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A faithful wife loses her husband and becomes a Franciscan

The marriage of today’s saint was not any less happy for being arranged. Elizabeth of Hungary’s parents betrothed her at the age of four to a young German nobleman named Ludwig and sent her away as a child to live in his family’s court. Elizabeth wed Ludwig when she was fourteen and he twenty-one. Only in a post-industrial age have the teenage years been understood, in some countries but not all, as a time of self-discovery, boundary pushing, rejection of tradition, and excuse for total confusion. Puberty, not the entire span of the teen years, was historically understood as the passage to adulthood, responsibility, and a professional life. It was typical of her era, and of many other eras too, that Elizabeth would marry at fourteen. She was ready and became a contented, serious, and successful wife and mother, bearing three children, while still a teen.

Before Ludwig left on Crusade in 1227, he and Elizabeth vowed never to remarry if one were to die before the other. Then Ludwig died on his way to the Holy Land. Elizabeth was distraught but fulfilled her promise. So at the age of twenty, her already pious and prayerful soul waded into deeper Christian waters. Her mortifications became more rigorous, her financial generosity more total, and her...

Attributions
By C.Stadler/Bwag - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21032615; By © Heinrich Stürzl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108110359; By Vincent de Groot - http://www.videgro.net - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2712714; By © Heinrich Stürzl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108110967; By Rudolf Moroder - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4057044; By Moroder - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21594775; By Moroder - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21594775; By NicolasGrisales - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25580922; By Window: workshop of Franz Borgias Mayer (1848–1926); Photo: Wojciech Dittwald - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24201844; By Ola Myrin, SHM, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145682708; © Heinrich Stürzl / Wikimedia Commons