St. Elisabeth - a saint we share

Two saints - same stories? Or a fictitious person? Germany and Portugal share stories about the same saint and about both persons (or just one?) there are the same legends - for example the Rose Miracle.

Elisabeth of Thuringia

For political reasons, Elisabeth was engaged in 1211 at the age of only four to the then eleven-year-old landgrave son Hermann. This was to confirm the alliance between the Landgrave and the Andechs Meranians.

The temperamental girl was sent to the magnificent Thuringian court at the Wartburg Castle to be brought up. The aims of education were, among other things, a moderate character, controlled appearance and inner balance.

But Hermann died in 1216, one year later also his father. Hermann's younger brother Ludwig IV became landgrave in 1218 and Elisabeth was to be sent back to Hungary in the absence of a husband. Ludwig and Elisabeth had fallen in love and in 1221 they married. Elisabeth was 14 years old then. It came to a happy marriage, from which soon three children emerged.

When the first Franciscans came to Eisenach in 1225, their ideal of liberating poorness exerted a great influence on Elisabeth. She supported the monastery and cared for the needy herself. Although she received support from her husband, this was viewed with skepticism by her family.

There are many miracle stories about Elisabeth's commitment to the poor and the sick. For example, she had a leper put in her own bed to care for him. During a famine in 1226 she had all available grain distributed and also used money from the treasury to help. Vehement accusations were made but suddenly the floor of the hall was covered with grain and all the chambers were filled.

During this time she got the under the influence of the radical preacher Konrad von Marburg. When her husband died of an infection on a crusade, she came completely under the control of this preacher and became more and more radical. Isolated from her family, she last lived as a poor nun in Marburg. The day of her death is November 19th.

A statue of the Saint inside the garden of
school D.Dinis in Lisbon, 
picture: A.Murmann CC BY-SA 4.0

The rose miracle

The best known miracle story is probably the Rose Miracle. When Elisabeth went into town one day to give bread to the poor, she met her husband's mother. Her commitment to the poor was not well regarded in the family. When asked what she had in the basket (other versions: under the apron), Elisabeth answered that there were roses in the basket. Her mother-in-law asked her to lift the cloth to see the roses. Elizabeth lifted the cloth and in the basket lay roses instead of bread for the poor. Occasionally it is reported that her husband wanted to trap her. At least the husband of Elisabeth of Thuringia had always supported her charity.

Elisabeth of Portugal

She was born around 1270 as the daughter of King Pedro III of Aragón and named after her great-aunt Elisabeth of Thuringia. In 1282 she was married to King Dom Dinis of Portugal, with whom she had two children. Her husband died in 1325, after his death she supported churches and monasteries from the income of her property, founded hospitals for children and the poor and lived practically as a nun in Coimbra. She died on 4 July 1336.

Elisabeth was very religious throughout her life and spent much of her time with charity and prayer. When she was twelve years old, she was married to Dom Dinis, who entered into extramarital relationships but jealously controlled them. Her behaviour and piety were very noticeable at the Portuguese royal court, where things were very desolate in Dom Dinis' time.

When her son Alfonso IV declared war on his father out of concern for his inheritance, the queen rode unarmed between the two armies, thus preventing the battle between father and son. In 1336 she similarly prevented a war between Alfonso and his father-in-law, the King of Castile. Just like her great-aunt Elisabeth of Thuringia/Hungary, she is also credited with a miracle of roses.