Readings:

Psalm 146:4-9
Tobit 12:8-10
Luke 12:32–34

Preface of a Saint (2)

[Common of a Saint]
[For Vocation in Daily Work]
[For Social Service]


PRAYER (traditional language)
Almighty God, by whose grace thy servant Elizabeth of Hungary recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)
Almighty God, by your grace your servant Elizabeth of Hungary recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This commemoration appears in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2018 with revised lessons.

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Last updated:  19 Sept. 2020

ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY

PRINCESS AND PHILANTHROPIST (19 NOV 1231)

  
Elizabeth of HungaryThe numerous "St. Elizabeth's Hospitals" throughout the world are for the most part named, not for the Biblical Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, but for this princess of Hungary. She was concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her husband's consent she used her dowry money for their relief. During a famine and epidemic in 1226, while her husband was away in Italy, she sold her jewels and established a hospital where she nursed the sick, and opened the royal granaries to feed the hungry. After her husband's death in 1227, her inlaws, who opposed her "extravagances," expelled her from Wartburg. Finally an arrangement was negotiated with them that gave her a stipend. She became a Franciscan tertiary (lay associate) and devoted the remainder of her life to nursing and charity. She sewed garments to clothe the poor, and went fishing to feed them. 

 

by James Kiefer