There are many stories that the Bible tells us, this time we are going to talk about Saint Elizabeth, who was the mother of John the Baptist, and it is said that when the Virgin Mary was visited by John from the womb, she was the wife of the priest Zechariah, she was a relative of Mary’s mother, that is, the grandmother of Jesus. This means that Elizabeth is a cousin of the Virgin and the mother of John.
Biography and history of Saint Elizabeth
Biography and history of Saint Elizabeth
The story of St Elizabeth is told in the Gospel of St Luke. She was of the Jewish religion, a descendant of Moses’ brother, the daughter of the high priest Aaron. She was the wife of Zacharias, a mute who lived in Hebrew, in a city near Lake Asphaltite, and the mother of St. John the Baptist, one of the followers of Jesus Christ, she was a relative of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, she became a mother when she was already an old woman, it was one day when Zacharias was serving in the church and an angel appeared to him and announced that his wife would be the mother of a son.
Saint Luke tells us that they lived happily together, that they led a holy life, that it was important for them to be righteous in the eyes of God, so they tried to fulfil exactly all the commandments that the Lord had given through Moses, they are the model to follow to be an exemplary family, to have a beautiful home.
In the Bible, Saint Luke explains that Zechariah and Saint Elizabeth did not have children because, apart from being older, Saint Elizabeth was sterile and could not have children; it was one day that Zechariah was going to offer incense on the altar while the others were praying, when the angel appeared to him and told him:
“Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your request has been granted. Elizabeth your wife will bear you a son, and you will call his name John. He will be a joy and a gladness to you, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he will not drink wine; he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will turn many to God, and he will have the spirit of Elijah the prophet, to prepare for the Lord a people who are well disposed”.
But Zechariah doubted what the angel was telling him, for he knew that his wife was barren and he was very old, but the angel replied
“I am one of those who stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to bring you good news. But because you have not believed the words I have spoken to you, you will remain dumb and will not be able to speak until the day when these things take place and all things are fulfilled in their time”.
Just as the angel told Zechariah, for the first five months of her pregnancy, Saint Elizabeth remained hidden in her house, not going out and not being seen by her neighbours. And she said: “God wanted to take away my humiliation and he remembered me”.
When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God, he also told her that her cousin Elizabeth was pregnant, immediately the Virgin Mary went to her cousin, accompanied her and helped her in everything until John was born, both in sweet expectation.
The following video tells the story of St. Elizabeth:
Prayer to Saint Elizabeth
There are many prayers addressed to the Virgin Mary to commend oneself to her, but one in particular is made in connection with the visit she made to her cousin Saint Elizabeth when she learned that she was pregnant:
O Holy Mother, you who are the intercessor for all of us who live on earth, you who went to visit your cousin Saint Elizabeth, you showed extraordinary care, charity and goodness of soul, you showed how important it is to do good to your neighbour, you went without delay to meet those who needed you.
We ask you to be always at our side to inspire us, to help us, to guide us and to instil in us much piety, much fervour and much devotion to you. We ask you to teach each one of us, step by step, all the lessons we need to know in order to be like you.
O Saint Elizabeth, who knows how difficult it is not to be a mother, we ask you to intercede before God for us women who find it difficult to be a mother, you who appear in the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, we ask you to be the mediator who allows us to fulfil our desire to be a mother, as you did for John the Baptist, we ask you, good Mother, Amen.
Another prayer
Blessed are You, Lord, gracious Father, almighty God, who are the beginning and the end, who gave so much joy to Elizabeth to receive the miracle of life in her own womb when everything seemed impossible, when she had no hope of becoming a mother, and who gave her the grace to meet Mary and Jesus. For you, Lord, Holy Father, nothing is impossible. You know everything and you fill us with your grace at every moment. Through the intercession of St. Elizabeth, mother of St. John, who founded the ministry of baptism, we ask you to grant us the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we may live in peace and faith whatever we find difficult, placing all that we are and all that we have in your generous hands. Lord who can do all things, almighty and infinitely good, in you and in St Elizabeth we trust. Amen.
Saint Elizabeth onomastic or saintly
The Santoral or onomastic of Saint Elizabeth is the day on which she and her husband Saint Zacharias are commemorated, they are celebrated together for being spouses and for being the exemplary parents of Saint John the Baptist, this Santoral is celebrated on the fifth of November every year.
In the Catholic Church, Santoral means the day on which the lives of saints or blessed are celebrated and remembered. These celebrations date back to the Middle Ages, when it was customary to celebrate the deaths of martyrs, and a date was also assigned to celebrate the baptism or night of Saint John, because he was the one who baptised Jesus.
The Santoral or onomastic is the day that the Catholic Church from the Vatican designates as the day for the celebration of one of the thousands of saints or blessed of whom there are historical records, in this case St Elizabeth and St Zachary are commemorated on the same day. Watch the video below for an explanation of the feast day of St Elizabeth:
As we said before the central day of the feast of Saint Elizabeth is the fifth of November for being a universal ordinance of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, but this celebration can vary depending on the place where Saint Elizabeth is celebrated and commemorated, in some of the countries where they are faithful devotees of the cousin of the Virgin Mary is in Hungary and Portugal, although it is not the central day dictated by the Church each of these countries have history and reasons to celebrate her in another date that is not that one. One is celebrated on the seventeenth of November and the other on the fourth of July.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
The story of St. Elizabeth of Hungary is not the same as the biblical account that she was the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the story of this one tells that she was born in Presburg (Bratislava) or in Saros-Patak in the year one thousand two hundred and seven (1207), her father was King Andrew II who was the brother of St. Hedwig, and her mother was Gertrude of Andech-Meran, this young woman died at the age of twenty-four, and her mother was Gertrude of Andech-Meran, this young woman died at the age of twenty-four. Hedwig, and her mother was Gertrude of Andech-Meran, this young woman died at the age of twenty-four, and her mother was Gertrude of Andech-Meran, this young woman died at the age of twenty-four, but the Catholic Church sees her as an exemplary and admirable woman who did not care about material things and gave away everything she had during her life, including her possessions, to help the poorest and sickest. For this reason, the Church decided to canonise her only four years after her death.
She had children and a husband called Luis, to whom she was betrothed from birth, and in her youth she was sent to his family’s castle and they fell in love. On the day of their marriage, she did not want to go to church wearing the precious jewels of her rank, saying that why should she wear jewels when her King, Jesus Christ, had been crowned with a crown of thorns.
She had three children, a boy and two girls, but when her third daughter was born, her husband died fighting in the Crusades of the Kingdom, ordered by her father-in-law, the King of Hungary. After her husband’s death, the saint fell into a depression full of despair, but after some time she understood that if it was God’s will for her husband to die in this way, she would accept it.
After her husband’s death, she received new proposals of marriage, but she did not accept any of them. On the contrary, when she understood and accepted God’s will, she decided that for the rest of her life she would not have any luxuries and that she would donate them and devote herself to caring for the poor and the sick, because at that time there was a great famine in Germany. Every day of her life after she became a widow, she fed about 900 poor people in the castle.
Since the castle was on a mountain and the invalids could not climb it, Sana Isabel decided to build a hospital at the foot of the mountain. She almost always went there to feed the invalids with her own hands, to make their beds and help them in the sweltering summer heat, to help them go to the bathroom and to look after their medicines. She also paid for the education of poor children, especially orphans.
In this way, Saint Elizabeth made her goods the property of the poor, the sick and the orphans. She helped them and gave them help, but she did not approve of idleness, so she found work for those who were able to work, according to their strength and abilities. She taught them that not everything could be obtained easily, and that work was a way to get things honestly.
In the palace there were always Eucharistic ceremonies and on one occasion, the day after one of these ceremonies, when the altar cloths had already been removed from the altars and they were cleaning and tidying up, Saint Elizabeth knelt down in front of an altar where there were images of different saints and it was at that moment that she made a promise to renounce everything she had and decided to live completely poor, which would change her life, just as Saint Francis did before he died, dedicating himself completely to helping the poor until the end of his days.
The changes in her life began when she stopped dressing as a princess and took on the habit of a Franciscan sister, in honour of the one who had inspired her to dedicate herself to helping those most in need.
Only four years had passed since the death of her husband, and she had dedicated herself to the poor and the sick. She was almost twenty-four years old when she died, on the seventeenth of November one thousand two hundred and thirty-one, which is why in Hungary Saint Elizabeth is commemorated on this date, as it was the day of her death.
Many miracles were attributed to her after her death, so in 1235 Pope Gregory IX, the head of the Church, decided to declare her a saint, just four years after her death. In the following video we talk about St Elizabeth of Hungary:
Prayer to St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Saint Elizabeth, pray for married couples, pray for all of us, that the Lord may grant us the gift of great detachment, so that we may dedicate our lives and our goods to helping those who are most in need; these are the favours most asked of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.
O glorious Saint Elizabeth, model of virtue and teacher of goodness, although you were the daughter of kings, as a child you chose love and justice, prayer and God were your guides, you were an example of a self-sacrificing wife and mother.
Saint Elizabeth, you were a follower of Francis of Assisi, today I come to ask you to help me to follow the way of love of our Lord, to follow the teachings of his Word and, like you, to be detached from what I have around me.
I also ask you, Saint Elizabeth, to soothe my heart, which is troubled by the lack of money and work.
Dear Elizabeth, saint of the most needy, you who gave everything for the weakest and most defenceless, I ask you to listen to my prayers, which I make with all my faith in you, I pray that they will be answered in a favourable way.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, saint, saint, pray for each one of us who need you and come to you to ask for your help, teach us to be kind and guide us on the path of humility and simplicity that you have chosen, be the one who guides our steps to be faithful servants of God.
St Elizabeth of Portugal
Like St Elizabeth of Hungary, this does not refer to St Elizabeth of the Bible.
Saint Isabel of Portugal was the daughter of King Pedro III, born in 1207, and is the grand-niece of Saint Isabel of Hungary, from her childhood she had an excellent education from her family, since she was a child she showed an inclination to piety and to imitate the lives of the saints, she read their stories and was passionate about doing the same things they did during their lives. One of the things she was taught at home was to love God and to give thanks through prayer, she was taught many values so that she would not fall into the mortifications of debauchery, that to get what she wanted she had to work hard without asking anyone for anything.
When she was fifteen years old, her parents offered her in marriage to the King of Portugal, who was very pleased and happy with all the qualities of his new wife, on the contrary, he had a bad temper and caused her many sufferings, Saint Isabel of Portugal, in order not to be tormented by the bad life that her husband gave her, took refuge in piety and works of charity.
Her daily routine consisted of getting up early in the morning to read the Bible and then faithfully attending the Eucharist, then she would assign each of the servants of the castle their duties, in her spare time she would dedicate herself, together with other ladies, to sewing and embroidering clothes for the poor and sick, and in the afternoon she would dedicate herself to visiting old people’s homes and hospitals, as well as offering her help to any needy person she met along the way.
He promoted the construction of shelters for the street people, the sick and the pilgrims who came to the city, he also founded a hospital and a school for the poor, he also ordered the construction of a house for women who had led a bad life and repented, and he ordered the construction of a hospice for orphaned children, as you can see, his generosity was very great.
Her work was dedicated to the poorest of the poor, so that they would be well and not lack anything. She visited the sick, brought them doctors and looked for treatments for them, she helped the nuns, one of her charities was to lend the young women who were getting married their wedding dress and some ornaments so that they would look good. She had two children, a male called Alfonso and a female called Constancia, and she brought up her husband’s illegitimate children. Such was her kindness that there was never any distinction between her children and the children of other women with her husband.
She wore simple clothes and when her husband died, she dedicated the rest of her life to helping the sick, the churches, the poor and to praying to God. At an advanced age, she undertook a journey to avoid the war between her son and grandson, during which she died on the fourth of July 1336. When she felt the hour of her death approaching, she asked to be taken to the convent of the Poor Clares.
After her death, several miracles occurred, which is why the Pope declared her a saint in 1626, as the patron saint of war-torn areas and the intercessor for peace in the regions.
In the following video you can see a summary of the life of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal:
Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
Blessed Elizabeth was born in Burges, France, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty, from childhood she had a strong and rebellious character, when she was seven years old her father died and this was the reason that made her change her character and dedicate her life to prayer, she participated in parties like any other young girl, but she always had clear ideals and was faithful to her baptismal promises.
In the year nineteen hundred and one, at the age of twenty-one, she entered the Carmelite convent of Dijon and took the name of Sister Isabel de la Trinidad. She had a great musical talent which she offered to God to pray for the salvation of her country, France. She created a motto in her convent which was: “Praise and Glory to the Most Holy Trinity” and to grow day by day “in the race of the love of the three”. She was very proud to wear the habit of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which she wore for the first time in December 1992.
Although her life was very short, she was very influential in terms of retreats, letters, spiritual notes and so on. She died in nineteen six, when she was only twenty-six years old, of a stomach ulcer.
Some of the messages she left were that we should run towards the path of holiness, that we should let the Holy Spirit lift our spirits and that we should be faithful to the praise of the Holy Trinity which is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Mary’s visit to Saint Elizabeth
The visit of the Virgin Mary to Saint Elizabeth is told in Chapter 1 of the Book of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible, where he tells us how, after the angel Gabriel had announced to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God, he also told her that her cousin Elizabeth would also have the grace of being a mother.
She decided to go, not because she did not believe what the angel had told her, but because she felt the need to accompany her cousin in this special and important moment for her, knowing that she could never be a mother because she was sterile. The Virgin Mary shows us the goodness that was in her heart when she thought that her cousin would be alone and who would help her at the moment of childbirth.
Luke 1:39-46
At that time Mary arose and went with haste to a town in the hills.
She went into the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Mary arrived, she greeted Zacharias, her cousin’s husband, and went to see Elizabeth. When they met, Elizabeth’s baby John was very excited to see her, St. Elizabeth knelt down before Mary and told her that it was an honour to have the Mother of the Son of God before her, how blessed was her womb, and when Mary arrived, St. Elizabeth was six months pregnant.
The Virgin Mary accompanied her cousin until the birth of her son John the Baptist, when Saint Elizabeth, in order to save her son from King Herod and to avoid her son’s devotion, went into the desert, where she spent the last days of her life. In the Catholic Church, the feast of Mary’s visit to St Elizabeth is celebrated on the thirty-first of May,
John Paul II explained that what St Luke says in his account of the visitation is that what can be seen in this event is the grace of the Incarnation as it filled Mary to be the mother of the Son of God and St Elizabeth, who could not have children, with the honour of being the mother of John the Baptist, one of the greatest forerunners of the Church, both children representing salvation and joy.
In the following video you can see how Mary, the mother of Jesus, met St. Elizabeth:
