ELIZABETH
389
ELIZABETH
or those who aid the organization by means of annual
contributions, and active members who, besides con-
tributing of their means, also visit the sick poor and
perform other duties, as those of administration, at
the direction of the president of the society. The
branches are merely means of carrying on the affairs
of the main society with which they are closely
affiliated, but they are independent in administration.
The Elizabeth Association of Munich, according to the
financial report covering the year 1907, has 157
active and 3686 associate members ; the receipts were
129,559.06 marks (8:52,339.76), and disbursements,
123,422.77 marks ($.30,855.69). During the year 1907
4345 poor persons were assisted, 195 children cared for
in asylums and nurseries, and 18 old people were
provided for in asylums and infirmaries.
Other Elizabeth Associations, although with some differences of organization, were formed on the model of that of Munich at Barmen and Trier in 1843, Col- logne in 1848, etc. The.se societies are now found chiefly in the following sections of Germany: Bavaria, 36 societies, 24 of these being in the Palatinate ; Dio- cese of Cologne, 110 societies with 1200 members, about 7000 contributors, and a total income of nearly 150,000 marks, families assisted 3500 ; Diocese of Pad- erborn, 120 societies with over 16,000 members and contributors, and an income of 175,000 marks, fami- lies assisted 3600. There are also Elizabeth .\ssocia- tions in the Dioceses of Freiburg, Minister, Trier, Lim- burg, Hildesheim, and the Vicariate Apostolic of Sax- ony; in the Diocese of Breslau, instead of Elizabeth Associations, there are about 130 women's conferences of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. In Germany the Elizabeth Associations number altogether some 550 branches or conferences which aid annually 10,000 to 12,000 families.
MS. history of the Elizabeth Association of Munich; by-laws, annual and financial reports of the different _ assDciations, Munich. Freiburg, Cologne, etc. : Regeln des Vereins von der hi. Elisabeth (Cologne, 1900); Reyeln und Gebete des Vereinn der hi. Elisabeth fiir die Diifzese Paderbom (Paderbom, 1903); short sketch of the associations in Plattner. Die heilige Elisabeth von Thiiringen (M.inchcn-Cladbach, 1907); statistics in Krose, Kirch. Handbuch. 10:j!-08 (Freiburg in Baden, 1908). 224-25.
Gregor Reinhold.
Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint, also called Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, b. in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; d. at Marburg, Hesse, 17 Novem- ber (not 19 November), 1231. She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran ; Elizabeth's brother succeeded his father on the throne of Hungary as Bela IV ; the sister of her mother, Gertrude, was St.Hedwig, wife of Duke Heinrich I, the Bearded, of Silesia, while another saint, St. Elizabeth (Lsabel) of Portugal (d. 1336), the wife of the tyrannical King Diniz of that country, was her great-niece. In 1211 a formal embassy was sent by Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia to Hungary to arrange, as was customary in that age, a marriage be- tween his eldest son Hermann and Elizabeth, who was then four years old. This plan of a marriage was the result of political considerations and was intended to be the ratification of a great alliance which in the political schemes of the time it was sought to form against the German Emperor Otto IV, a member of the house of Guelph, who had quarrelled with the Church. Not long after this the little girl was taken to the Thuringian court to be brought up with her future husband and, in the course of time, to be be- trothed to him. The court of Thuringia was at this period famous for its magnificence. Its centre was the stately castle of the Wartliurg, splendidly placed on a hill in the Thuringian Forest near Eisenach, where the Landgrave Hermann lived surrounded by poets and minnesingers, to whom he was a generous patron. Notwithstanding the turbulence and purely secular life of the court and the pomp of her surround-
ings, the little girl grew up a very religious child with
an evident inclination to prayer and pious observances
and small acts of self-mortification. These religious
impulses were undoubtedly strengthened by the sor-
rowful experiences of her life. In 1213 Elizabeth's
mother, Gertrude, was murdered by Himgarian no-
bles, probably out of hatred of the Germans. On 31
December, 1216, the oldest son of the landgrave, Her-
mann, whom Elizabeth was to marry, died; after this
she was betrothed to Ludwig, the second son. It
was probably in these years that Elizabeth had to
suffer the hostility of the more frivolous members of
the Thuringian court, to whom the contemplative and
pious child was a constant rebuke. Ludwig, however,
must have soon come to her protection against any
ill-treatment. The legend that arose later is incorrect
in making Elizabeth's mother-in-law, the Landgravine
Sophia, a member of the reigning family of Bavaria,
the leader of this court party. On the contrary, So-
phia was a very religious and charitable woman and a
kindly mother to the little Elizabeth. The political
plans of the old Landgrave Hermann in vol veil him in
great difficulties and reverses; he was excommuni-
cated, lost his mind towards the end of his life, and
died, 25 April, 1217, unreconciled with the Church.
He was succeeded by his son Ludwig IV, who, in 1221,
was also made regent of Meissen and the East Mark.
The same year (1221) Ludwig and Elizabeth were
married, the groom being twenty-one years old and
the bride fourteen. The marriage was in every regard
a happy and exemplary one, and the couple were
devotedly attached to each other. Ludwig proved
himself worthy of his wife. He gave his protection to
her acts of charity, penance, and her vigils and often
held Elizabeth's hands as she knelt praying at night
beside his bed. He was also a capable ruler and
brave solider. The Germans call him St. Ludwig, an
appellation given to him as one of the best men of his
age and the pious husband of St. Elizabeth. They
had three children: Hermann II (1222-41), who died
young; Sophia (1224-84), who married Henry II,
Duke of Brabant, and was the ancestress of the Land-
graves of Hes.se, as in the war of the Thuringian suc-
cession she won Hesse for her son Heinrich I, called
the Child; Gertrude (1227-97), Elizabeth's third
child, was born several weeks after the death of her
father; in after-life she became abbess of the convent
of Aldenburg near Wetzlar.
Shortly after their marriage Elizabeth and Ludwig made a journey to Hungary; Ludwig was often after this employed by the Emperor Frederick II, to whom he was much attached, in the affairs of the empire. In the spring of 1226, when floods, famine, and the pest wrought havoc in Thuringia, Ludwig was in Italy at- tending the Diet at Cremona on behalf of the emperor and the empire. Under these circumstances Eliza- beth assumed control of affairs, distributed alms in all parts of the territory of her husband, giving even state robes and ornaments to the poor. In order to care personally for the unfortunate she built below the VVartburg a hospital with twenty-eight beds and vis- ited the inmates daily to attend to their wants; at the same time she aided nine hundred poor daily. It is this period of her life that has preserved Elizabeth's fame to posterity as the gentle and charitable chate- laine of the Wartburg. Ludwig on his return con- firmed all .she had done. The next year (1227) he started with the Emperor Frederick II on a crusade to Palestine but died, 11 September of the same year at Otranto, from the pest. The news did not reach Elizabeth until October, just after she had given birth to her third child. On hearing the tidings Elizabeth, who was only twenty years old, cried out: "The world with all its joys is now dead to me."
The fact that in 1221 the followers of St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) made their first permanent settlement in Germany was one of great importance in the later
