Árpád(házi) Szent Erzsébet / St. Elisabeth, Princess of Hungary

Wikipedia

• English: Elisabeth of Hungary
• Magyar / Hungarian: Szent Erzsébet
• Deutsch: Elisabeth von Thüringen
• ‪Norsk (bokmål): Elisabeth av Thüringen

A link to a danish site: http://www.sanktelisabeth.dk/index.php?id=14

Hvem var Elisabeth af Thüringen?

Elisabeth blev født 1207 som datter af kong Andreas II af Ungarn og dennes hustru Gertrud af Andechs. Allerede som fireårig blev hun sendt til landgrevens hof i Thüringen med henblik på senere at gifte sig med landgrevens søn. Fjorten år gammel blev hun 1221 viet til landgreven Ludwig, der var 20 år. Det blev et meget lykkeligt ægteskab. 1222 fødte hun sønnen Hermann, der senere blev landgreve, 1224 fødte hun en datter Sophie, der senere blev hertuginde af Brabant og 1227 fødte hun datteren Gertrud, der senere blev abbedisse af Altenberg. Ægteskabets lykke blev brat afbrudt, da landgreven 1227 drog på korstog til Det hellige Land, men allerede i Syditalien blev han syg og døde. Elisabeth modtog meddelelsen om ægtemandens død med stor fortvivlelse og sorg.

Kontroverser med hoffet på Wartburg

Elisabeth havde i sit ægteskab sat sit tydelige præg på livet på Wartburg. Således havde hun i hungeråret 1225 åbnet Wartburgs forrådskamre og rundhåndet uddelt mad til de fattige. Slottets forvalter protesterede og frygtede, at man selv ville komme til at savne det fornødne til hoffet, men i denne sag som i så mange andre, hvor Elisabeth havde kontroverser med hoffet, tog ægtemanden altid hendes parti og forsvarede hendes handlinger.

Med landgrevens død fik Elisabeth tiltagende problemer ved hoffet, og efter mange overvejelser valgte hun radikalt at forlade Wartburg med sine børn og sine to kammerpiger. Efter nogen tid fik hun dog udbetalt sin arv efter ægtemanden og byggede for en del af sin formue et hospital, hvor hun selv indtil sin død arbejdede som sygeplejerske.

Elisabeth døde allerede i 1231 24 år gammel og blev fire år senere helgenkåret.

Karakterfast og urokkelig

Allerede som barn begyndte Elisabeth at undre sig over landgrevehoffets levevis, og da hun opdagede, at almindelige mennesker måtte lide nød, protesterede hun mod hoffets ødselhed, hvor man levede på småfolks bekostning. Ved hoffets fester blev det sædvanligt, at landgrevinden, der forlangte at sidde til bords med sin mand, stillede spørgsmålet: Hvorfra stammer ingredienserne i denne ret? Underforstået: Er vi kommet retmæssigt til disse råvarer, eller er det noget, vi har taget fra andre? Hendes mand gav hende altid et korrekt svar, og afhængigt af svarets udfald spiste Elisabeth, eller lod retten passere.

Elisabeths protest var helt og holdent dikteret af hendes holdning til de fattige og syge, som i datidens samfund var overladt til sig selv og deres sørgelige skæbne. Noget fattigvæsen eller forsorg fandtes ikke. Hvor det var muligt, hjalp Elisabeth de fattige og syge, og med sin formue fik hun oprettet hospitaler, hvor de kunne blive plejet og få tag over hovedet. Selv engagerede hun sig i en praktisk og aktiv sygepleje, som til sidst kostede hende livet. Generelt kan man sige, at hun var særdeles karakterfast, og at hun ikke var til rokke fra sin positive holdning til de svage i samfundet.

Der kan ikke herske tvivl om, at hendes holdning gjorde et stort indtryk på hendes ægtemand. Utallige gange blev han konfronteret med sin families og hoffets klager over hende, og altid støttede han hende. Begge ville – hver på sin måde: han som korsfarer og hun som de fattiges og syges hjælper – arbejde for Guds Rige. Hun var overbevist om, at man ikke kan leve som kristen og samtidig udbytte de fattige og svage.

Elisabeth of Hungary

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (German: Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, Hungarian: Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet, July 7, 1207 – November 17, 1231)[2] was a princess of Hungary and a Catholic saint, celebrated mainly in Germany and Hungary.[3] According to tradition, she was born in the castle of Sárospatak, Hungary, on July 7, 1207.[4][5][6] She was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Andechs-Merania, and at age four was brought to the court of the rulers of Thuringia in Central Germany, to become a future bride who would reinforce political alliances between the families. Elisabeth was married at the age of fourteen, widowed at twenty, relinquished her wealth to the poor, built hospitals, and became a symbol of Christian charity in Germany and elsewhere after her death at the age of twenty-four.

Early life and marriage

A sermon printed in 1497 by the Franciscan Osvaldus de Lasco, a church official in Hungary, is the first to name Sárospatak as the saint's birthplace, perhaps building on local tradition. The veracity of this account is not without reproach: Osvaldus also transforms the miracle of the roses (see below) to Elisabeth's childhood in Sárospatak, and has her leave Hungary at the age of five.[7]

According to more contemporary and very trustworthy sources, Elisabeth left Hungary at the age of four, to become betrothed to Ludwig IV of Thuringia. Some have suggested that Ludwig's brother Hermann was in fact the eldest, and that she was first betrothed to him until his death in 1232, but this is doubtful. An event of this magnitude would almost certainly be mentioned at least once in the many original sources at our disposal, and this is not the case. Rather, the 14th-century "Cronica Reinhardsbrunnensis" specifically names Hermann as the second son. In addition, the only contemporary document (dated May 29, 1214) that might support Hermann's claim to be the eldest by putting his name before Ludwig's relates to a monastery in Hesse. This, it has been suggested, actually supports the claim that Hermann was the younger of the two, as Hesse was traditionally the domain of the second son, and thus it would be normal that his name be mentioned first, as this document deals with his territory.[8]

In 1221, at the age of fourteen, Elisabeth married Ludwig; the same year he was crowned Ludwig IV, and the marriage appears to have been happy. In 1223, Franciscan monks arrived, and the teenage Elisabeth not only learned about the ideals of Francis of Assisi, but started to live them. Ludwig was not upset by his wife's charitable efforts, believing that the distribution of his wealth to the poor would bring eternal reward; he is venerated in Thuringia as a saint (without being canonized by the Church, unlike his wife).

It was also about this time that the priest and later inquisitor Konrad von Marburg--a harsh man--gained considerable power over Elisabeth, when he was appointed as her confessor.

In the spring of 1226, when floods, famine, and plague wrought havoc in Thuringia, Ludwig, a staunch supporter of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, represented Frederick II at the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) in Cremona. Elisabeth assumed control of affairs and distributed alms in all parts of their territory, even giving away state robes and ornaments to the poor. Below the Wartburg Castle, she built a hospital with twenty-eight beds and visited the inmates daily to attend to them.

Elisabeth's life changed irrevocably on September 11, 1227 when Ludwig, en route to join the Sixth Crusade, died of the plague in Otranto, Italy. His remains were returned to Elisabeth in 1228 and deposited in Reinhardsbrunn; on hearing the news of her husband's death, Elisabeth is reported to have said, "He is dead. He is dead. It is to me as if the whole world died today."[9]

Widowed at the age of twenty

After Ludwig's death, his brother Heinrich Raspe of Thuringia assumed the regency during the minority of Elisabeth's eldest child, Landgrave Hermann II, Landgraf of Thuringia (1222–1241).

After bitter arguments over the disposal of her dowry, a conflict in which Konrad had been appointed as her defensor by Pope Gregory IX, Elisabeth left the court at Wartburg and moved to Marburg in Hesse. Popular tradition has it that she was cast out by Heinrich, but this does not stand up to critical examination.

Following her husband's death, Elisabeth made solemn vows to Konrad similar to those of a nun. These vows included celibacy, as well as complete obedience to Konrad as her confessor and spiritual adviser. Konrad's treatment of Elisabeth was extremely harsh, and he held her to standards of behavior which were almost impossible to meet. Among the punishments he is alleged to have ordered were physical beatings; he also ordered her to send away her three children. Her pledge to celibacy proved a hindrance to her family's political ambitions. In fact, Elisabeth was more or less held hostage at Pottenstein, Bavaria, the castle of her uncle, Bishop Ekbert of Bamberg, in an effort to force her to remarry. Elisabeth, however, held fast to her vow, even threatening to cut off her own nose so that no man would find her attractive enough to marry.[10]

Elisabeth's second child Sophie of Thuringia (1224-1275) married Henry II, Duke of Brabant and was the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse, since in the War of the Thuringian Succession she won Hesse for her son Heinrich I, called the Child. Elisabeth's third child, Gertrude of Altenberg (1227-1297), was born several weeks after the death of her father; she became abbess of the convent of Altenberg near Wetzlar.

Elisabeth became affiliated with the Third Order of St. Francis, a lay Franciscan group, probably without becoming an official Tertiary, and built a hospital at Marburg for the poor and the sick with the money from her dowry. Her vita describes how she ministered to the sick and continued to give money to the poor. In 1231, she died in Marburg at the age of twenty-four.

Legacy

Very soon after the death of Elisabeth, miracles were reported that happened at her grave in the church of the hospital, especially miracles of healing. On the suggestion of Konrad, and by papal command, examinations were held of those who had been healed between August, 1232, and January, 1235. The results of those examinations was supplemented by a brief vita of the saint-to-be, and together with the testimony of Elisabeth's handmaidens (bound in a booklet called the Libellus de dictis quatuor ancillarum s. Elisabeth confectus), proved sufficient reason for the quick canonization of Elisabeth on 27 May 1235 in Perugia--no doubt helped along by her family's power and influence. Very soon after her death, hagiographical texts of her life appeared all over Germany, the most famous being Dietrich of Apolda's Vita S. Elisabeth, which was written between 1289 and 1297.

She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in the year 1235. This papal charter is on display in the Schatzkammer of the Deutschordenskirche in Vienna, Austria. Her body was laid in a magnificent golden shrine--still to be seen today--in the Elisabeth Church (Marburg). It is now a Protestant church, but has spaces set aside for Catholic worship. Marburg became a center of the Teutonic Order, which adopted St Elisabeth as its second patroness. The Order remained in Marburg until its official dissolution by Napoleon I of France in 1803.

Elisabeth is perhaps best known for the legend which says that whilst she was taking bread to the poor in secret, her husband asked her what was in the pouch; Elisabeth opened it and the bread turned into roses. How realistic this story is remains doubtful, since her husband, according to the vitae, was never troubled by her charity and in fact supported it. In some versions of the story, it is her brother in law, Heinrich Raspe, who questions here. The miracle, the earliest example of what came to be called the Miracle of the roses, is commemorated in many images of the saints--prayer cards, statues, paintings. One famous statue is in Budapest, in front of the neo-Gothic church dedicated to her at Roses' Square (Rózsák tere).[11]

Another popular story about St. Elisabeth, also found in Dietrich of Apolda's Vita, relates how she laid a leper in the bed she shared with her husband. When Ludwig discovered what she had done, he is said to have snatched off the bedclothes in great indignation, but at that instant "Almighty God opened the eyes of his soul, and instead of a leper he saw the figure of Christ crucified stretched upon the bed."

Elisabeth's shrine became one of the main German centers of pilgrimage of the 14th century and early 15th century. During the course of the 15th century, the popularity of the cult of St. Elisabeth slowly faded, though to some extent this was mitigated by an aristocratic devotion to St. Elisabeth, since through her daughter Sophia she was an ancestor of many leading aristocratic German families. But three hundred years after her death, one of Elisabeth's many descendants, the Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous" of Hesse, a leader of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most important supporters of Martin Luther, raided the church in Marburg and demanded that the Teutonic Order hand over Elisabeth's bones, in order to disperse her relics and thus put an end to the already declining pilgrimages to Marburg. Philip also took away the crowned agate chalice in which St. Elisabeth's head rested, but returned it after being imprisoned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The chalice was subsequently plundered by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War and is now on display at the National Museum in Stockholm. St Elisabeth's skull and some of her bones can be seen at the Convent of St Elisabeth in Vienna; some relics also survive at the shrine in Marburg.

2007 celebrations

The year 2007 was proclaimed "Elisabeth Year" in Marburg. All year, events commemorating Elisabeth's life and works were held, culminating in a town-wide festival to celebrate the 800th anniversary of her birth on July 7, 2007. Pilgrims came from all over the world for the occasion, which ended with a special service in the Elisabeth Church that evening.

A new musical based on Elisabeth's life, Elisabeth--die Legende einer Heiligen ("Elisabeth--Legend of a Saint"), starring Sabrina Weckerlin as Elisabeth, Armin Kahn as Ludwig, and Chris Murray as Konrad, premiered in Eisenach in 2007. It was performed in Eisenach and Marburg for two years, and closed in Eisenach in July, 2009

 + Elizabeth of Hungary + 

19 November AD 1231

Elizabeth (Erzsebet, Elisabeth) of Hungary, born in Pressburg, Hungary, in 1207, was the daughter of King Andrew II and his wife Gertrude. Given in an arranged political marriage, she became wife of Louis of Thuringia (Germany) at age 14.

Her spirit of Christian generosity and charity pervaded the home she established for her husband and three children in the Wartburg Castle at Eisenach. Their abode was known for hospitality and family love.

Elizabeth often supervised the care of the sick and needy, even giving up her bed to a leper at one time. Widowed at age 20, she arranged for her children's well-being and entered into life as a nun in the Order of Saint Francis. Her self-denial led to failing health and an early death in 1231 at the age of 24. Remembered for her self-sacrificing ways, Elizabeth is commemorated through the many hospitals named for her around the world.

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Isabel_da_Hungria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Hungary

http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szent_Erzs%C3%A9bet

Az öt gyermek közül Erzsébet volt a harmadik. Bátyja később IV. Béla néven lett magyar király. Budán keresztelték meg, fényes pompával. I. Hermann türingiai őrgróf kérésére Erzsébetet a kor szokásának megfelelően négyéves korában eljegyezték Hermannal, az őrgróf fiával. Erzsébet Eisenachba, majd Wartburgba került. Az irodalom- és zenekedvelő őrgróf és buzgón vallásos felesége mellett jó nevelést kapott. 1213-ban meghalt az édesanyja (a Bánk bán Gertrúd királynéja), ami után hosszú ideig rémálmai voltak. Vőlegénye, a betegeskedő Hermann 1216-ban 19 évesen meghalt, ekkor – némi politikai huzavona után – öccse, Lajos, aki Erzsébet legjobb pajtása volt, jegyezte el. Az esküvőt 1221-ben tartották Eisenachban. Erzsébet a nála 7 évvel idősebb Lajossal boldog házasságban élt. Gyermekeik Hermann (1222. március 28.), Zsófia (1224. március 20.) és Gertrúd (1227. szeptember 29.). 1222-ben „utólagos nászútra” visszalátogatott férjével Pozsonyba; csak itt tudta meg anyja meggyilkolásának tragikus történetét.

Erzsébet korán elkezdte a vezeklő életmódot: gyakran böjtölt, ostorozta magát, vezeklőövet is hordott. Éjjelente gyakran virrasztott. Első gyermekének születése után menedékhelyet alapított árva gyerekek részére, szegényeket segített. Második gyermeke születése után hálából 28 ágyas kórházat alapított, ahol maga is segített a betegápolásban.

1225-ben Lajos vazallusként II. Frigyes oldalán hadba indult, Erzsébet vette át a tartomány kormányzását. Az éhínségek, járványok okozta sebeket orvosolni igyekezett, kinyittatta Wartburg éléstárait, a szegényeket élelmezte. Maga is mértéktartóan élt. A családtagok aggódva nézték Erzsébet „pazarlását”, Lajos azonban visszatértekor mindent jóváhagyott.

II. Frigyes megkoronázásakor ígéretet tett III. Ince pápának keresztes hadjárat indítására. Ennek beváltása Lajost is érintette. Erzsébet maga varrta fel a keresztesek jelét férje ruhájára. Ettől kezdve gyászruhát hordott.

Lajos 1227. szeptember 11-én elhunyt. Szeptember 29-én született Gertrúd lányát már nem láthatta. IX. Gergely pápa levelében atyai szavakkal bátorította Erzsébetet, és az igen szigorú Konrád mestert gyóntatójává és hivatalos védelmezőjévé nevezte ki.

Lajos öccsei, Raspe Henrik és Konrád igen keményen bántak Erzsébettel. A 20 éves özvegyet megfosztották a vagyona kezelésének jogától és férje birtokainak jövedelmétől.

A kialakult helyzet miatt egy októberi napon észrevétlenül elhagyta Wartburgot újszülöttjével, majd másnap két másik gyermekét is elhozatta. Fonással tartotta fenn magát, gyermekeit a megmaradt ékszereiből neveltette. Eckbert bambergi püspök befogadta Pottenstein várába, és Erzsébetnek az újraházasodást javasolta. II. Frigyes császár meg is kérte a kezét, ám Erzsébet nem akart újabb házasságot kötni.

Rövid időre még visszatérhetett Wartburgba, ám a család javaslatára Marburgba költözött. Assisi Szent Ferenc harmadrendjének tagja lett, ettől kezdve egyszerű szürke köntösben járt. Bár II.András hívta, nem tért vissza Magyarországra gyermekei neveltetése miatt.

Erzsébet 3 nappal előbb megmondta halálának napját. Sírja mellett számos csodás esemény történt. IX. Gergely pápa avatta szentté 1235-ben. Marburgi sírja fölé 1236-ban elkezdték építeni az Erzsébet-templomot, mely 1283-ban készült el. Magyarországon IV. Béla, Erzsébet testvére építtette tiszteletére az első templomot Kápolnán.