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Saintly Auspices
Abstract: Jen Rude is ordained on November 17, the commemoration day forSt. Elizabeth of Hungary.
November 17, the date set for Jen Rude's ordination at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago, is also, we are told, the anniversary of the death of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia (Hungary). Owing to some confusion in the historical record, St. Elizabeth is usually commemorated on November 19, but we have no qualms about claiming St. Elizabeth as an inspiration and sign for Jen Rude's career in ministry.
Elizabeth was born in Hungary in 1207, and at a very early age she was betrothed for political reasons to Louis IV of Thuringia. She spent her childhood with her future husband's family at Wartburg Castle, and they were married in 1221.
Elizabeth was strongly influenced by Franciscan monks who arrived in 1223, and her Franciscan ideals put her at odds with the Thuringian nobility who charged that she dressed too simply, prayed too much, and was irresponsible in almsgiving. (Legend has it that she gave away robes and other ornaments of the state to the poor.) She aroused scandal by nursing the sick with her own hands. (In one episode her husband is said to have had first a fit of rage and then a conversion experience upon discovering that Elizabeth had used to couple's bed to care for a leper.) She also apparently refused to eat any food that might have been the fruit of injustice or exploitation.
After her husband died of plague while on a crusade, Elizabeth left Wartburg Castle. Early on it was believed that she was expelled by her in-laws, but more recent investigators believe that she left voluntarily for moral reasons. In any event, she spent the rest of her life in poverty in a cottage in Marburg. She died on November 17, 1231 and was canonized three years later.
