Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

After the death of the Landgrave (1216), Elizabeth, who was then only nine years old, showed even more humility, piety, and mercy. When she entered the church, she always removed the jeweled crown she wore on her head, saying that it was not reasonable for her to appear in that state before God, who was crowned with thorns. She took more pleasure in the company of the young and noble ladies who were placed in her service than in the ostentatious tumult of the court. Her only pleasure was to be in the church or in her oratory, and she could have nothing at her disposal that she did not immediately distribute to the needy. Sophie, the young Landgrave's mother, Agnes his sister, and most of the nobles of the court, who possessed only a worldly spirit, were very displeased with this conduct; they often mocked her with very stinging remarks, which she endured with invincible patience: they tried to prevent the fulfillment of her marriage, saying that she was more suited for the cloister than for reigning. But the young prince, whose heart God had touched through her prayers, protested, pointing to a large mountain, that even if he were offered gold the size of that mass, he would not abandon the resolution he had taken to marry Elizabeth.

After her marriage, which took place in 1220, having taken as her director the blessed Conrad of Marburg, bienheureux Conrad, de Marbourg Spiritual director and confessor of Saint Elizabeth. a priest of most eminent holiness, she made incredible progress in detachment of heart from all earthly things and in union with God. The consideration of Jesus Christ poor, suffering, and covered in ignominy touched her so deeply that she had no other desire than to resemble Him. She looked upon the splendor of her sovereign dignity and all the ornaments that accompanied it with an inexpressible contempt. As she saw in her husband the image of the Savior, the spouse of the Church, she loved him perfectly, followed him on his journeys, however difficult they might be, always ate with him, and did not separate from him day or night. Nevertheless, she spent almost the entire night in prayer, with tears in her eyes, prostrate on the ground, and sometimes completely absorbed in the contemplation of the greatness of God and the ineffable perfections of Jesus Christ. If it happened that the Landgrave, in leaving his states, was obliged to leave her, she immediately took off her magnificent clothes and wore simple ones until his return. Her abstinence and austerities were extreme, and it did not seem that a body as delicate as hers could endure them. The following twelve maxims, which her confessor had given her, were like the summary of her rule of conduct: "1st. Suffer patiently contempt in the midst of voluntary poverty; — 2nd. Give humility the first place in your heart; — 3rd. Renounce human consolations and the pleasures of the flesh; — 4th. Be merciful in all things toward your neighbor; — 5th. Always keep the memory of God in the depths of your heart; — 6th. Give thanks to God that, by His death, He has redeemed you from hell and eternal death; — 7th. Since God has suffered so much for you, also bear the cross patiently; — 8th. Consecrate yourself entirely, body and soul, to God; — 9th. Remember often that you are the work of God's hands, and act, consequently, in such a way as to be eternally with Him; — 10th. Forgive and remit to your neighbor all that you desire him to remit or forgive you; do for him all that you desire him to do for you; — 11th. Always think of how short life is, and that the young die like the old; always aspire to eternal life; — 12th. Ceaselessly deplore your sins, and pray to God to forgive them."

Her mercy toward the poor knew no bounds, and it would take an entire volume to describe its wonders. She received and treated a great number of them every day in her palace, and she had several hospitals built for them, of which she was the mother, protector, and provider. As filthy as they were, she cleaned them with her own hands, washed their feet, brought food to their mouths, and dressed their wounds with insurmountable charity. The difficulty of the paths, the filth of the streets, the bad odor, and the infection of the places never prevented her from visiting on foot women who had just given birth, the sick, the bashful poor, and prisoners. One day, when she was being pressed extremely hard to come to the table, where the Landgrave was entertaining the greatest lords of his State, being importuned by a poor man, she gave him her own ducal mantle as alms; but an angel brought it back immediately, and perhaps it was he himself who had received it. Another time, when the ambassadors of her father the King came to her husband, although she was simply dressed, she appeared all covered in a robe of hyacinth raised with gold, precious stones, and pearls. But none of the miracles with which God honored our Saint is more popular than the following. One day, as she was descending, accompanied by one of her favorite attendants, along a small, very rough path that is still shown today, carrying in the folds of her mantle bread, meat, eggs, and other food to distribute to the poor, she suddenly found herself face to face with her husband, who was returning from the hunt. Astonished to see her thus bending under the weight of her burden, he said to her: "Let us see what you are carrying"; and at the same time, he opened against her will the mantle that she was clutching, all frightened, against her chest; but there was nothing left but white and red roses, the most beautiful he had ever seen in his life; this surprised him all the more as it was not the season for flowers. Noticing Elizabeth's distress, he wanted to reassure her with his caresses; but he stopped suddenly upon seeing a luminous image in the shape of a cross appear above her head. He then told her to continue on her way without worrying about him, and he h imself we Wartbourg Castle of the Thuringian court. nt back up to the Wartburg, meditating with reverence on what God was doing through her, and taking with him one of these marvelous roses, which he kept all his life.

One cannot worthily represent her devotion at Mass, her attention and reverence in hearing the sermon, her humble manners on Good Friday and on the principal feasts of the year. At such times, there was no distinction between her and the people, and all her pleasure was to humble herself before God to honor the self-abasement of her Savior.

To better follow the inclinations of her humility, she embraced the Third Order of Saint Francis and received the cord from the hands of the venerable Conrad, then guardian of Marburg and later provincial of Germany, who is different from the blessed Conrad of whom we have already spoken. However, God, who wished to perfect her holiness through the most heroic exercises of humility and patience, took from her the la ndgrave her husband landgrave son époux Husband of Elizabeth, Landgrave of Thuringia, died on crusade. , who died in Sicily while going to the Holy Land with the Emperor Frederick to rescue the holy places from the hands of the infidels. As soon as this news reached Thuringia, Prince Henry, her brother-in-law, who acted as regent of the State, without regard for the sorrow with which such a painful loss pierced her heart, drove her from his palace and stripped her of all her possessions; she could barely find a place in an inn in the city to take refuge with her children who were brought to her. Those who owed her the most for her protection and immense charities abandoned her and refused her asylum, and an old woman whom she had nourished with her alms made her fall into the mud to cross a muddy stream before her. She received these accidents as invaluable gifts from heaven.

When the Bishop of Bamberg, her maternal uncle, and some of the great men of the kingdom who had brought back her husband's body, had caused her to return to the palace and had compelled Prince Henry to ask her forgiveness for the ill-treatment he had shown her, she renounced all the grandeurs of the world of her own accord and had a small house of earth and planks built for herself i n the city of Mar ville de Marbourg City where Elizabeth lived her final years and where she was buried. burg. While it was being built, she lodged in a village, in a miserable, half-covered hut, where nothing protected her from the winds, the rain, and the other insults of the weather. We have no words to represent either the state of poverty to which she reduced herself, nor the austerities she practiced, nor what she did for the assistance of the poor. Her clothes were only of wool, and when they were worn out, she mended them herself with poor scraps of fabric, without even bothering that they be of the same color as the garment she was mending. Brown bread and a few vegetables, most often cooked only with water, made up all her food. She kept exactly the fasts of her Rule and many others, which her director permitted her.

In her greatest poverty, she took the bread from her own mouth to give to the poor, and when she could no longer give them anything, she gave herself to them, rendering them services that the lowliest servants would have been horrified to perform. When, through the care of Pope Gregory IX, a great lord named Rudolph, and the priest Conrad, her director, to whom His Holiness had particularly recommended her, her dowry was returned to her—which she preferred to have in money rather than in land—she assembled a multitude of the poor on a named day and distributed to them, for that occasion, up to nine thousand pounds. Her profusions would have been even more excessive and would have reduced her to the ultimate mendicancy, as she passionately wished, had her director not stopped her fervor. Moreover, this wise ecclesiastic contributed much, by his severe conduct, to make her die to herself and to break her own will in all things: he forbade her what she ardently wished, he commanded her what he saw to be most contrary, not only to the inclinations of her nature, but also to the supernatural movements she wished to follow. One day when she had delayed in obeying, he dismissed her severely and told her that he no longer wished to be involved in her conduct; so that she only obtained the continuation of his care through her tears and a perfect death to her own judgment. He took from her two holy women who had always been with her, and whose conversation was an extraordinary relief and consolation to her; in their place, he gave her rude and severe women, who reproached her without respect and came to accuse her without her having failed.

The sweetness of our princess was admirable on all these occasions. Never any disgust, never any impatience, never any sadness, but one always saw the peace and tranquility of her heart painted on her face. She was the servant of her own servants; she made them eat with her, and, as one of them could not endure this heroic act of humility, she told her that she must eat upon her own breast. God often performed miracles to give luster to all her virtues. She delivered her mother from purgatory through her prayers. A sick man in the hospital wishing to eat fish, she drew one from a well where there were none. Her prayer was so effective for a young libertine that, as she prayed, he felt his heart ignite with the flames of divine love, and his body become all in a sweat. Through all these exercises, she was raised to a very high contemplation, and Our Lord communicated Himself to her in an ineffable manner. She earned part of her living by the work of her hands; but apart from that and the employments of charity, she was so absorbed in God that her spirit and her senses lived no longer but in Him and for Him.

Finally, her heavenly spouse, for the love of whom she had refused the second marriage that her illustrious parents offered her, called her to him with these amiable words that he spoke to her in an apparition: "Come, my beloved, and enter into the blessed dwelling that I have prepared for you before all ages." Three days before her death, she prayed that no one should enter her room, except those who could help her to die well. She made the poor her heirs. She received the sacraments with a wonderful compunction of heart and devotion. She said such ravishing things about our holy mysteries that one believed they were hearing an angel speak. Finally, she rendered her spirit to God on November 19, 1231, in the twenty-fourth year of her age.

Saint Elizabeth is represented: 1° carrying bread to the poor in her dress, which is changed into roses; 2° holding a book, upon which are placed two crowns; 3° in the habit of the Third Order of Saint Francis; 4° dressing the wounds of the sick; 5° holding a bird on her hand, and a vase; 6° distributing food to the needy; 7° carrying loaves of bread, and near her a crown; 8° seated and working in the midst of the maidens of her palace; 9° in the midst of the poor and the infirm; 10° dead, hands crossed, lying in her open coffin; Our Lord, having Our Lady at his side, is standing near the coffin; the soul of Elizabeth, in the figure of a newly born little girl, but already crowned with glory, is presented by her guardian angel to Christ who raises his hand to bless her; another angel incenses her; the Blessed Virgin looks with love upon her humble and docile pupil; beside her, a bearded man, lance in hand and bearing the cross of the crusades.

## CULT AND RELICS. The body of Saint Elizabeth was transported by the Franciscan friars to the humble chapel of the Saint Francis hospital, where it remained exposed for four whole days; a sweet and delicious perfume exhaled from it. On the fourth day after her death, she was buried in the chapel itself, in the presence of the abbots and religious of several neighboring monasteries and an immense multitude of the faithful. From the very first days following these funerals, great wonders took place near her tomb: the deaf, the lame, the blind, the lepers, the paralyzed, and the unfortunate afflicted with various infirmities returned entirely healed after having prayed in the chapel where she rested. One saw the sick flocking from the dioceses of Mainz, Trier, Cologne, Bremen, and Magdeburg. The Sovereign Pontiff Gregory IX, learning of the wonders with which di vine power Grégoire IX Pope who attested to the miracles of Bruno. surrounded the tomb of the glorious deceased, and the ever-growing veneration of the people toward her, ordered the Archbishop of Mainz to conduct an inquiry into the life and miracles of the Saint and to send them to Rome. Meanwhile, Archbishop Sigefroi of Mainz went to Marburg and solemnly consecrated there, on the feast day of Saint Lawrence (August 10, 1232), two altars that the faithful had built in honor of Elizabeth, in the very church where she was buried. Gregory IX issued the decree of her canonization on the day of Pentecost (May 26, 1235), and granted to all truly penitent and confessed faithful who would visit her tomb on that day, an indulgence of one year and forty days. An altar was raised in honor of the Saint in the Dominican convent of Perugia, which the Pope endowed with an indulgence of thirty days for all those who would come to pray there. The bull of canonization was published on June 1, 1235, and sent to the princes and bishops of the entire Church. The Archbishop of Mainz set May 1, 1236, for the exaltation and translation of the body of the Saint. The body was found entirely intact, without any appearance of corruption, and exhaling a delicious perfume. It was then removed from its coffin, and after being wrapped in a purple cloth, it was placed in a lead coffin, which was solemnly transported to the place where it was to be exposed for public veneration. The reliquary that enclosed the holy body having been opened the next day, it was found flooded with an oil that gave off a perfume similar to that of the most precious spikenard. This precious oil was collected with religious care, and many healings were obtained through its use in serious illnesses or for dangerous wounds. So many heavenly favors only increased the number and fervor of the faithful. The glory of Saint Elizabeth soon spread throughout the Catholic world and attracted a great crowd of pilgrims to Marburg. The body of Saint Elizabeth rested for three centuries under the vaults of the magnificent church dedicated to her, and under the guard of the knights of the Teutonic Order; but her heart was granted to the Bishop of Cambrai, solemnly transported by him to his episcopal city and placed on an altar of his Ordre teutonique Order that held the saint's body in Marburg. cathedral, which was destroyed during the Terror. Numerous churches rose under her invocation: in Trier, Strasbourg, Kassel, Winchester, Prague, and throughout Belgium, convents and hospitals took her as their patroness. The Abbot of Saint Gall dedicated an altar and a chapel to her in one of the inner courtyards of his monastery. In Hungary, a splendid church rose in her honor at Kaschan, and it was enriched in the 15th century with an admirable tabernacle. Pope Innocent IV, by a bull of the 2nd of the Ides of February 1244, granted one year and forty days of indulgence to those who would visit the church and the tomb of Marburg in the last three days of Holy Week. Sixtus IV, by a bull of 1479, granted fifty years and as many quarantines of indulgence to all the faithful, penitent and confessed, who would visit the churches of the Order of Saint Francis in honor of Elizabeth on the day of her feast. On this same day, there is still today in Rome one hundred years of indulgence to be gained in one of the seven basilicas of the eternal city, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and at the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli; furthermore, a plenary indulgence at the church of the Third Order, known as Saints Cosmas and Damian, at the Forum. The Orders of Saint Francis, Saint Dominic, Cîteaux, and Prémontré each dedicated a special office to her, and her feast was introduced into the Roman breviary, with the rank of double minor, by Pope Clement X.

Near Marburg, on the road leading to the village of Wehrda, one can still see a triple-spout fountain called Elisabethabrunn. It was there that she herself washed the laundry of the sick; a large blue stone, upon which she knelt during this arduous work, was transported to the church and can still be seen there. On May 18, 1539, Landgrave P hilip of Hesse, a direct de landgrave Philippe de Hesse A descendant of Elizabeth who introduced the Reformation and dispersed her relics. scendant of Saint Elizabeth, had the evangelical service celebrated for the first time in the church dedicated to his ancestor; then, seizing the reliquary that contained the body of the Saint, he had it transported to his castle. The bones of the Saint were buried shortly thereafter in a place unknown to all, except the Landgrave and two of his confidants. In 1546, he had the reliquary deposited at the castle of Ziegenhayn; but two years later, having been taken prisoner by Emperor Charles V, the latter forced him to have this sacred property brought back to Marburg and to restore the relics of Saint Elizabeth to the church; however, a large portion was already missing, and from that time on, their certain trace is lost.

Towards the end of the 16th century, the Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia, Governor of the Netherlands, acquired the skull along with several bones and had them transported to Brussels and deposited with the Carmelites, whose convent disappeared along with so many others under the blows of revolutionary vandalism: the skull was later sent to the Château de la Roche-Guyon, from where it was transferred to Besançon around 1630 by the Cardinal Duke of Rohan. It is venerated today at the Saint-Jacques Hospital in that city. A portion of it has been sent as far as Bogota, in South America. One of her arms was sent to Hungary; other portions of her relics were still to be seen in Hanover, Vienna, Cologne, and especially in Breslau, in a beautiful chapel where the staff she used for support during her expulsion from the Wartburg is also kept. Her glass is still preserved in Erfurt; her wedding dress in Andechs; her wedding ring in Braunfels, along with her book of hours, her table, and her straw chair; her veil in Tongeren; and a chemise, which she had stained with her blood while disciplining herself, at the convent of the Sisters of Saint Charles in Koblenz. One of the Saint's arms, originating from the Abbey of Altenberg and possessed by Count de Boess-Waldeck, who had offered it for sale to several sovereigns who count her among their ancestors, but without finding buyers, is today in the chapel of the Château de Sayn.

In Marburg, the only thing shown of hers today is a large tapestry upon which it is said she worked, and which is used for the communion ceremony according to the Lutheran rite. Her chair, empty for three centuries, was taken to Kassel by the order of Jérôme Napoléon, then brought back to Marburg in 1814 and replaced in the sacristy. The magnificent church that was consecrated to her has been dedicated to Protestant worship since 1539. Since 1811, Catholic worship has been authorized in this city which, like the entire country where the Saint lived, has renounced her faith; one sees a small Catholic church there, but not even a mass is said on the feast day of Saint Elizabeth! In Eisenach, there is now a chapel under the invocation of the Saint.

We have preserved the account of Father Giry, which we have reviewed and supplemented with the History of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Duchess of Thuringia, by Count de Montalembert.