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The saints

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

A princess widowed at twenty, who spent everything on a hospital.

Feast: 17 November · 1207 to 1231 · The Middle Ages · Hungary and Thuringia, Germany

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Gilded relief of St. Elizabeth of Hungary standing in a long robe and veil.

Heinrich Stürzl, 2021. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St. Elizabeth of Hungary

The Wartburg castle, Thuringia

Elizabeth was a Hungarian princess married at fourteen to Louis of Thuringia, and they loved each other.1

She gave food from the castle to the hungry, and Louis supported her.1

Louis died on his way to a crusade, and Elizabeth was twenty with three children.

Patron of Catholic Charities1; bakers1; Secular Franciscans1

01St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Poor for Christ

Her husband’s family pushed her out, and she lived in poverty, joining the Franciscan Third Order.1

She built a hospital in Marburg and cared for the sick there herself, and died at twenty-four.1

Live it this week

Feed the hungry from your pantry

Elizabeth gave away the castle’s bread. This week, fill a bag from your own pantry (good food, not leftovers you’d toss) and take it to a food bank.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Elizabeth of Hungary”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.