ELIZABETH, SAINT (1207-1231), daughter of Andrew II., king of Hungary (d. 1235), was born in Pressburg. Married at the age of fourteen to Louis IV., landgrave of Thuringia, she devoted herself to religion and to works of charity. According to the legend, much celebrated in German art, Louis at first forbade her unbounded gifts to the poor. One day he saw his wife descend ing from the Wartburg with a heavy bundle of bread. He sternly bade her open it ; she did so, and he saw nothing but a mass of red roses. The miracle converted him. On the death of Louis "the Saint" in 1227, Elizabeth was deprived of the regency by his brother, Henry Raspe IV. (d. 1247), on the pretext that she was wasting the estates by her alms. With her three infants she was driven from her home without even the barest necessities, but ultimately her maternal uncle, Egbert, bishop of Bamberg, offered her a house adjoining his palace. Through the intercession of some of the principal barons, the regency was again offered her, and her son Hermann was declared heir to the landgraviate. Renouncing all power, Elizabeth chose to live in seclusion at Marburg under the direction of her confessor, Conrad of Marburg, doing penance and ministering to the sick. She died at Marburg on Nov. 57, 1231, and was canonized by Gregory IX. in 1235.
of St. Elizabeth were written by Theodoricus (Dietrich) of Apolda (b. 1228), Caesarius of Heisterbach (d. c. 124o), Conrad of Marburg and others (see Potthast, Bibl. Hist. Med. Aev. p. 1284) . See also Montalembert, L'Histoire de Elisabeth de Hongrie (1836) ; A. Saubin, S. Elisabeth de Hongrie (1902); A. Huyskens, Quellenstudien zur Gesch. der hl. Elisabeth (Marburg, 1908) ; Wenck, Die hl. Elisabeth (Tubingen, 1908) and M. Maresch, Elisabeth Land grdfin v. Thuringen (2nd ed., 1921). The life of Elizabeth inspired Kingsley's poem "The Saint's Tragedy."