SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
More than seven hundred years ago there was born at Presburg in
Hungary, a royal princess, who became one of the most pious women that
the world has ever seen and whose good deeds have lived until the
present day. This woman was christened Elizabeth. She was the daughter
of King Andrew the Second of Hungary and of Gertrude, formerly a
princess in Dalmatia; and soothsayers and prophets at the time of her
birth foretold her coming greatness.
Elizabeth was born in 1207--a century when religion was more simple
than it is to-day and when people believed that miracles were still
being performed. It was a time, too, when a fiery passion for religion
ruled the world. Soldiers were intent on crusades into the Holy Land to
capture the city of Jerusalem and to rescue the tomb of the Savior from
the hands of the heathen, and fanatical bands called "flagellants" were
soon to appear throughout Europe--men and women who scourged each other
with whips in public places until they fell down fainting from pain and
exhaustion, believing that this practice was welcome in the eyes of the
Lord and would assure them a place in Paradise.
It was a time when unquestioning faith held the minds and beliefs of
men. Nothing seemed too marvelous to be accomplished through Divine
means. When a great poet of whom we shall tell you later, wrote about
Hell, Heaven and Purgatory, his neighbors all believed that he had
really visited those places and seen all the wonders that he described.
So when soothsayers and astrologers foretold that the infant Elizabeth
was to become one of the Saints of Heaven, as the legends tell us they
predicted, people marveled, but believed, for it did not seem strange
for Angels and Saints to appear to the eyes of mortal men.
It was customary in those days for children of high rank to be
betrothed almost before they had quitted the cradle, and when Elizabeth
was four years old she was engaged to be married to the eldest son of
the Landgrave of Thuringia--a boy named Herman who was about ten years
older than herself. And it was also customary at that time for the
future bride to be brought up in the house of her intended husband, so
a number of lords and ladies came from Thuringia to fetch the Princess
Elizabeth away.
She returned with them in great splendor, and many wagons and strong
horses were needed to carry back to Thuringia all the costly things
that went with her, for she was provided with every comfort and luxury
then known. We are told that her dresses were all of the most costly
silks adorned with precious stones, that her cradle, which was of
silver, accompanied her to the house of the future bridegroom, that
even her bath was of silver and so heavy that it was all that her
handmaidens could do to carry it, and a large sum of money was allotted
as her bridal portion or dowry.
Elizabeth was too young to remain homesick for any length of time after
she left her parents, and she was kindly received in her new family.
The Landgrave himself, Herman the First, was a kind-hearted man as well
as a noble and distinguished ruler, and his second son, Ludwig, had
qualities of greatness that gave every promise for the country if it
should ever come under his direction. But the other children of the
Landgrave, the princes named Conrad and Heinrich, were of different
calibre from their brother Ludwig, and so was the girl, Agnes, who was
about Elizabeth's own age. Herman, the eldest son, soon died, and
Elizabeth was then betrothed to Ludwig.
When she was little more than a baby Elizabeth began to show signs of
the religious fervor that was to shape her entire life. She prayed
frequently and always tried to bring the forms of religious worship
into the games that she played with her companions. She spent long
hours at prayer and frequently arose to pray at night, and whenever she
had the opportunity she practiced self-denial that was believed to be
acceptable in the eyes of Heaven by withdrawing herself from some
pleasure that she was taking part in, or abstaining when at table from
some dainty that she loved.
Three years after Elizabeth had gone to live in Thuringia something
happened that deepened her spiritual ardor, for her mother, Gertrude,
was murdered in the absence of the King, and Andrew himself had to
engage in war to put down the rebellion that had arisen in his country.
This was a great sorrow to the little girl, although she remembered her
mother only dimly, and it resulted in her saying more frequent prayers
and giving more thought to her religion than before.
Many stories are told us of Elizabeth's piety. On one occasion, when
she was dressed in her finest garments she beheld a crucifix supporting
a life-size image of the Savior, and with an outburst of tears she
threw herself on the ground at the foot of the crucifix, declaring that
she could not bear to wear fine raiment and jewels, while her Lord was
crowned with thorns. She did many other things of the same sort, and at
last reaped the displeasure of the Landgrave's wife, Sophia, and of the
courtiers and menials of the royal castle,--for Elizabeth's gentleness
and piety were a constant reproach to the more worldly persons that
surrounded her.
When Elizabeth was ten years old there took place another of the
crusades in which knights, nobles and common peasants set forth for the
Holy Land to make war against the heathen; and Elizabeth's father, the
King of Hungary, left his dominions to engage in the holy war. There
was grave doubt if he would ever return, and it seemed too as if his
throne might be wrested from him by rebellion in his absence; so many
of the noblemen and statesmen of Thuringia believed that the marriage
of Ludwig with Elizabeth would be unwise, since there might be no
benefit to be reaped from it on behalf of the State. The Landgravine
Sophia, we are told, was inclined to agree with them--all the more so
because the kind ruler, Herman, had lately died and Ludwig was now on
the throne of Thuringia, and could marry some great princess whose
country was not in the danger of civil war.
It is not known if the stories of the ill-treatment that was then
visited on the helpless little Elizabeth are true or not, but many
writers have told us that Sophia was determined by harshness and
unkindness to force Elizabeth to enter a convent so that her son would
be free to marry elsewhere. At all events, Ludwig heard of the plans to
break off his engagement, and angrily refused to listen to them,
declaring that he loved Elizabeth dearly and would marry her in spite
of every person and relative in his dominions. And when Elizabeth was
fourteen years old, she was married with great magnificence to Ludwig,
who was as handsome as he was honorable, and made a fitting husband for
the beautiful young girl who had already become famous for her great
piety and her charitable deeds.
The marriage was ideally happy, for the young couple was passionately
attached, and Ludwig encouraged his wife in her pious and kindly
undertakings. He understood her so well and gave her such hearty
support in her dealings with the poor and her gifts of food, money and
clothing, that after his death he was often referred to as Saint
Ludwig, just as his wife was called Saint Elizabeth.
Ludwig, however, did not like to see his wife go poorly dressed, and
she wore splendid raiment to please him. Moreover, he disapproved of
her giving so much time and effort to her charity and her prayers that
she taxed her strength. She had to desist from many of her
undertakings, or perform them without his knowledge, when he feared
that her severe fasts and her long prayers were wearing out her health;
and Elizabeth would steal from her chamber to pray when she thought him
asleep, and would wear a coarse sackcloth skirt beneath the silks that
pleased him.
One time, when Ludwig was climbing the steep path to the castle of the
Wartburg where he held his court, he met Elizabeth, who was carrying in
her dress loaves of bread for the poor people in the nearby village of
Marburg. Elizabeth always tried to perform her charity secretly, for
she believed that it would lose its value if it were widely known--and
moreover she feared that her husband would not approve of her taking a
heavy burden down the steep path into the village. When he stopped her
and gaily asked her what she had in her apron, she opened it shyly,
expecting him to blame her when he saw its contents--but how great was
her amazement as well as his when there tumbled forth upon the ground a
profusion of the sweetest smelling roses of all colors, which had
miraculously taken the place of the provisions that Elizabeth had
carried!
That was only the first of a series of miracles that those who
worshipped her memory have accredited to her lifetime, and Ludwig,
astonished and awed by what had taken place, is said to have erected a
monument at the spot where the beautiful roses appeared.
Elizabeth pitied the sick and tended them with the utmost kindness--and
she was particularly kind to the wretched sufferers from the dreadful
disease of leprosy. From earliest times the leper was an outcast from
his fellow men. They fled at his approach, and he was obliged to warn
them of his coming by outcry, or by use of a clapper or bell. But
Elizabeth went to the lepers without fear and fed and comforted them,
and even bathed their sores and bandaged them with her own hands.
At last her father, King Andrew, returned from the crusade, and on his
way back to his own dominions stopped in Thuringia to see his daughter.
By this time Elizabeth had refused to wear her splendid garments any
longer and had parted with all except her simplest dresses; and Ludwig
feared that her father the King might blame him for not maintaining
Elizabeth in the state that was her due as a royal princess, so he
inquired of Elizabeth if she had any fine dress to wear when greeting
her father. She replied that she had none, but that by grace of God
some way would be found out of the difficulty; and when she put on the
only dress that was left to her it suddenly changed by a miracle into a
gown so beautiful and lustrous that its like had never been seen
before, and King Andrew rejoiced in the appearance of his daughter when
she came before him.
By this time Elizabeth had two children, and the Landgrave was
rejoiced. He was a powerful and a wise ruler, and while he was
perfectly just, he punished evil-doers with a hand of iron. On one
occasion he was called away from home to give aid to the Emperor
Frederick the Second in putting down a revolt in his dominions; and
Elizabeth ruled over Thuringia until his return.
Famine and pestilence wasted the country, and the gentle lady was
sorely beset to give aid to her suffering people. She spent so much on
charity that she nearly emptied the treasury, and even sold the robes
of state and the official ornaments to feed the poor. When Ludwig
returned he found his coffers nearly empty--but the money had been
wisely used, for Elizabeth had saved the lives of many of his subjects.
Then another crusade took place and the brave Ludwig planned to join it
and do his share in driving the heathen Saracens away from the tomb of
Christ. With bitterness and sorrow he said farewell to his wife whom he
loved above all things, and kissed his children for the last time. For
when he was waiting at Otranto to embark for the far east, a terrible
pestilence broke out among the crusaders and Ludwig sickened and died.
Word of his death was brought to Elizabeth, who had just given birth to
her third child. And when she heard of it she wept bitterly, crying out
that now the world was dead to her indeed, and she never could know joy
again, since her dear lord was taken from her.
For a time she ruled over Thuringia, but she was hated in the court on
account of her piety, and according to many stories of her life, the
dead Landgrave's brothers, Conrad and Heinrich, conspired against her.
At all events, her life was most unhappy, and in the dead of winter she
quitted the court and went to live in the village, earning her daily
bread by spinning for her living, and eating barely enough to keep
alive. And all the villagers whom she had treated kindly, now that they
found her alone and poor and out of favor at court, would do nothing
for her, and she was laughed at and insulted on the streets.
But in this time she was sustained by divine means, for she began to
have visions of Heavenly things and beheld angels, and once, so she
declares, she saw the face of the Savior himself, who looked down on
her and comforted her.
At last Elizabeth went to live with her uncle, the Bishop of Bamberg,
who treated her with the utmost kindness. She had been obliged to send
her children away in the bitter winter that she had been through, and
soon she was obliged to leave the Bishop's protection, for he desired
her to marry again, and this she refused to do. She went to live in a
cottage and took with her two of her former waiting women who
accompanied her all through the hardships she had suffered, and she
busied herself with caring for the sick and giving alms from the small
amount of money that was allowed for her support.
At this time Elizabeth came under the influence of a priest and a
religious enthusiast called Master Conrad, previously known to her, who
was an ardent, though a narrow-minded believer in the Catholic faith;
and Conrad encouraged her in the severe rites of self-denial that she
practised. At times he punished her with the lash and at last he
brought her completely under the domination of his will. But she
yielded so readily to all penances and voluntary inflictions of
sufferings that even this fanatical zealot was compelled to restrain
her, for Elizabeth desired constantly to do more than he suggested or
wished. At last, with her two waiting women, Elizabeth became a member
of the Third Order of Saint Francis, renounced her family and children,
and spent all her time in caring for the sick and visiting the
afflicted.
She ate almost nothing, and her strength soon gave way under the
privations that she endured. Although she was only twenty-four years
old, she had suffered so greatly that her vitality was sapped and she
had not long to live. She died on November 19, 1231, and Master Conrad
himself soon followed her to the grave.
Elizabeth had not wasted herself in vain, in spite of the fanatical
zeal of her belief and the needless sufferings that she inflicted upon
herself. For years she had cared for nine hundred poor folk every day,
and she had founded a hospital of twenty-eight beds that she visited
daily. She had encouraged her husband in kindness and generous
government, and she saved countless lives in the winter when she
herself sat on the throne of Thuringia.
After her death the zealous Conrad set about collecting proofs of the
miracles that had happened in connection with her, to submit them to
the Pope, who might declare her to be a Saint. Further proofs were
forthcoming even after she had died, for when pilgrims visited her tomb
many of them were marvelously cured of the sicknesses from which they
had been suffering. Her brother-in-law, Conrad, repenting of his former
treatment of her, built a splendid church in her honor, and her bones
were laid in their last resting-place a few years after her death. In
the meantime the Pope examined all the proofs of her piety and
holiness, as well as of the cures that had been effected at her tomb,
and at last Elizabeth was made a Saint, and became known as Saint
Elizabeth of Hungary. For centuries pilgrims have worshipped at her
shrine, and the church that was built in her memory still stands as a
monument of the wonderful life of this holy woman who lived and died
the better part of a thousand years ago.