Birthplace: Bratislava Hungary
Date of Birth and Death: 1207 - 1231
Feast Day: November 17th

Notable: Patroness of the Homeless, Nursing Services, Charities and others

Life: St. Elizabeth was a Hungarian princess who was betrothed at an early age to a German prince and was married at 14 years old. Although she was surrounded by luxury, she a deep concern for those less fortunate than herself and provided food for hundreds of people at the castle gate every morning and visited the sick twice a day.

Her compassion was renown; once, she allowed a dying leper to rest on the bed she shared with her husband. When her husband heard about this, he tore off the bedcovers but instead of a leper, he saw the vision of the crucified Christ on the bed.

When famine and epidemic swept her land, she organised the relief for those in need through opening up the granaries and selling her jewels to build hospitals. This concern of her for those in need and her apparent boundless charity annoyed her family to no end and she received unending criticism after her husband died on the Crusades.

As a widow, she joined the third order of St. Francis in 1228 and continued her work for the poor for the rest of her life, brief as it was. Upon her death at the age of 24, she directed that all of her worldly good be given to the poor.

Prayer:

Almighty God, by those whose grace your servant Elizabeth of Hungary
recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world. Grant that we,
following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any
need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen