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See also: king of Hungary (d
.
1235), by his first wife, Gertrude of Andechs-
See also: Meran (d
.
1213), was See also: born in Pressburg in 1207
.
At four years of age she was betrothed to See also: Louis IV., landgrave of Thuringia, and conducted to the
See also: Wartburg, near See also: Eisenach, to be educated under the direction of his parents
.
In spite of her decidedly worldly surroundings at the Thuringian See also: court, she evinced from the first an aversion from even the most innocent pleasures, and stimulated by the example of her See also: mother's See also: sister, St Hedwig, wife of See also: Henry VI., duke of
See also: Silesia-See also: Breslau, devoted her whole See also: time to See also: religion and to See also: works of charity
.
She was married at the age of fourteen, and acquired such influence over her See also: husband that he adopted her point of view and zealously assisted her in all her charitable endeavours
.
According to the See also: legend, much celebrated in See also: German See also: art, Louis at first desired to curtail her excessive charities, and forbade her unbounded gifts'to the poor
.
One See also: day, returning from hunting, he met his wife descending from the Wartburg with a heavy bundle filled with See also: bread'
.
He sternly bade her open it; she did so, and he saw nothing but a mass of red See also: roses
.
The miracle completed his conversion
.
On the See also: death of Louis " the See also: Saint " in 1227, See also: Elizabeth was deprived of the regency by his
See also: brother, Henry See also: Raspe IV
.
(d
.
1247), on the pretext that she was wasting the estates by her See also: alms; and with her three infant See also: children she was driven from her home without being allowed to carry with her even the barest necessaries of See also: life
.
She lived for some time in See also: great hardship, but ultimately her maternal See also: uncle, Egbert, See also: bishop of See also: Bamberg, offered her an See also: asylum in a See also: house adjoining his palace
.
Through the intercession of some of the See also: principal barons, the regency was again offered her, and her son Hermann was declared heir to the landgraviate; but renouncing all power, and making use of her See also: wealth only for charitable purposes, she preferred to live in seclusion at Marburg under the direction of her See also: confessor, the bigoted persecutor See also: Conrad of Marburg
.
There she spent the See also: remainder of her days in penances of unusual severity, and in ministrations to the sick, especially those afflicted with the most loathsome diseases
.
She died at Marburg on the 19th of See also: November 1231, and four years afterwards was canonized by See also: Gregory IX. on account of the frequent miracles reported to have been performed at her See also: tomb
.
The See also: exhibition in the Royal See also: Academy of P
.
H
.
Calderon's picture, " St Elizabeth of Hungary's Great See also: Act of Renunciation," now in the Tate Gallery in See also: London, roused considerable protest among Catholics
.
The saint is represented as kneeling nude before the altar, in the presence of her confessor and a couple of nuns
.
The passage this is intended to illustrate is in See also: Lib. iv
.
§ r of Dietrich of See also: Apolda's Vita, which relates how, on a certain
See also: Good Friday, she went into a See also: chapel and, in the presence of some Franciscan See also: brothers, laid her hands on the See also: bare altar, renounced her own will, her parents, children, relations, and all pomps of this kind (hujus modi) in imitation of Christ; and stripped herself utterly naked (omnino se exuit et nudavit) in See also: order to follow Him naked, in the steps of poverty
.
A literal inter= pretation of this passage is not impossible; for ecstatic mystics of all ages have .indulged in a like !cevecacs, and Conrad, who revelled in inflicting religious tortures, was quite capable of imposing this crowning humiliation upon his gentle victim
.
It is far more probable, however, that the passage is not to be taken literally . Lives of St Elizabeth were written by Theodoricus (Dietrich) of Apolda (b . 1228), Caesarius of Heisterbach (d. c 1240), Conrad of Marburg and others (see See also: Potthast, Bibl
.
Hist
.
Med
.
Aev. p
.
1284)
.
A metrical life in German exists by Tohann See also: Rothe (d. c
.
1440), See also: chaplain to the Landgravine See also: Anne of Thuringia (Potthast, p
.
985)
.
L'Histoire de Sainte Elisabeth de Hongrie, by Montalembert, was published at See also: Paris in 1836
.
Her life has also supplied the materials for a dramatic poem by See also: Charles
See also: Kingsley, entitled the " Saint's Tragedy." The edition of this in vol. xvi. of the Life and Works of Charles Kingsley (London, 1902) has valuable notes, with many extracts from the See also: original See also: sources
.
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