Святая Елизавета Венгерская: Жизнь и благотворительность

Hungarian princess and Christian saint
other Hungarian princesses named Elizabeth

Elizabeth of Hungary (Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, Árpád házi Szent Erzsébet, ; 7 July 120717 November 1231), also known as Elisabeth of Thuringia, was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary and the landgravine of Thuringia. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. After her husband's death, she regained her dowry, using the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death in 1231 at the age of 24 and was canonized on 25 May 1235. She is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, and is today honored as its patroness.

Elizabeth was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania. Her mother's sister was Hedwig of Andechs, wife of Duke Heinrich I of Silesia. However, a sermon printed in 1497 by the Franciscan friar Osvaldus de Lasco, a church official in Hungary, is the first source to specifically name Sárospatak as Elizabeth's birthplace, potentially building on local tradition. Osvaldus also translates the miracle of the roses to Elizabeth's childhood in Sárospatak and has her leave Hungary at the age of five. According to a different tradition she was born in Pozsony, Hungary (present day Bratislava, Slovakia), where she lived in the Castle of Posonium until the age of four. Elizabeth was brought to the court of the rulers of Thuringia in central Germany, to be betrothed to Louis IV, Landgrave of Thuringia (also known as Ludwig IV), a future union which would reinforce political alliances between the two families. She was raised by the Thuringian court and would have been familiar with the local language and culture. In 1221, at the age of fourteen, Elizabeth married Louis; the same year he was enthroned as landgrave, and the marriage appears to have been happy.

In 1223, Franciscan friars arrived, and the teenage Elizabeth not only learned about the ideals of Francis of Assisi, but started to live them. Louis was not upset by his wife's charitable efforts, believing that the distribution of his wealth to the poor would bring eternal reward; he is venerated in Thuringia as a saint, though he was never canonized by the church. It was also about this time that the priest and later inquisitor Konrad von Marburg gained considerable influence over Elizabeth when he was appointed as her confessor. In the spring of 1226, when floods, famine and plague wrought havoc in Thuringia, Louis, a staunch supporter of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, represented Frederick II at the Imperial Diet held in Cremona. Elizabeth assumed control of affairs at home and distributed alms in all parts of their territory, even giving away state robes and ornaments to the poor.

Elizabeth's life changed irrevocably on 11 September 1227 when Louis, en route to join the Sixth Crusade, died of a fever in Otranto, Italy, just a few weeks before the birth of her daughter Gertrude. Upon hearing the news of her husband's death, the 20 year old Elizabeth reportedly said, "He is dead. He is dead. It is to me as if the whole world died today." His remains were returned to Elizabeth in 1228 and entombed at the abbey of Reinhardsbrunn. After Louis' death, his brother, Henry Raspe, assumed the regency during the minority of Elizabeth's eldest child, Hermann (1222–1241). After bitter arguments over the disposal of her dowry—a conflict in which Konrad was appointed as the official Defender of her case by Pope Gregory IX—Elizabeth left the court at Wartburg and moved to Marburg in Hesse. Up to 1888 it was believed, on account of the testimony of one of Elizabeth's servants during the canonization process, that Elizabeth was driven from Wartburg in the winter of 1227 by her brother in law, Heinrich Raspe, who acted as regent for her son, then only five years old. About 1888 various investigators (Börner, Mielke, Wenck, E. Michael, etc.) asserted that Elizabeth left Wartburg voluntarily. She was not able at the castle to follow Konrad's command to eat only food obtained in a way that was certainly right and proper. Elizabeth's second child Sophie of Thuringia (1224–1275) married Henry II, Duke of Brabant, and was the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse, since in the War of the Thuringian Succession she won Hesse for her son Heinrich I, called the Child. Elizabeth's third child, Gertrude of Altenberg (1227–1297), was born several weeks after the death of her father; she became abbess of the monastery of Altenberg Abbey, Hesse near Wetzlar. Elizabeth built a hospital at Marburg for the poor and the sick with the money from her dowry, where she and her companions cared for them.

Elizabeth is perhaps best known for her miracle of the roses. While taking bread to the poor in secret, she met her husband Louis on a hunting party. Louis, to quell suspicions of the gentry that she was stealing treasure from the castle, asked her to reveal what was hidden under her cloak. In that moment, her cloak fell open and a vision of white and red roses could be seen, which proved to Louis that God's protecting hand was at work. Her husband, according to the vitae, was never troubled by her charity and always supported it. In some versions of this story, her brother in law, Heinrich Raspe, questions her. Hers is one of many miracles that associate Christian saints with roses.

Another story told of Elizabeth, also found in Dietrich of Apolda's Vita, relates how she laid the leper Helias of Eisenach in the bed she shared with her husband. Her mother in law, who was horrified, told this immediately to Louis on his return. When Louis removed the bedclothes in great indignation, at that instant "Almighty God opened the eyes of his soul, and instead of a leper he saw the figure of Christ crucified stretched upon the bed."

Elizabeth died in Marburg at the age of twenty four, on 17 November 1231.

Very soon after the death of Elizabeth, miracles were reported that happened at her grave in the church of the hospital, especially those of healing. On the suggestion of Konrad, and by papal command, examinations were held of those who had been healed between August 1232 and January 1235. The results of those examinations was supplemented by a brief vita of the saint to be, and together with the testimony of Elizabeth's handmaidens and companions (bound in a booklet called the Libellus de dictis quatuor ancillarum s. Elizabeth confectus), proved sufficient reason for quick canonization. She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 24 May 1235. Her skull and some of her bones can be seen at the convent in Vienna bearing her name. A portion of her relics were kept in the church of the Carmelites in Brussels; another in the magnificent chapel of La Roche Guyon, and a considerable part in a precious shrine is in the electoral treasury of Hanover. Another part of her relics were taken to Bogotá, then the capital of the Spanish New Kingdom of Granada, by friar Luis Zapata de Cárdenas. The relics are today inside a chapel dedicated to the saint in the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá. Elizabeth of Hungary is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 18 November and in the Episcopal Church on 19 November.

After her death, Elizabeth was commonly associated with the Third Order of Saint Francis, the primarily lay branch of the Franciscan Order, which has helped propagate her cult. Whether she ever actually joined the order, only recently founded in 1221, the year when she married Louis at the age of fourteen, is not proven to everyone's satisfaction. It must be kept in mind though that the Third Order was such a new development in the Franciscan movement, that no one official ritual had been established at that point. Elizabeth clearly had a ceremony of consecration in which she adopted a Franciscan religious habit in her new way of life, as noted above. Because of her support of the friars sent to Thuringia, she was made known to the founder, St Francis of Assisi, who sent her a personal message of blessing shortly before his death in 1226. Upon her canonization, she was declared the patron saint of the Third Order of St Francis, an honor she shares with St Louis IX of France.

Saint Elizabeth is often depicted holding a basket of bread, or some other sort of food or beverage, characteristic of her devotion to the poor and hungry. The "miracle of the roses" has also proved a popular theme for artists. Peter Janssens composed a musical play ("Musikspiel") Elisabeth von Thüringen in 1984 on a libretto by de. In Charlotte Brontë's novel Villette, the Protestant narrator includes the story of Elizabeth's involvement with von Marburg as one of several Catholic stories of confessors "who had wickedly abused their office, trampling to deep degradation high born ladies, making of countesses and princesses the most tormented slaves under the sun."

The year 2007 was proclaimed Elizabeth Year in Marburg. All year, events commemorating Elizabeth's life and works were held, culminating in a town wide festival to celebrate the 800th anniversary of her birth on 7 July 2007. Pilgrims came from all over the world for the occasion, which ended with a special service in the Elisabeth Church that evening. A new musical based on Elizabeth's life, Elisabeth die Legende einer Heiligen (Elizabeth Legend of a Saint), starring Sabrina Weckerlin as Elizabeth, Armin Kahn as Ludwig, and Chris Murray as Konrad, premiered in Eisenach in 2007. It was performed in Eisenach and Marburg for two years, and closed in Eisenach in July 2009. The entire Third Order of St. Francis, both the friars and sisters of the Third Order Regular and the Secular Franciscan Order, joined in this celebration through a two year long program of study of her life. This was conducted throughout the Order, across the globe. There were also religious ceremonies held worldwide during that period. The yearlong observance of the centennial which began on her feast day in 2007 was closed at the General Chapter of the Order, held in Budapest in 2008. The New York region of the Order produced a movie of her life, produced by a sister of the Order, Lori Pieper.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary: On the 700 year anniversary of her death, Hungary issued a set of four stamps in her honor: on 21 April 1932; on 1 August 1944 one postage stamp was issued; on 16 July 1938 Czechoslovakia issued a stamp in her honor showing the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth in Košice. She was declared the patron saint of the same city in 2019. The hymn "Wenn das Brot, das wir teilen", written for a pilgrimage to places in Thuringia connected to her life, refers to her Miracle of the roses, and mentions other works of charity.