred years later one of Elisabeth's descendants, Count Philip "the Magnaminous" of Hesse, raided the church and demanded the surrender of Elisabeth's bones. He also stole a golden cup and a crown. He dispersed the relics, ending pilgrimages to Marburg; some of them were never found again. Other items purporting to be her relics are known: her skull (wearing the stolen crown) and some of her bones are displayed in Vienna's Convent of St. Elizabeth.