Seeking to become one with the poor, she wore simple clothing. Daily she would take bread to hundreds of the poorest in the land who came to her gate. After six years of marriage, her husband died in the Crusades, and Elizabeth was grief-stricken. In , Elizabeth joined the Secular Franciscan Order, spending the remaining few years of her life caring for the poor in a hospital which she founded in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi.
She met with friars of the nascent Franciscan order during its founder's own lifetime, resolving to use her position as queen to advance their mission of charity.
Remarkably, Ludwig agreed with his wife's resolution, and the politically powerful couple embraced a life of remarkable generosity toward the poor. They had three children, two of whom went on to live as as members of the nobility, although one of them —her only son— died relatively young. The third eventually entered religious life and became abbess of a German convent. In , while Ludwig was attending to political affairs in Italy, Elizabeth took charge of distributing aid to victims of disease and flooding that struck Thuringia.
She took charge of caring for the afflicted, even when this required giving up the royal family's own clothes and goods. Elizabeth arranged for a hospital to be built, and is said to have provided for the needs of nearly a thousand desperately poor people on a daily basis. The next year, however, would put Elizabeth's faith to the test.
Devastated by Ludwig's death, Elizabeth vowed never to remarry. Her children were sent away, and relatives heavily pressured her to break the vow. When she was nine years old, tragedy again struck. Her fiancee died, and a year later his father was dead as well. Elizabeth's position at the court became unclear, but her status was secured when the younger son of Herman I, Louis, decided that he would marry her.
The two, who had developed a close friendship, were married in The following year, the couple journeyed to visit Elizabeth's father, during which time they viewed the incredible destruction that had befallen the country with the Golden Bull revolt of the Hungarian nobles.
Upon their return to Thuringia, Elizabeth began to focus even more heavily on the development of her spiritual life. She received religious instruction and counseling from her confessor, the Franciscan friar Father Rodinger. During this time, she also turned to public charity work, building an orphanage and founding a hospital for lepers, where she would tend the afflicted herself. Her husband was called to serve in a military campaign in , leaving Elizabeth as the ruler of Thuringia.
She used her increased authority to extend her work, providing food for hundreds of the poor each day. But she was a firm believer in empowering the disadvantaged to help themselves and not rely on charity; she donated tools to men who were out of work and she showed women how to spin.
When natural disasters occurred, she helped people to rebuild and recover. In addition, she carried on the official duties of the court, hosting important visitors and joining in entertainments such as hunting parties. While pregnant with her third child, Elizabeth's husband was called to war again, leaving to join in a Crusade in He never returned, falling ill and dying during his journey. Louis's brothers were concerned about Elizabeth's practice of spending large sums on the poor, and so they arranged to keep her from controlling her own money.
The discord at court caused her to leave Wartburg in the fall of As a response, this piece condemns the conclusion that the author makes regarding Simone Martini depiction of St. Elizabeth as a transvestite. While he agrees with the important nature of the literary piece by Hoch, he disagrees with her overall conclusion.
Paired with the article listed below, they make an interesting pair of reading, however neither focuses on the life of St. Elizabeth and are therefore more useful within the confines of an art history paper or discussion. Hoch, Adrian S. Elizabeth Chapel at Assissi. This article, which speaks of the blessed lineage, or beata stirps, can be found in the Art History Journal. The author's goal is to establish the identity of the last of the unknown figures portrayed on the frescoes of the Chapel of Saint Elizabeth at Assisi.
According to this author, the paintings were completed by a single author and commissioned by one sovereign ruler, thus making it unique from the other iconographic schemes of Franciscan churches elsewhere.
While this much is known, the identity of one of the characters has remained a mystery for centuries. The author conjectures that the unknown person is Saint Elizabeth because of her influence on the Franciscan order. The author also makes an unusual speculation; the writer believes that the artist portrayed St. Elizabeth as a transvestite, a theory that is not found in other sources.
This article provides beautiful illustrations from the Chapel of Saint Elizabeth, however focuses more on the identity of the character in the fresco than it does on her life, therefore making it a useful source for art historians, but of limited value to those seeking background information into the life of Saint Elizabeth.
Jones, Terry. This website is a facet of the Catholic Community Forum, a website made by and for participants of the Catholic tradition. The goal of the site is to strengthen the faith of those who already believe and to entice new followers. The Saint Elizabeth page is part of a Patron Saint Index that categorizes saints according to their name and topic. It provides basic and introductory information to her life in which details are categorized in a bullet like format, so specifics are easy to locate such as birth, death, canonization, and images.
It is a relatively useful site for initial inquiries into the life of Saint Elizabeth, but does not provide relevant specific details necessary for scholarly work. Knight, K. New Advent is a database for religious websites that has links to the Summa Theologica, Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers and more.
The biography for St. Elizabeth of Hungary goes more in-depth than any of the other websites found. It describes her prearranged marriage, her subsequent married life, her family, and her time at the court. The site also describes the political concerns of the time and the mistrust between Germany and Hungary.
For a website biography of Saint Elizabeth, this is the most complete content based work and should be the first page visited. Parker, Elizabeth C. The goal of this book is to provide a history of the Cloisters in Europe from their inception until the late Gothic period.
0コメント