30:2
3 1999
SAINT
ELISABETH OF THE HOUSE OF ÁRPÁD
She
was born a Hungarian princess, the daughter of King Andrew II,
in 1207 in the castle of Sárospatak. At the age of four
she was betrothed to the Elector of Thüringia. Her father
bestowed a rich dowry on her and sent her to live in the land
of her future husband. She married Louis ten years later in 1221
at the age of 14.
She
was devoutly religious even as a child with a special affinity
to ministering to the needs of the poor. During the famine of
1225 while her husband was traveling far from the province, she
opened the storehouses of Wartburg and provided food for 900 starving
people daily. The most widely known legend of her charitable deeds
is the legend of the roses. Her apron held the bread, which she
was distributing to the poor. A magisters demanded to know what
she was hiding. She opened her apron to reveal a bouquet of roses.
She
was the first woman on German soil to join the Third Order of
St. Francis. Following the death of her husband, her brother-in-law
threw her and her children out of the province. She died in Marburg
on 17 November 1231. Pope Gregory IX elevated her to sainthood
on 27 May 1235.
Fittingly
enough, the first postage stamp issued in her honor was a charity
series produced by Germany in 1923. The 700th anniversary of her
death was commemorated by Hungary in 1931 with a series of four
stamps. This set was also included the first Hungarian stamps
to reproduce paintings. Graphic artist Sándor Légrády
used adaptations from the works of Liezen-Mayer and Fratschner
for the stamp designs.
Subsequent
issues honoring St. Elisabeth appeared in Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Monaco, and the German Federal Republic. Overseas, the countries
of Colombia, Netherlands Antilles, Cape Verde, and Fernando Po
issued stamps in her honor. The table below lists all of these
Hungarica issues.
Table
of Stamps Depicting St. Elisabeth of Hungary
| Country |
Year |
Scott
# |
| Austria |
1936 |
B144 |
| Cape
Verde |
1948 |
RA4-5 |
| Cape
Verde |
1959 |
RA6 |
| Cape
Verde |
1967-72 |
RA7-8
RA9-13 |
| Colombia |
1956 |
667,
C286 |
| Fernando
Po |
1966 |
239 |
| Germany |
1923 |
237,
etc. 1 |
| Germany |
1924 |
B8-11 |
| Germany |
1933 |
B58 |
| Germany |
1949 |
B310 |
| Germany |
1961 |
825
2 |
| Germany-Berlin |
1961 |
9N177
2 |
| Germany |
1981 |
1363 |
| Hungary |
1931 |
458-461 |
| Hungary |
1938 |
B94e |
| Hungary |
1944 |
6253 |
| Hungary |
1991 |
3515 |
| Monaco |
1969 |
721 |
| Netherlands
Antilles |
1981 |
467-68 |
1
Germany and the German Democratic Republic issued several
stamps picturing the Wartburg Castle, the ancestral home of St.
Elisabeth's spouse.
2
These definitive stamps exist on fluorescent paper and in
coil format.
3
This stamp was overprinted in 1945 with several versions
of text for use as provisional stamps during the Second Inflation.
Csaba
L. Kohalmi
Used with
permission from the Editor
