Beguinage Church Saint Elisabeth of Hungary - Bruges

The Beguinage Church, dedicated to Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, is located in the eastern part of the Beguinage.

Although a segmental arch gate with a decorated wooden door needle mentions the year 1605, the original church is much older, namely the middle of the 13th century. In 1584 the church burns down for the most part.

The interior of the church is quite sober, as befits the beguinage.

Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia was born in Sárospatak in Hungary in 1207. Already at the age of four a marriage was "arranged" for her. From that moment on she was accepted into the German family of her future husband. In 1221 she actually married Louis IV of Thuringia. She was very happy with him and they had a son and two daughters.
In 1224 she appointed Konrad von Marburg as her spiritual director who punished her with the rod and imposed long periods of fasting. During the famine of 1226 , Elisabeth heroically stood by the poor. Although her husband warns her, she continues to bake and distribute bread. One day she meets the count in the street, who sees that she has filled her apron. He lets her open the apron, but instead of loaves there are roses in it.
The marriage comes to an abrupt end when Lodewijk, in 1227 on a crusade with Emperor Frederick II, dies of the plague in Otranto. In her grief, Elisabeth declares: "The world and everything that makes life pleasant is now dead to me."

But it's made even harder for her. Because she had sworn to Lodewijk that she would never marry another person again, she refused a marriage proposal from her brother-in-law . This takes her children and she is robbed by the nobility of all her possessions , including the castle de Wartburg from which she is expelled.
From Pope Gregory IX she receives compensation in money and property and she is allowed to live in Marburg Castle.

In 1229 she became a member of the Third Order of Francis of Assisi and spent the rest of her life caring for the sick in the Franciscan hospital that she had built near Marburg Castle. That is why hundreds of hospitals were named after her until the 19th and 20th centuries. She died in 1231 at Marburg Castle at the age of 24.
Elisabeth's body was interred in a chapel of the hospital she founded and it was increasingly venerated. She is said to have performed miracles since the day of her death on November 17, 1231. She was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235.
Elisabeth is usually depicted as a queen with the crown on her head. She has as attributes a jug and bread . Sometimes she has roses in her lap . Often a beggar kneels at her feet, holding up his hat, while Elisabeth pours money into it.

Willem Vandenameele