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ELIZABETH, SAINT (1207-1231)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 287 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELIZABETH, See also:SAINT (1207-1231) , daughter of See also:Andrew II., See also:king of See also:Hungary (d. 1235), by his first wife, Gertrude of Andechs-See also:Meran (d. 1213), was See also:born in See also:Pressburg in 1207. At four years of See also:age she was betrothed to See also:Louis IV., See also:landgrave of Thuringia, and conducted to the See also:Wartburg, near See also:Eisenach, to be educated under the direction of his parents. In spite of her decidedly worldly surroundings at the Thuringian See also:court, she evinced from the first an aversion from even the most See also:innocent pleasures, and stimulated by the example of her See also:mother's See also:sister, St Hedwig, wife of See also:Henry VI., See also:duke of See also:Silesia-See also:Breslau, devoted her whole See also:time to See also:religion and to See also:works of charity. She was married at the age of fourteen, and acquired such See also:influence over her See also:husband that he adopted her point of view and zealously assisted her in all her charitable endeavours. According to the See also:legend, much celebrated in See also:German See also:art, Louis at first desired to curtail her excessive charities, and forbade her unbounded gifts'to the poor. One See also:day, returning from See also:hunting, he met his wife descending from the Wartburg with a heavy bundle filled with See also:bread'. He sternly bade her open it; she did so, and he saw nothing but a See also:mass of red See also:roses. The See also:miracle completed his See also:conversion. On the See also:death of Louis " the Saint " in 1227, Elizabeth was deprived of the regency by his See also:brother, Henry See also:Raspe IV. (d.

1247), on the pretext that she was wasting the estates by her See also:

alms; and with her three See also:infant See also:children she was driven from her See also:home without being allowed to carry with her even the barest necessaries of See also:life. She lived for some time in See also:great hardship, but ultimately her maternal See also:uncle, Egbert, See also:bishop of See also:Bamberg, offered her an See also:asylum in a See also:house adjoining his See also:palace. Through the intercession of some of the See also:principal barons, the regency was again offered her, and her son See also:Hermann was declared See also:heir to the landgraviate; but renouncing all See also:power, and making use of her See also:wealth only for charitable purposes, she preferred to live in seclusion at See also:Marburg under the direction of her See also:confessor, the bigoted persecutor See also:Conrad of Marburg. There she spent the See also:remainder of her days in penances of unusual severity, and in ministrations to the sick, especially those afflicted with the most loathsome diseases. She died at Marburg on the 19th of See also:November 1231, and four years afterwards was canonized by See also:Gregory IX. on See also:account of the frequent miracles reported to have been performed at her See also:tomb. The See also:exhibition in the Royal See also:Academy of P. H. See also:Calderon's picture, " St Elizabeth of Hungary's Great See also:Act of Renunciation," now in the See also:Tate See also:Gallery in See also:London, roused considerable protest among Catholics. The saint is represented as kneeling nude before the See also:altar, in the presence of her confessor and a couple of nuns. The passage this is intended to illustrate is in See also:Lib. iv. § r of See also:Dietrich of See also:Apolda's Vita, which relates how, on a certain See also:Good See also:Friday, she went into a See also:chapel and, in the presence of some Franciscan See also:brothers, laid her hands on the See also:bare altar, renounced her own will, her parents, children, relations, and all pomps of this See also:kind (hujus modi) in See also:imitation of See also:Christ; and stripped herself utterly naked (omnino se exuit et nudavit) in See also:order to follow Him naked, in the steps of poverty. A literal inter= pretation of this passage is not impossible; for ecstatic mystics of all ages have .indulged in a like !cevecacs, and Conrad, who revelled in inflicting religious tortures, was quite capable of imposing this crowning humiliation upon his See also:gentle victim.

It is far more probable, however, that the passage is not to be taken literally. Lives of St Elizabeth were written by Theodoricus (Dietrich) of Apolda (b. 1228), Caesarius of Heisterbach (d. c 1240), Conrad of Marburg and others (see See also:

Potthast, Bibl. Hist. Med. Aev. p. 1284). A metrical life in German exists by Tohann See also:Rothe (d. c. 1440), See also:chaplain to the Landgravine See also:Anne of Thuringia (Potthast, p. 985). L'Histoire de Sainte Elisabeth de Hongrie, by See also:Montalembert, was published at See also:Paris in 1836. Her life has also supplied the materials for a dramatic poem by See also:Charles See also:Kingsley, entitled the " Saint's Tragedy." The edition of this in vol. xvi. of the Life and Works of Charles Kingsley (London, 1902) has valuable notes, with many extracts from the See also:original See also:sources.

End of Article: ELIZABETH, SAINT (1207-1231)

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