Thuringian Saints

Saint Elizabeth

Saint Elizabeth, born in 1207, was the daughter of Andrew, King of Hungary. While still a young girl, she was married to Louis the Landgrave of Thuringia, and gave birth to three children. She devoted herself to prayer and meditation. After her husbands death, she embraced a life of poverty, erecting a hospital in which she herself served the sick. She died at Marburg in 1231.

In 1949 a German postage stamp was issued in honor of Elisabeth Landräfin v. Thüringen (1207-1231). She is also named on this German language web site about her relative, Elisabeth von Hesse-Darmstadt, Saint Elizabeth of Russia, whose statue was placed in the West Front of Westminster Abbey in 1995

Saint Radegunde

Radegunde, daughter of Berthaire, pagan king of a portion of Thuringia, she was probably born at Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany. Her father was murdered by his brother, Hermenefrid, who in 531 was defeated by king Theodoric of Austrasia and king Clotaire I of Neustria, and Clotaire took twelve year old Radegunde captive. Six years later he married her. She devoted herself to the poor, the sick, and captives, founded a leper hospital, and bore Clotaire's cruelties uncomplainingly until he murdered her brother, Unstrut. She then left the court, received the deaconess habit from Bishop Medard at Noyon, and became a nun at Saix. About 557, she built the double monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, to which she retired and which she developed into a great center of learning. She was active in peacemaking roles, lived in great austerity, and secured a relic of the True Cross for the Church of her monastery. She lived the last years of her life in seclusion and died at the monastery on August 13. Venantius Fortunatus, a priest at Poitiers, wrote her biography. Her feast day is August 13.

Saint Gertrude

Saint Gertrude was born at Eisleben in Thuringia in 1256. As a young girl she was received into the Cisterian nuns at Helfta and applied herself to her studies, concentrating on literature and philosophy. Devoting her life to God, she dedicated herself to the pursuit of perfection, and gave herself over to prayer and contemplation. She died November 17, 1301.