Today, November 17, is the memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.
Born in present-day Bratislava, Slovakia in 1207, Elizabeth was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Queen Gertrude of Merania. She was the great-aunt of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal. She married Prince Louis of Thuringa at age 13 (other accounts say 14).
When Elizabeth was able to manage domestic concerns, she shared her wealth to others. She gave alms as well as expensive clothes to the poor. She built a hospital at the foot of the mountain on which her castle stood. Many times she took care of the sick herself. Her family and courtiers did not like this, but Elizabeth told them she wanted to please God, not them.
Elizabeth would take considerable amounts of food from her castle to distribute to the hungry. She would hide the food under her cloak. Once when she was taking food to the poor and sick, Prince Louis stopped her and looked under her mantle to see what she was carrying. The food had been miraculously changed to roses.
When Louis died of a fever, Elizabeth sold all that she had, and worked to support her four children. Her gifts of bread to the poor, and of a large gift of grain to a famine stricken Germany, led to her patronage of bakers and related fields.
She died in 1231 at the age of 24. She was canonized in 1235 by Pope Gregory IX.