E-SOURCE 12.1
The Canonization of Elizabeth of Thuringia
Married at 14, widowed at 20, and dead at 24, Elizabeth of Thuringia (1207-1231) lived a life of
ferocious piety that earned her canonization in the Church. The method by which she achieved
sainthood was different from how this might have occurred two hundred years prior. As part of
its attempt to exercise more control over Christendom, the papacy transformed the traditional,
local practice of canonizing saints into a more centralized and bureaucratic practice. As a
consequence, the rather haphazard and anarchic multitude of early medieval saints gave way to
a much more regulated order of saints in the Central Middle Ages.
As you read, consider these questions:
1) In a society highly imbalanced by gender, how might a life of extreme piety have been an
avenue for Elizabeth’s personal empowerment?
2) How might papal control over the canonization process have benefitted the Church?
POPE GREGORY IX’S BULL CANONIZING ELIZABETH OF THURINGIA (1235)
Gregory, Bishop, Servant Of The Servants Of God, to all the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors,
archdeacons, priests, deans, and other prelates of the Church, whom these letters may concern,
greeting.
The Infinite Majesty of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Blessed Savior and Redeemer of
our souls, beholding from high heaven the nobility and excellence of our condition impaired and
corrupted by the sin of our first parent, and then by an immense train of miseries, of vice and
crime, touched with compassion for His own well-beloved creature, resolved to make known to
him the depths of His all-powerful mercy, to deliver mankind, seated in the shadow of death, and
to recall the poor exile to his home of blessed liberty, judging in His divine and infinite wisdom
that, as it properly belongs to the workman, who has commenced some masterpiece, to perfect it,
and if unhappily it fall into decay and lose its beauty, to repair and restore it to its first form, so it
fittingly belonged to Him, exclusive of all others, to redeem and restore His own creature who
had fallen from his ancient dignity.
For this purpose he entered within the narrow walls of the body of the Blessed Virgin (if
indeed one may speak of that as narrow which could embrace Him who is infinite); from His
celestial throne He entered and concealed Himself in the virginal palace of His Blessed Mother;
invisible as He was, He made Himself visible, and by the adorable mystery of the Incarnation
conquered and overthrew the prince of darkness; triumphed over his malice by the glorious
redemption of human nature, and by His divine instructions marked out for faithful souls a
certain path by which they might regain their pristine state.
The blessed and gracious Elizabeth, of royal birth, and, by alliance, Duchess of
Thuringia, carefully studying and wisely comprehending this admirable economy of our
salvation, courageously undertook to follow the sacred footsteps of our Savior, and to labor with
all her strength in the practice of virtue; and in order to render herself worthy to be filled with
eternal light, from the dawn of her life to its very close she never ceased to delight in the
embraces of celestial love, and with a fervor wholly natural to her dedicated all the powers of her
soul to the one supreme love of Jesus Christ Our Savior, Who being True God and the True and
Eternal Son of God, became the Son of Man, and Son of the Blessed Virgin, Queen of Angels
and of men; a love most pure and fervent, which rendered her worthy to drink deeply of heavenly
sweetness, and to enjoy the divine favors which are bestowed at the nuptials of this Adorable
Lamb.
And then, being enlightened by this same light, and proving herself to be a true daughter
of the Church, recognizing this Divine Jesus, the sole object of her affections, in the person of
her neighbor, she loved him with a charity so admirable that her whole delight was to see herself
surrounded by the poor, to live and converse with them. She cherished still more those whom
misery and offensive diseases rendered most repulsive, and whose approach had horrified and
driven away the strongest of hearts. So generously did she distribute her goods among them, that
she made herself poor and needy, in order to supply them abundantly with all that was necessary
for them. When she was yet but a child, and needed a governess because of her youth, she had
already become the good mother, the guardian and protectress of the poor, and her heart was full
of tenderness for their misfortunes.
Having learned that the Eternal Judge would, at the last judgment, make special mention
of the services that were rendered Him, and that the entrance into heaven was in a measure at the
disposition of the poor, she conceived such an esteem for their condition, and undertook with
such diligence to conciliate the affection and favor of those whom, ordinarily, persons of her
condition despise and can with difficulty tolerate, that not content with distributing alms to them
out of the abundance of her riches, emptying her granaries, her treasury, and her purse to help
them, depriving herself, moreover, of delicacies that were prepared for her own table, she
rigorously mortified her tender body by fasts and the torments of hunger to relieve them,
constantly observed a strict economy in order to satisfy them, and practiced an austerity that
knew no intermission, that they might be comfortable; virtues that were all the more
praiseworthy and meritorious because with her they sprang from pure charity, and from the
abundance of her own devotion, without her being constrained or obliged thereto by any one.
What more can I say to you? This noble princess, renouncing all the rights that nature and
her birth gave her, and sinking her desires in the one wish to serve and please God, during the
life of her husband, with his permission, and preserving the rights which belonged to him,
promised and observed a most faithful obedience to her confessor. But after the death of her
honored husband, considering the saintly life which until then she had lived as too imperfect, she
assumed the habit of religion, and during her remaining years lived the life of a most perfect
religious, honoring by her state, and by her constant practices, the sacred and adorable mysteries
of the bitter passion and death of our Savior. O blessed woman! O admirable lady! O sweet
Elizabeth! How truly appropriate indeed for you is that beautiful name, which signifies the
fullness and abundance of God, since you so charitably supplied the wants of the famishing poor
who are the images and representatives of God, nay, are the dearest members of His Divine Son.
You have truly merited to be fed with the Bread of Angels, since you so mercifully gave your
own to the terrestrial angels and messengers of the King of Heaven. O blessed and most noble
widow! More fruitful in virtue than during your honorable married life you were in offspring,
seeking in virtue that which nature seems to have denied to women, you became a sublime
warrior against the enemies of our salvation; you conquered them with the shield of faith, as the
Apostle says, the breastplate of justice, the sword of the spirit and of fervor, the helmet of
salvation and the lance of perseverance.
She rendered herself worthy of the love of her Immortal Spouse, united as she was
always with the Queen of Virgins by the earnest affection which she had for her service, and by a
most perfect submission, following her example by sinking her exalted position in the practices
of a most humble servant. Thus she imitated her good patron Elizabeth, whose name she bore,
and the venerable Zachary, walking simply and without reproach in the way of the
commandments of God, preserving by love the grace of God in her innermost soul, the outward
fruits of which were her saintly acts and her unceasing good works. Cherishing and nourishing
this grace by a constant increase in virtue, she merited at the close of her life to be received
lovingly by Him in Whom alone we should place all our hope, Who reserves to Himself as a
special right the power and office of exalting the innocent and the humble, and Who delivered
her from the bonds of death to place her upon the exalted throne of inaccessible light. But whilst
surrounded by the beauties and riches of the eternal kingdom, and exulting in the company of the
saints and angels, her spirit enjoyed the vision of God, and was resplendent in the abyss of
supreme glory, her charity led her, as it were, away from this throne, in order to enlighten us who
live in the darkness of the world, and to console us by a great number of miracles, by virtue of
which faithful Catholics have grown strong and are gloriously fortified in faith and hope and
charity, infidels are enlightened and taught the true way of salvation, and hardened heretics stand
abashed, covered with shame and confusion.
For the enemies of the Church see plainly, without any possibility of contradiction, that
by the merits of her who during the imprisonment of this life was a lover of the poor, full of
sweetness and mercy, who shed many tears, not so much for her own sins as, through her great
charity, for those of others, who hungered for justice, led a most pure and innocent life, and who
amidst the continual persecutions and reproaches that were heaped upon her preserved a stainless
soul, and a calm and peaceful heart, they see that through the invocation of this faithful spouse of
Jesus Christ, life is restored to the dead in a divine manner, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
speech to the mute, and the power of walking to the lame. And thus the unhappy heretics, full of
anger and hatred, in spite of their rage, and in spite of the poison with which they claimed to
have infected all Germany, are compelled to witness in this same country the religion which they
endeavored to destroy bursting forth gloriously and with unspeakable joy, to triumph over their
malice and impiety.
These miracles having been attested to us by proofs that admit of no contradiction, with
the advice of our brothers, the venerable Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops, and all the other
Prelates assembled in our Court, according to the duty of our office, which obliges us to watch
diligently over whatsoever tends and contributes to the increase of the glory of our Lord, we
have inscribed her name in the Catalogue of the Saints, enjoining strictly upon you the solemn
celebration of her feast on the thirteenth day of the calends of the month of December, which is
the day upon which, having broken the bonds of death, she took her flight to the source of
supreme happiness, in order that through her pious intercession we may obtain that which she
has already obtained from her Redeemer and is to enjoy for all eternity. Further, in order to
exercise the power which is given us from on high to offer to all the faithful a foretaste of the
delights of the invisible court, and in order to exalt the name of the Most High, by causing many
to visit and honor the sepulchre of His spouse, full of confidence in the mercy of the Almighty,
by the authority of the Blessed Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, we mercifully remit a year
and forty days of penance to all, who, being contrite and having made a good confession, shall
visit her tomb and offer there their prayers on her feast day, or on any day during the octave.
Given at Perugia on the Calends of June, the ninth year of our pontificate.
Source: Count de Montalembert, Life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary: Duchess of Thuringia,
Francis Deming Hoyt, trans., (New York: Longmans, Green, and co., 1904), 414-420. Text
modified by Phillip C. Adamo.