Elizabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth was born 7 July 1207, a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary who became landgravine of Thuringia through marriage. She was 14 at the wedding, 20 when her husband died. What she did next separated her from the script: she took back her dowry and used the money to build a hospital, then served the sick there with her own hands. An early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, she made Christian charity visible in a way that outlasted her short run. She died 17 November 1231 at 24. The Church canonized her 25 May 1235, and she remains the patroness of her Franciscan order.