Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, Princess of Hungary

November 17 – St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, Princess of Hungary – T.O.S.F. – (Third Order Franciscan) –

(German: Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, Hungarian: Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet, July 7, 1207 – November 17, 1231) was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary. She was the daughter of Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania, and at age four was brought to the court of the rulers of Thuringia at the Wartburg, near Eisenach, in central Germany, to become a future bride who would reinforce political alliances between the families. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, widowed at 20, 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 24.

~Imaage: Window: workshop of Franz Borgias Mayer (1848–1926); Photo: Wojciech Dittwald, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons