Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Widow
S. Elisabeth Viduae
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, a princess and queen who became a humble servant of the poor, is honoured as a model of charity and a glory of the Third Order of Saint Francis.
Saint Elizabeth was born in the year 1207, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary. Betrothed in childhood, she was raised at the court of Thuringia in Germany and in due time married Louis, the landgrave of that country. Though she lived amid the wealth and honours of a princely house, her heart was set from her earliest years upon God and upon the service of the poor.
Charity in the world
In her husband Louis, Saint Elizabeth found not an obstacle but a support, for he loved her holiness and upheld her works of mercy. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and tended the sick with her own hands, and in time of famine she opened the stores of the castle to the starving. She founded a hospital below the castle of the Wartburg, where she nursed the most wretched of the poor, seeing in them the person of Christ. Their marriage, blessed with children, was a true partnership in faith and charity.
When Louis died of fever on his way to join a crusade, Elizabeth was left a young widow, and great sufferings followed. Stripped for a time of her position, she bore her trials with patience and refused to be turned from her chosen path. Placing herself under the spiritual direction of a Franciscan guide, she renounced the world, embraced the poverty of the Third Order of Saint Francis, and gave herself wholly to prayer and to the care of the sick and the poor at Marburg.
A queen among the poor
Saint Elizabeth died at Marburg in the year 1231, worn out by her labours of charity, being but twenty-four years of age. So manifest was her holiness that she was canonised only four years after her death. Her feast on the nineteenth of November sets before the faithful the beauty of charity that counts no cost, and the truth that greatness in the kingdom of God is measured by love. The collect of her Mass asks that, by her example, we may learn to despise the prosperity of the world and ever to rejoice in heavenly consolation.
The Collect
Mercifully enlighten our hearts, O Lord, by the glorious prayers of blessed Elizabeth: that we may learn to despise the prosperity of this world, and ever to rejoice in heavenly consolation.
Tuórum corda fidélium, Deus misérator, illústra: et, beátæ Elisabeth précibus gloriósis; fac nos próspera mundi despícere, et cælésti semper consolatióne gaudére.
Patronage
She is the patroness of the Third Order of Saint Francis, of charitable works and hospitals, of bakers, and of the poor and the sick.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar her feast is observed on 17 November as an obligatory memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal her feast is kept on 19 November as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 17 November.
Who was Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?
She was a thirteenth-century princess of Hungary and landgravine of Thuringia who, even as a wife and mother of royal rank, devoted herself to feeding and nursing the poor. Widowed young, she embraced the poverty of the Third Order of Saint Francis and died at twenty-four, worn out by her charity.
Why is she honoured as a patroness of charity?
Saint Elizabeth gave her wealth, her labour, and her very life to the service of the hungry, the sick, and the destitute, seeing Christ in the poor. For this she is venerated as a model of charity and a patroness of hospitals and charitable works.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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