European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Elizabeth Road to sainthood in death she was revered As a Saint. In life she was Headstrong and unconventional. Marburg s Elizabeth is looked upon now As one of the most appealing and tenderhearted of medieval holy persons. As a Young woman she was a rebel who was a Thorn in the Side of her family. In an age when women generally had no say at All she kept saying no to protocol and tradition. Her unacceptable Demeanour enraged her Royal relatives who eventually ousted her from the family s Wartburg Castle in Eisenach which now is in East Germany. Marburg s Story of Elizabeth and her escapades gives a vivid picture of Europe during the Middle Ages a time of wars when the German landscape was dotted with More than 10,000 fortified castles. Elizabeth was t one to be confined by the thick Walls of the Wartburg Castle. She travelled the country visiting the villages that nested below the Hilltop sanctuaries of the mighty where the poor and lame roamed narrow refuse strewn streets. To the disgust of the Royal Wartburg court Elizabeth spent her time offering Aid to the impoverished. Pictures on the elizabethan altar in marburg s Church of St. Elizabeth depict two instances in which according to legend Angels stepped in to save her from shame and punishment. In one she is on her Way to the Royal table when she meets a beggar. She gives him her richly embroidered cloak although she is running late and it is a violation of court etiquette to appear improperly clothed in the Royal dining Hall. An Angel appears to drop a new cloak Over her shoulders. In the second Elizabeth s husband Ludwig is off Hunting when she places a Leper in their marriage bed. Ludwig returns and his Mother greets him hysterically. This exaggerated pious Ness will be the death of us All she tells him. He rushes to the bedchamber and throws Back the covers but finds a Large Crucifix not the Leper Elizabeth was nursing. Hers was an arranged marriage. In 1211, at the age of 4, the Little hungarian Princess was shipped to Germany to her husband to be Ludwig who was later to become the count of Thuringia. Ludwig is sometimes translated As Louis in English references the two were reared together in the Royal apartments of the Wartburg. When Elizabeth reached 14, the Long awaited marriage took place. Babies came rapidly three in four years. Elizabeth was pregnant with the third when Ludwig marched off on a crusade never to return. He died of fever in Otranto Italy. The Saint s statue in the Church. The Young widow was left at the mercy of Ludwig s family. To teach her a lesson they snatched her inheritance and banned her from the Castle. Penniless Elizabeth took Refuge in a Pigsty but refused to change her ways. Her Uncle Conrad of marburg a Bishop finally came to her Rescue. He managed to retrieve her dowry and Elizabeth retired to marburg. There she scorned the Castle and after turning her children Over to nuns used her inheritance to build a Hospital for the poor at the foot of the Hill. Elizabeth s life was greatly influenced by Conrad and by an italian Street preacher named Francesco i Bernardone. Both were religious spellbinder but their missions were quite different. Conrad preached fire and Brimstone and became Germany s chief inquisitor. Riding a mule and accompanied by his two lieutenants Dorso and one handed one eyed John this tiny Man ranged up and Down Germany inflaming the masses and putting helpless citizens to the stake As heretics. Bernardone who was 40 with a following of nearly 5,000 at the time of Elizabeth s marriage gave sermons advocating a life of selfless poverty and love of Mankind and All of god s creatures. Elizabeth gave up All worldly possessions to Model her life after Bernardone s. Her death probably brought about in part by overwork came at the age of 24. She was canonized four years later in 1235 by Pope Gregory in and her shrine at marburg became a Center for pilgrimages. Conrad was assassinated in 1233. When the Pope heard of the atrocities he had wrought he issued a statement expressing Shock and disavowal. Bernardone died in 1226. The founder of the franciscans he was canonized in 1228 and today is known As St. Francis of Assisi. Elizabeth s oldest child Sophie did not follow in her Mother s saintly footsteps. Instead she staked out marburg for her son As the seat of a new dynasty. Until 1604, marburg was the residence of the counts of Hesse when they were not in Kassel. . The jumbled tightly packed rooftops