Saint Elizabeth of Hungary is patroness of the Third Order, patroness of charity and
compassion for the poor and the sick and the suffering and the lepers. She lived this
all her life and she only lived a short life. She died at the age of 24. She was born in
1207, just shortly before the Franciscan Order began in 1209. And even at an early age of
three years old, she was married off or betrothed or engaged to the wealthy landowner of Thuringia
which was near Hungary. She was the daughter of the King of Hungary. But she was set aside
to be married at the age of three years old and so she was brought up in the castle of
Wartsburg in Thuringia to be married to Louis when they grew up and they were both about
the same age and they grew up together and they loved each other as brother and sister
and she learned her...
her love for the poor at a very early age. Even though she was a little child, she used
to love to give things to the poor. And then when she grew up, she visited them and she
visited the sick and even the lepers and took care of them. And then when she was married
at the age of 18, she continued her charity to the poor under the... with the permission
of her husband. Her husband gave her free rein to...
to show her charity to... to the poor. And so she... and she even built... built a hospital
right next to her castle so that she could go morning and evening every day to visit
the sick and the poor and... and even to take care of them and to carry them in her arms
and nurse those who were the worst... in the worst condition. She would do this kind of
charity. She did this all of her life, says her spiritual director.
And... she... she one time was walking to give... walking with things for the poor in
her arms and she came across her husband who was seemingly blocking her way and asked her
what she had in her cloak and she opened it up and she had fragrant roses there. And her
father... her husband saw that she was off on her mission of charity and God was blessing
it.
miracle and she also
was in taking care of the poor
taking care of the lepers she took one of the
most ill lepers and put them in the marriage
the royal bed when her husband was away and
her husband came back all of a sudden
and was informed that
that this leper was put in her
his royal bed and he went and went to the bed and threw open the covers and
found Jesus saw an image of Jesus crucified
after that he approved of
his wife's charitable endeavors even more and even
said he would even thank her for treating the
poor in this way so she continued to practice
her charity through the rest of her life
and but her husband died at an early age
and on his way to the Crusades in the
Holy Land he died in in Italy and after
that she had to undergo the the cross of
her persecution from her her in-laws who
didn't like her didn't think that her
practices of charity were dignified and
appropriate for royal behavior so they
kicked her out of the her own castle and
she was left with her four children that she had even a
child of two months of age she couldn't even find a place to stay because the
people were afraid of the new
governors of the of the land
so but she did finally find a place to stay a man allowed her to stay in a
in a little stable for his animals and
obviously she saw this as a as a sign of God's favor and she was over over over
joyed that she would be in the same
situation at the Holy Family and in
midnight she heard the bells of the
local friary church which she had
actually built and she went to the
friary and begged the friars to ring the
bells and sing the te deum for her
because of this special favor that God
had bestowed on her to image the Holy
Family in this situation so for a while
she was in this poverty
and destitution with her children she
earned her way with spinning spinning
garments and selling them with her two
maids that were with her and so she was
learning poverty and loving this poverty
and image of Jesus and Mary and then
soon after she was reinstated in the
castle of Wurzburg so she went back in
there and and she was even
offered the hand of marriage to the
Emperor Frederick the second which she
she declined because she wanted to she
wanted to live a life of poverty and
taking care of the poor so she settled
her children to to be brought up as
educated as princes as they were and she
went off with her two maids and lived
near the Franciscan convent near her
spiritual director in in the
Marburg she wanted to be away from her
her environment of wealth and and riches
and favor and there and the little house
that she lived in she built a hospital
there as well and took care and continued
to take care of the poor and the sick
and in the suffering and again she died
in 1237 the age of 24 and we see an
example of true compassion to
compassion and love for the poor and
examine she must have heard this gospel
passage of those who will come to the
judgment seat and our Lord will examine
us if we have taken care of the poor and
practice those corporal acts of corporal
acts of mercy and to exercise that
compassion and all the aspects of of
compassion which mean to as our lady
did she went in haste to care for the
those who are in need in haste and one
of the characteristics of compassion is
to go in haste and to seek out those who
are suffering those who are in need to
look for them not like the divas and the
parable our Lord divas and Lazarus he
didn't even know that Lazarus was at his
gate suffering and the dog's like a dog
licking his wounds but we should seek
out in haste those who are in need we
should be thoughtful of them we should
come to them and give them our our full
attention as Saint Elizabeth did she
gave them their full attention even
caring for them herself and imagine what
kind of compassion it is for those who
don't who are distracted and and don't
give their full attention to those in
need they certainly are not appreciated
and to be thoughtful of those in need to
think of their needs to think of them
those who are even embarrassed to tell
what their needs are we need to think of
think of their needs before they ask and
to and to not to be judgmental judgment
judgmental Ness is a killer of charity
makes us think that they
put themselves in the situation that
they're in and that they deserve deserve
it perhaps and that certainly is going
to prevent us from reaching out to help
them so let us put these aspects of
charity into our own life in example in
following the example of Saint Elizabeth
and the principles our Lord presents to
us in this gospel
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Thank you.