The Saints: St. Elizabeth of Hungary

c. 1207 - 1231 / Feast - Nov. 17

Born in what is now Slovakia, Elizabeth married Ludwig of Thuringia (Germany) at age 14 and bore three children.

Devoted to the poor, she built a hospital near her Wartburg castle and regularly cared for patients.

Following her husband’s death from plague in 1227, she provided for her children, gave up her possessions and entered the Third Order of St. Francis. Elizabeth built a hospice in Marburg to nurse the sick, poor and old, and was canonized four years after her death.