Today, we commemorate Elizabeth of Hungary. Here is a short background to about her life. The numerous St. Elizabeths Hospitals throughout the world are for the most part named, not for the Biblical Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, but for this princess of Hungary. She was concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her husbands consent she used her dowry money for their relief. During a famine and epidemic in 1226, while her husband was away in Italy, she sold her jewels and established a hospital where she nursed the sick, and opened the royal granaries to feed the hungry. After her husbands death in 1227, her inlaws, who opposed her extravagances, expelled her from Wartburg. Finally an arrangement was negotiated with them that gave her a stipend. She became a Franciscan tertiary (lay associate) and devoted the remainder of her life to nursing and charity. She sewed garments to clothe the poor, and went fishing to feed them. James Kiefer
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 14:17:23 +0000
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