ST. ELISABETH 261 to her protSgSs, and in their hands they again tamed into bread and meat. At the place where this vision was seen, Louis erected a cross to consecrate the spot for ever. Lepers were objects of her especial charity and tenderness. Once, finding a poor little boy so dreadfally disfigure^ with leprosy that no one liked to go near him, she washed and fed him, and then pat him in her own bed. The Land- gravine Sophia, who never approved of her indiscriminate charity, called Louis, and said indignantly, '* See what Elisa- beth has done now ! She prefers these loathsome creatures to your health — your life I She has put one in your bed, and you will catch the leprosy." Louis rushed to her room, and angrily drawing back the curtains, beheld the Saviour lying in the bed. From that moment he never allowed Elisabeth to be opposed in any of her charitable works. After this incident, she got him to build a hospital halfway up to the castle. There she daily visited and nursed twenty- eight persons who were unable to climb the steep hill. Once, when some guests arrived at the Wartburg from her father^s Court, Elisa- beth — ^having given away to the beggars a velvet gown embroidered with jewels, which was the last robe she had — de- clined to appear in her coarse and thread- bare clothes, lest the strangers on their return to Hungary should say that Louis did not give her things suitable to her rank. Nevertheless, Louis urged her to come with him and entertain the Hun- garians. One of her ladies rushed in despair to the empty wardrobe, and there found the identical robe which Elisabeth had given to the beggar, who was thence- forth believed to be St. Lazarus. The jewels were more brilliant than before. In 1221, the Order of St. Francis was definitely established in Germany, and from no one did they receive more sym- pathy and encouragement than from the young Duchess of Thuringia. She gave them all the support in her power, and founded a church and convent for them at Eisenach. Her confessor for some years was the Franciscan Rodinger. When he had to leave, the Pope recom- mended Conrad of Marburg as his suc- cessor. Conrad was a man highly esteemed throughout Grermany for his knowledge and his ascetic piety. One of his con- temporaries said of him, *' He shines in Germany like a brilliant star." Elisabeth at this time was only seven- teen years old. When she heard that a man so holy and so renowned was to take charge of her, she was filled with humility and gratitude, and when Conrad approached her, she fell on her knees. He saw from this touching conduct on the part of a powerful duchess the future glory of her soul. About 1222, Louis and Elisabeth paid a visit to her father, and were present at his second marriage to Yolande do Courtenay, daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople. Elisabeth became a mother for the first time in 1223, when her son Her- mann was bom. Each of her four chil- dren she dedicated to Grod from infancy. As soon after her confinement as she was able, she took the babe in her arms and went barefooted and in coarse, poor raiment, toiling up a long, steep, stony path to the church of St. Catherine, and there presented her child at the steps of the altar, entreating God's blessing and consecrating the little one to Him. In 122G Louis joined the Emperor Frederick IL in Italy. During his absence a dreadful famine devastated Thuringia. Elisabeth did everything that was possible for the relief of the poor and sufifering, distributed money and food, and nursed the sick and dying with the utmost tenderness. Every day nine hundred poor persons were fed in the courtyard of the Wartburg, and countless instances are cited of her boundless generosity and thoughtfulness. She also founded a hospital near the castle, which, in 1331, a hundred years after her death, was replaced by a con- vent, founded in her honour by the Landgrave Frederick the Serious. The district still bears the name of " The Valley of Elisabeth," and a well of pure water where the duchess was wont to wash the clothes of the poor, bears her name to this day.
