A classic example of the impact of the transformative movement Francis and Clare started (see previous post), is the life of Elisabeth von Thuringia, known as the ‘Elisabeth of Many Castles’.

Elisabeth was born in 1207, probably at Pressburg, in Thuringia. She was the daughter of King Andrew II and Queen Gertrude of Hungary. King Andrew II – by all reports – was a bad king, whose misrule led his nobles to a revolt against him. They eventually managed to get the King to sign an edict called the Golden Bull – that was Hungary ‘s Magna Carta – a charter of rights and responsibilities. Queen Gertrude was apparently a good woman who, unfortunately, got implicated in the politics of the day, and was assassinated by the nobles in 1213. Elisabeth was just seven years old when her mother was murdered.

But before she died, Gertrude managed to do two things that were to shape the rest of her daughter’s life. The first thing was to share her faith with her daughter. Gertrude was a very devout Christian, and she encouraged Elisabeth to pray regularly from a very young age. The second thing was to arrange her daughter’s marriage. By the age of two, according to the custom of the time, Elisabeth was betrothed to the eldest son of a local Landgrave.  When the eldest son – Hermann – died, she was betrothed to the second eldest – Ludwig.

Ludwig married Elisabeth in 1221. When he was twenty-one and she was fourteen. Ludwig proposed that they take ‘Piety, Chastity, and Justice’ as their family motto.  They committed themselves as a couple to pray regularly, practice hospitality, and rule justly. In the same year Ludwig and Elisabeth were married, the Franciscans set up their first base in Germany. And Brother Rodeger, one of the first Germans to become a Franciscan, became Elisabeth’s spiritual mentor. He encouraged her to practice the Be-Attitudes as much as she could.

Elisabeth was very rich, and had brought great wealth a dowry to her marri-age with Ludwig. In the early days she had so many castles she was called ‘Elisabeth of Many Castles’. But as time went by this very wealthy woman became increasingly concerned for the poor. And she began to ride around the countryside, assessing the plight of the impoverished among her people.

Elisabeth couldn’t see the need and not respond to it.

Elisabeth began distributing alms all over kingdom. Even giving away the robes of state and the ornaments of office. Once she started giving, Elisabeth couldn’t stop at charity. And she looked for ways to give herself. She built a twenty-eight-bed hospital for the poor in Wartburg, and visited the patients daily herself. And she helped feed nine hundred hungry people daily herself. Ludwig and Elisabeth lived such exemplary lives that people started to refer to them as ‘St Ludwig’ and ‘St Elisabeth’.

In 1227 Elisabeth’s beloved husband, Ludwig IV, died. And the twenty-year-old Elisabeth was inconsolable. ‘The world and all its joys is now dead to me,’ she cried. The next year Elisabeth sent her children to stay with her aunt, formally ‘renounced the world’, gave away her inheritance, and joined the Franciscans, as the first tertiary in Hungary. The queen now dedicated herself to serving beggars. She provided them with clothes and shoes – and agricultural tools. She opened the first orphanage in eastern Europe for destitute children. And, at the hospice she established in Marburg, she tended to the needs of dying lepers with her own hands – washing the sick and burying the dead.

On November 17^th 1231, Elisabeth died. Worn out as much by the lack of support that she got from her spiritual director, as from her implacable service to the poor. But, at the age of twenty-four, Elisabeth died one of the most influential activists in thirteenth century Europe.

The political philosopher, John Ralston Saul, says of Elisabeth, ‘She and Francis of Assisi were the most famous activists (of their day). To a great extent they laid out the modern democratic model of inclusion – an important step towards egalitarianism. Elisabeth used her position, as a member of the ruling class, to put the ideas into action.’

Saul says that because of her commitment to the Be-Attitudes ‘like many others, Elisabeth created a hospice. But unlike others, she went beyond pity and charity. She washed the sick and buried the dead. It is hard to imagine now the public impact of a royal figure washing the bodies of the homeless dead. Imagine the (President, Prime Minister) not visiting or holding hands with street people, but (actually) washing their bodies for burial’.

Elisabeth’ Saul says ‘took the elements of personal responsibility, set out tantalisingly in the New Testament, and imagined a social model which would change our societies.’ [i]