Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/278

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264 B. ELISABETH met Jeau Christie quern mdi, quern amavt, in quern credidi, quern dilexi." Her body was carried to the small chapel of St. Francis, where she had often worshipped, and after four days she was buried there in presence of an immense crowd of people. Many wonderful cures were accomplished at hor tomb ; the blind, the halt, and those afflicted with diseases were healed by touching it, and by prayers to the good saint. Her confessor, Conrad of Marburg, and her brother-in-law, Duke Conrad, were much impressed by all the miracles, and knowing her holy life, begged Pope Gregory to canonize Elisabeth. This was done at Perugia on the Day of Pentecost, May 26, 1235. When the bull of canonization reached Germany a day was fixed by Archbishop Siegfried of Mayence for the exaltation and trans- lation of the saint's body. The date was deferred until the next spring, in order to give the princes, bishops, nobles, and people time to assemble. On May 1, 1230), the little town of Marburg was filled to overflowing with an immense crowd of people from all parts of Europe, gathered to do honour to the loved Elisabeth. Two altars had been erected under her invocation within a year from her death; and soon after she was canonized churches were dedicated in her name, notably at Treves, Strasburg, Cassel, Winchester, and Prague. The foundation stone of the celebrated one at Marburg was laid in 1235 by the Landgrave Conrad. Her son Hermann on his death-bed begged to be laid beside his mother ; but his uncle Henry — who profited by his death, whether it is true or not that he had a hand in it — was afraid that proximity to the body of the saint would raise her son to life, and buried him instead at Eeinhartsbrunn beside his father. Sophia, duchess of Brabant, an energetic and courageous young widow, claimed her brother's inheritance for her son, and after a stout fight succeeded in gaining Hess for him. She spent her life in devotion to her son and country. She began her letters, charters, etc.,

  • ' We, Sophia, duchess of Brabant,

daughter of St. Elisabeth," etc. Thur- ingia became the property of Conrad, brother of Louis. This account is mainly taken from Montalembert, Vie de Sainte Elizabeth, He gives a list of contemporary and early lives, many of them in old German, on which the modern accounts are based. Her life by Theodoric of Thuringia is in Canisius' Lectiones Antiquse. She is mentioned in all the histories and chronicles of the period, both sacred and secular, and in every collection of Lives of Sainta She is the heroine of Kings- ley's Sainfa Tragedy. St. Hedwiq, duchess of Silesia, was her aunt. St. Isabel de Paz, queen of Portugal, was her great-niece. B. Salome, duchess of Galicia, was the wife of Elisabeth's brother. B. Beatrice (5) of Este was her father's third wife, but not until after the death of Elisabeth. B. Elisabeth (12), of Amestein, Oct. 14. Superior of Hortus Conclosus in the town of Horenthal. Probably of the same family as B. Guda (2), countess of Amestein, and founder (m 1139) of the nunnery of that name. Le Paige, Bihliotheha Prsemona, Ord, Crisostom Van der Sterre calls her Blessed, and places her among the Prtemonstratensian saints. B. EUsabeth (13) do Wans, July 1, Oct. 8. 13th century. Cistercian nun at Aquiria, diocese of Namur. Con- temporary of B. Sibylla de G^ages, a nun in the same convent. Both are invoked as saints, with St. Lutqard, in a prayer of the nuns of that convent. After a thanksgiving to God, it concludes, " Vo$ Domina S. LutgardiSy Domina S. Syhilla, Domina S. Elizabeth de Wans mem honoraltssimse majores et carissinue con- sorores estate benedictse in ssecula" i.e. Blessed be you for ever, SS. Lutgard, Sybil, and Elisabeth of Wans, my most honoured predecessors and dear fellow- nuns. AA.SS. Prseter, Bncelinus, July 2. Baissius, continuation of Molanus' book about Belgian Saints. St. Elisabeth (U), of Spaelbeeck, Juno 23, April 3, 5, Oct. 1 9, in her own district Nov. 19, called also St. Isabel, of Namur, of Liege, of Huy. 13th cen- tury. A friend of St. Juliana of Liege,