18 November
Elizabeth of Hungary, Princess of Thuringia, Philanthropist, 1231
The numerous "St. Elizabeth's Hospitals" throughout the world are for
the most part named, not after the Biblical Elizabeth, the mother of
John the Baptist, but after this princess of Hungary. She was
concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her
husband's 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 husband's
death in 1227, her in-laws, 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.
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