นักบุญเอลีซาเบธ แห่งฮังการี

ค.ศ.1207-1231

 

เอลีซาเบธ เป็นเจ้าหญิงแห่งประเทศฮังการี เมื่อพระชนมมายุ 13 พรรษา ได้ทรงอภิเษกสมรสกับเจ้าชายหลุยส์ พระองค์ได้ทรงสร้างโรงพยาบาลขึ้น ณ บริเวณเนินเขา ใกล้ปราสาทของพระองค์ และได้เลี้ยงดูคนยากจน พยาบาลคนไข้ด้วยพระหัตถ์ของพระองค์เองทุกวัน จนประชาชนเรียกพระองค์ว่า "นักบุญเอลีซาเบธที่รัก"

เมื่อนางสนมกำนัลพยายามป้องกันมิให้พระองค์ไปช่วยคนยากจน พระองค์ทรงกล่าวว่า "ฉันกำลังเตรียมตัวเพื่อรับคำพิพากษา ขอให้ฉันได้มีโอกาสทูลพระองค์ว่า พระเยซูเจ้าข้า เมื่อพระองค์หิวกระหาย ลูกก็ได้ช่วยให้พระองค์อิ่มหนำสำราญ เมื่อพระองค์ขาดเสื้อผ้า ลูกก็หาเสื้อผ้ามาให้พระองค์สวมใส่ เมื่อพระองค์ป่วยไข้ ลูกก็มาเยี่ยมรักษาพระองค์ เพราะพระองค์ยังตรัสไว้ด้วยว่า กิจเมตตาที่เจ้าได้ทำแก่ผู้ต่ำต้อย ก็ได้ทำแก่เราเอง" (เทียบ มธ.25:35-36) วันหนึ่งขณะที่พระนางทรงใช้ผ้าห่อขนมปังไปแจกแก่คนยากจน พระสวามีได้มาพบเข้าจึงขอดูสิ่งที่พระนางทรงถืออยู่ ปรากฏว่าแลเห็นดอกกุหลาบเต็มไปหมด

เอลีซาเบธ มีบุตรธิดา 4 คน เมื่อพระสวามีสิ้นชีพแล้ว พระองค์ก็ได้บริจาคทรัพย์สินทั้งหมดของพระนางให้คนจน พระองค์สิ้นพระชนม์เมื่ออายุ 24 พรรษา

Elizabeth of Hungary

Also known as
Elizabeth of Thuringia; Elisabeth of Thuringia; Elisabeth of Hungary

Memorial
17 November

Profile

Princess, the daughter of King Andrew of Hungary. Great-aunt of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal. She married Prince Louis of Thuringa at age 13. Built a hospital at the foot of the mountain on which her castle stood; tended to the sick herself. Her family and courtiers opposed this, but she insisted she could only follow Christ's teachings, not theirs. Once when she was taking food to the poor and sick, Prince Louis stopped her and looked under her mantle to see what she was carrying; the food had been miraculously changed to roses. Upon Louis' death, Elizabeth sold all that she had, and worked to support her four children. Her gifts of bread to the poor, and of a large gift of grain to a famine stricken Germany, led to her patronage of bakers and related fields.

Born
1207 at Presburg, Hungary

Died
1231 at Marburg of natural causes; her relics, including her skull wearing a gold crown she had worn in life, are preserved at the convent of Saint Elizabeth in Vienna, Austria

Name Meaning
worshipper of God

Canonized
27 May 1235 by Pope Gregory IX at Perugia, Italy

Patronage

bakers; beggars; brides; charitable societies; charitable workers; charities; countesses; death of children; diocese of Erfurt, Germany; exiles; falsely accused people; hoboes; homeless people; hospitals; in-law problems; archdiocese of Jaro, Philippines lacemakers; lace workers; nursing homes; nursing services; people in exile; people ridiculed for their piety; Sisters of Mercy; tertiaries; Teutonic Knights; toothache; tramps; widows

Images
Gallery of images of Saint Elizabeth

Readings
Elizabeth was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castle should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband's empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband's four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor.

Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, Elizabeth went to visit the sick. She personally cared for those who were particularly repulsive; to some she gave good, to others clothing; some she carried on her own shoulders, and performed many other kindly services. Her husband, of happy memory, gladly approved of these charitable works. Finally, when her husband died, she sought the highest perfection; filled with tears, she implored me to let her beg for alms from door to door.

On Good Friday of that year, when the altars had been stripped, she laid her hands on the altar in a chapel in her own town, where she had established the Friars Minor, and before witnesses she voluntarily renounced all worldly display and everything that our Savior in the gospel advises us to abandon. Even then she saw that she could still be distracted by the cares and worldly glory which had surrounded her while her husband was alive. Against my will she followed me to Marburg. Here in the town she built a hospice where she gathered together the weak and the feeble. There she attended the most wretched and contemptible at her own table.

Apart from those active good works, I declare before God that I have seldom seen a more contemplative woman.

Before her death I heard her confession. When I asked what should be done about her goods and possessions, she replied that anything which seemed to be hers belonged to the poor. She asked me to distribute everything except one worn-out dress in which she wished to be buried. When all this had been decided, she received the body of our Lord. Afterward, until vespers, she spoke often of the holiest things she had heard in sermons. Then, she devoutly commended to God all who were sitting near her, and as if falling into a gentle sleep, she died.

from a letter by Conrad of Marburg, spiritual director of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary