August 19, 2025 • 12 mins
Discover the inspiring stories of six remarkable Catholic Queens who achieved sainthood. Join us as we delve into the lives of Saint Margaret of Scotland, Saint Elisabeth of Portugal, and the Frankish Queens Saint Clotildus, Saint Ragedund, and Saint Bathildis, alongside Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Each biography reveals their unique contributions to faith and society, beautifully narrated by Maria Therese.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section twenty seven of The Sainted Queens. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Tatiana Chichilla, Columbus, Ohio. The Sainted Queens by
unknown Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Chapter nine. It might have
(00:20):
seemed that there was nothing more for the saint to
give up, no material left for farther sacrifice. But Master
Conrad had discovered that there was still a fiber in
her heart to which self will might attach itself, and
he set himself relentlessly to pluck it out. He began
to restrict her in her works of mercy, and forbade
her to give more than a single penny to any
poor person at a time. She tried, by various stratagems
(00:41):
to evade this hard precept, causing silver pennies to be
struck instead of copper, And when the poor complained of
the sudden diminution of her bountiful alms, she would say
to them, I am forbidden to give you more than
a penny at a time, but I am not forbidden
to give to you as often as you come and
ask me. The pensioners were not slow to take the
hint and circle the house, continually entering by one game
in going out at another. Her director, having discovered these
(01:03):
stratagems of charity, reproved her severely, and even inflicted blows
upon her, which she received with joy and memory of
the suffering endured for her by her divine redeemer. Conrad
next forbade her to give away money upon any pretext whatever,
but permitted her to distribute bread and small slices, for
she was not to give a whole loaf to anyone.
At Last, she was forbidden to give any kind of relief,
and her charity was forbidden to the care of the sick,
(01:25):
with the exception of lepers, whom, as the chosen objects
of her tender compassion, she was forbidden to touch. The
restraint laid upon her charity to the poor of Christ
was perhaps the hardest to be born of all the
crosses which one after another she took up for his love.
But she thus learned the perfection of that obedience which
is more acceptable in his sight than any other sacrifice
which can be offered to him. She accepted the bitter
(01:46):
discipline with her whole heart, and became most expert in
this last and most difficult point of the science of
the saints. Her obedient soul spoke of victories. No command
could be too hard, too humiliating, or too trying to
be instantly rendered to one who did not try treat
her with the ordinary courtesy due to her sire and rank,
or even with the charity which belongs to the relation
of priest and penitent. The Holy Man, says a writer
(02:08):
of the time, did all this to break her will,
that she might set all her love upon God and
remember no more her former glory. And in all things
she was prompt to obey and firm to suffer, so
that she possessed her soul in patience, and her victory
was ennobled by obedience. She did not conceal the fear
which she felt of her director, not for herself, but
as the representative of God. If I thus fear a
mortal man, said she to her companions, how much more
(02:30):
should I tremble before God, who is the Lord and
judge of all men. Master Conrad used his power over
her with the most extreme severity. He sent for her
once to meet him at the convent of Aldenburg, where
she had placed her youngest child, and where he had
some idea of placing herself. On her arrival, the nuns
asked his permission for her to enter the enclosure. Conrad,
who had previously warned her that any person of either
(02:51):
sex who entered it without permission in court excommunication, she replied,
let her enter if she will. Elizabeth understood the words
as a permission and entered the forbidden precinct. Conrad immediately
sent for her, and, having shewn her the book in
which her oath of obedience was registered, he ordered a
monk who was with him to inflict a certain number
of blows with a long staff upon the saint in
her attendant, Ermengarde, while he recited the miserare. Elizabeth endured
(03:15):
this humiliating punishment without a murmur, and spoke of it
afterwards to Ermengarde. We ought to suffer such chastisement with patients,
like the reads by the river's side, which bend without
breaking under the weight of the inundation, and when it
is passed, rise up with new strength and life. So
we must sometimes be humbled and bowed down to the earth,
and rise up again with joy and confidence. Another time,
the saint, being engrossed by the care of one of
(03:36):
her patients, neglected to attend a sermon preached by Master
Conrad on the passion to the hearing of which an
indulgence was attached. As soon as the sermon was over,
he sent for her and inquired what she had been
doing instead of coming to the sermon, and then, without
waiting for an answer, he gave her a violent blow,
saying this is to teach you to come another time
when I send for you. She only smiled and was
about to explain the cause of her absence when he
(03:58):
struck her again, and this time the blome drew blood.
Elizabeth raised her eyes to Heaven and said, O Lord,
I thank THEE that thou hast chosen me for this.
Her women asking her how she could bear such treatment,
she replied, for having suffered it patiently, God permitted me
to see Christ in the midst of his angels. The
Master's blows have raised me to the third Heaven. When
these words were repeated to Conrad, he said, I am
(04:19):
sorry that I did not send her to the ninth Heaven.
And now a new form of trial came upon the
patient sufferer, the hardest, perhaps of all to a woman's nature.
Elizabeth had been long called foolish, prodigal, and mad. Her
fair name was now assailed by the same evil tongues,
and her submission to her stern director was said to
proceed from a criminal attachment. These reports assumed so serious
(04:39):
a form that her faithful friend and champion, Rodolph of Virilla,
thought it right to inquire into their origin. He therefore
went to Marburg, and, addressing Elizabeth with great respect, May
I be permitted, madam, said he to speak to you
with freedom and plainness, Having received ready permission to do so,
he continued, I beseech my dear lady, then to look
well to her fair fame. For her intercourse Master Conrad
(05:00):
has given occasion to vile suspicions and evil surmises among
perverse and vulgar spirits. Elizabeth raised her eyes to Heaven, and,
without the smallest discomposure of countenance, replied, Blessed in all
things be our most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, my only
friend who vouchsafes to receive this poor offering at my
hands for his love to devote myself to his service.
I have renounced my royalty of birth. I have despised
(05:22):
my riches and possessions. I have disfigured my youth and beauty.
I have forsaken father, country children, all the consolations of
this life. I had reserved myself but only one treasure,
my womanly honor and reputation. But now it seems that
he calls for this also, and I give it to
him with all my heart, since he deigns to accept
my fair fame as a special sacrifice, and to make
me pleasing in his sight. By this ignominy, I consent
(05:44):
to be accounted henceforth a dishonored woman. But oh, Dearest Savior,
my poor children, who are yet innocent, vouchsafed to preserve
them from all shame and disgrace which might come upon
them through me. She desired, however, to reassure her noble
and faithful friend, and shewing him the marks of the
blows which she had lately received. These, Sir Knight, said,
she are tokens of how this holy Priest loves me,
or rather how he teaches me to love God. Amid
(06:07):
all her sufferings. The dear Saint had enjoyed one human
consolation the love and sympathy of the two companions of
her childhood, Guda and Ease and Trude. She was perhaps
scarcely conscious how much the loneliness of her now childless
widowhood was soothed by the presence of those who had
shared all her joys and sorrows, and taken part in
all her exercises of devotion and charity. But the keen
eye of Master Conrad had marked the spot where human
(06:28):
affections still lingered, and, having already dismissed all other members
of her household, with whom her clinging and tender heart
could not part without sensible pain, he came to the
two cherished companions of her childhood, Ease and Trude, the
best beloved, the sharer of her most secret thoughts and feelings,
was the first to be sent away. Then Gudha, who
had been her companion ever since she was five years old,
and whom she loved most affectionately, was taken from her.
(06:51):
Bitterly did she weep for the loss of these two
last objects of her love. She was left indeed alone
with God, but she was not to enjoy the blessedness
of that solitude, for Conde and Rod replaced her two
dear friends by two companions chosen for the purpose of
trying her patient spirit to the utmost. One of them,
named Elizabeth, was a peasant, coarse and rough to excess,
and so frightfully ugly that she served as a bugbear
(07:11):
to frightened children. The other was a widow who was old, deaf,
and ill humored. Elizabeth submitted to the change in her
companions with the most perfect sweetness, and set herself to
advance in humility by her intercourse with the rude peasant girl,
and impatience by enduring the scolding of the ill tempered
old woman. The two women tried her to the utmost
by continual ill treatment. In a spirit of penance, Elizabeth
took upon herself all the hard work of the household,
(07:34):
which they left to her without any scruple, And when
being absorbed in contemplation she made some blunder in the
preparation of their miserable meal, they would reprove her harshly,
telling her she was fit for nothing and could not
even make a basin of soup, as if, says her chronicler,
she had ever been taught to cook. They were also
always on the watch to report to her director the
slightest deviation of which they suspected her from his commands
(07:54):
respecting almsgiving. And they thus often drew down severe chastisements
upon her. But no problem occasion could induce her to
swerve for a moment from the obedience she had vowed
to him as the representative of Christ. So scrupulous was
her fidelity that when her old and beloved friends came
sometimes to visit her, she never ventured to offer them refreshment,
or even to speak to them, without having first obtained
the permission of her director. Elizabeth had sent her children
(08:17):
from her, Yet it would seem that some of them
occasionally came to see her when she would indulge her
mother's love by caressing them and imprining fond kisses upon
their foreheads. But either at Master Conrad's suggestion, or finding
that their presence, even at those distant intervals, disturbed her
union with God, she deprived herself of this last solace,
and the children came no more. Ten years afterward, when
(08:37):
Saint Louis was holding his court at Samer, a young
German prince about eighteen years of age, was as seen
in attendance upon the Queen Mother Blanche of Casteel. He
was pointed out with admiration as the son of Saint
Elizabeth of Hungary, and Queen Blanche would reverently kiss the
fair brow, which had been consecrated by the presence of
her lips. We loved to picture to ourselves the son
of Saint Elizabeth thus adopted by the mother of Saint Louis. Meanwhile,
(09:00):
the dear Saint was spilling her lonely hours with fresh
deeds and miraculous charity. On her daily visit to the hospital,
she one day found a poor, helpless child lying upon
the threshold. He was not only deaf and dumb, but
his limbs were so twisted and distorted that he could
only drag himself along on his hands and knees, like
some miserable animal. His mother had brought him there by
night and left him in the hope that the good
land Gravine would have compassion upon the miserable being, whom
(09:23):
she herself was ashamed to own. As soon as Elizabeth
saw him, she stooped over him with tender pity and said,
where are thy parents, dear child who brought thee hither?
But as the boy did not seem to understand her.
She repeated her question in a still softer tone, and said,
if she caressed him, what ails thee, poor child? Why
wilt thou not speak to me? The child then fixed
his eyes upon her without speaking. Not knowing that he
(09:44):
was dumb, she thought he was possessed, and said, in
a loud voice, in the name of our Lord, I
command thee and him who is in thee, to answer
me and tell me whence thou camest. The child stood
upright before her. His speech was immediately restored, and he said,
my mother brought me here. And then he told the
saint that he had never seen or heard before, and
that he had been born in the state in which
she had seen him. But now, said he as he
(10:04):
stretched out his limbs one after another. Now God has
given me motions, speech and hearing, and I speak words
which I have never heard nor learned from anyone. And
then he began to weep. And thank God. I knew not, God,
said he. All my senses were dead. I knew not
what a man is. But now I feel that I
am no longer like a beast. I can now speak
of God blessed me that question of yours, which obtained
from me the grace from God, not to die as
(10:25):
I have hitherto lived. At these words, Elizabeth perceived that
God had been pleased to work a miracle by her means,
and she fell on her knees and mingled her tears
with those of the child whom she had saved. Return now,
said she at once, to thy parents, and tell no
one what has happened. Above all, say nothing to anyone
about me. Say only that God help THEE, and guard
thyself day and night from mortal sin, or thou mayst
(10:46):
soon fall again into thy sickness. Never forget what thou
hast suffered, and always pray for me as I will
always do for THEE. And then she escaped from him
to avoid the glory of the miracle. The child's mother
came to the spot just as she disappeared, and amazed
to see her child's standing upright and to hear him speak, said,
who has restored thy speech? To which the child answered,
A sweet lady in a gray gown spoke to me
(11:07):
in the name of Jesus Christ, and words were given
me to answer her. The mother immediately went in pursuit
of Elizabeth and having recognized her at a distance, published
the miracle all over the country. This is but one
of the many instances of the miraculous attestation granted to
the sanctity of Elizabeth. And yet, strange as it may seem,
all these proofs of the love of God toward her
were wholly unable to remove from her mind a sort
(11:28):
of distrust of the divine mercy, arising from her keen
sense of her own unworthiness. It was this for which
our Lady had reproved her in the first days of
her widowhood. She was one day speaking upon the subject
to her old friend and confessor, Father Rodinger, who had
come to visit her, as they walked together on the
banks of the lawn. There is one thing, Reverend Father,
said she, which troubles me above all. I cannot help
having a sort of doubt of the love of God
(11:49):
for me, not but that I know Him to be
infinitely good and most lavish in his love. But because
of my many demerits which set me far off from him,
although I be on fire with his love. Nothing to
fear on that account, replied the Father. For the divine
goodness is so great that it is impossible to doubt
that God loves those who love him far more than
he is loved by them, And pointing to a beautiful
tree on the other side of the river, he told
(12:11):
her that that tree should sooner cross over to the
bank on which they were walking together, than God should
suffer himself to be surpassed in love by one of
his creatures. He had hardly uttered the words, when the
amazement of all present, the tree of which he spoke
was seen to cross the river and take root on
the opposite side. At this marvelous test owing to the
divine love, Elizabeth cast herself with the feet of Father
Rodinger to confess her want of faith and trust, and
(12:33):
to obtain forgiveness. End of Chapter nine of Saint Elizabeth
of Hungary. End of section twenty seven. Recording by Tatiana Chichilla, Columbus, Ohio.
Section twenty seven of The Sainted Queens. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Tatiana Chichilla, Columbus, Ohio. The Sainted Queens by
unknown Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Chapter nine. It might have
(00:20):
seemed that there was nothing more for the saint to
give up, no material left for farther sacrifice. But Master
Conrad had discovered that there was still a fiber in
her heart to which self will might attach itself, and
he set himself relentlessly to pluck it out. He began
to restrict her in her works of mercy, and forbade
her to give more than a single penny to any
poor person at a time. She tried, by various stratagems
(00:41):
to evade this hard precept, causing silver pennies to be
struck instead of copper, And when the poor complained of
the sudden diminution of her bountiful alms, she would say
to them, I am forbidden to give you more than
a penny at a time, but I am not forbidden
to give to you as often as you come and
ask me. The pensioners were not slow to take the
hint and circle the house, continually entering by one game
in going out at another. Her director, having discovered these
(01:03):
stratagems of charity, reproved her severely, and even inflicted blows
upon her, which she received with joy and memory of
the suffering endured for her by her divine redeemer. Conrad
next forbade her to give away money upon any pretext whatever,
but permitted her to distribute bread and small slices, for
she was not to give a whole loaf to anyone.
At Last, she was forbidden to give any kind of relief,
and her charity was forbidden to the care of the sick,
(01:25):
with the exception of lepers, whom, as the chosen objects
of her tender compassion, she was forbidden to touch. The
restraint laid upon her charity to the poor of Christ
was perhaps the hardest to be born of all the
crosses which one after another she took up for his love.
But she thus learned the perfection of that obedience which
is more acceptable in his sight than any other sacrifice
which can be offered to him. She accepted the bitter
(01:46):
discipline with her whole heart, and became most expert in
this last and most difficult point of the science of
the saints. Her obedient soul spoke of victories. No command
could be too hard, too humiliating, or too trying to
be instantly rendered to one who did not try treat
her with the ordinary courtesy due to her sire and rank,
or even with the charity which belongs to the relation
of priest and penitent. The Holy Man, says a writer
(02:08):
of the time, did all this to break her will,
that she might set all her love upon God and
remember no more her former glory. And in all things
she was prompt to obey and firm to suffer, so
that she possessed her soul in patience, and her victory
was ennobled by obedience. She did not conceal the fear
which she felt of her director, not for herself, but
as the representative of God. If I thus fear a
mortal man, said she to her companions, how much more
(02:30):
should I tremble before God, who is the Lord and
judge of all men. Master Conrad used his power over
her with the most extreme severity. He sent for her
once to meet him at the convent of Aldenburg, where
she had placed her youngest child, and where he had
some idea of placing herself. On her arrival, the nuns
asked his permission for her to enter the enclosure. Conrad,
who had previously warned her that any person of either
(02:51):
sex who entered it without permission in court excommunication, she replied,
let her enter if she will. Elizabeth understood the words
as a permission and entered the forbidden precinct. Conrad immediately
sent for her, and, having shewn her the book in
which her oath of obedience was registered, he ordered a
monk who was with him to inflict a certain number
of blows with a long staff upon the saint in
her attendant, Ermengarde, while he recited the miserare. Elizabeth endured
(03:15):
this humiliating punishment without a murmur, and spoke of it
afterwards to Ermengarde. We ought to suffer such chastisement with patients,
like the reads by the river's side, which bend without
breaking under the weight of the inundation, and when it
is passed, rise up with new strength and life. So
we must sometimes be humbled and bowed down to the earth,
and rise up again with joy and confidence. Another time,
the saint, being engrossed by the care of one of
(03:36):
her patients, neglected to attend a sermon preached by Master
Conrad on the passion to the hearing of which an
indulgence was attached. As soon as the sermon was over,
he sent for her and inquired what she had been
doing instead of coming to the sermon, and then, without
waiting for an answer, he gave her a violent blow,
saying this is to teach you to come another time
when I send for you. She only smiled and was
about to explain the cause of her absence when he
(03:58):
struck her again, and this time the blome drew blood.
Elizabeth raised her eyes to Heaven and said, O Lord,
I thank THEE that thou hast chosen me for this.
Her women asking her how she could bear such treatment,
she replied, for having suffered it patiently, God permitted me
to see Christ in the midst of his angels. The
Master's blows have raised me to the third Heaven. When
these words were repeated to Conrad, he said, I am
(04:19):
sorry that I did not send her to the ninth Heaven.
And now a new form of trial came upon the
patient sufferer, the hardest, perhaps of all to a woman's nature.
Elizabeth had been long called foolish, prodigal, and mad. Her
fair name was now assailed by the same evil tongues,
and her submission to her stern director was said to
proceed from a criminal attachment. These reports assumed so serious
(04:39):
a form that her faithful friend and champion, Rodolph of Virilla,
thought it right to inquire into their origin. He therefore
went to Marburg, and, addressing Elizabeth with great respect, May
I be permitted, madam, said he to speak to you
with freedom and plainness, Having received ready permission to do so,
he continued, I beseech my dear lady, then to look
well to her fair fame. For her intercourse Master Conrad
(05:00):
has given occasion to vile suspicions and evil surmises among
perverse and vulgar spirits. Elizabeth raised her eyes to Heaven, and,
without the smallest discomposure of countenance, replied, Blessed in all
things be our most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, my only
friend who vouchsafes to receive this poor offering at my
hands for his love to devote myself to his service.
I have renounced my royalty of birth. I have despised
(05:22):
my riches and possessions. I have disfigured my youth and beauty.
I have forsaken father, country children, all the consolations of
this life. I had reserved myself but only one treasure,
my womanly honor and reputation. But now it seems that
he calls for this also, and I give it to
him with all my heart, since he deigns to accept
my fair fame as a special sacrifice, and to make
me pleasing in his sight. By this ignominy, I consent
(05:44):
to be accounted henceforth a dishonored woman. But oh, Dearest Savior,
my poor children, who are yet innocent, vouchsafed to preserve
them from all shame and disgrace which might come upon
them through me. She desired, however, to reassure her noble
and faithful friend, and shewing him the marks of the
blows which she had lately received. These, Sir Knight, said,
she are tokens of how this holy Priest loves me,
or rather how he teaches me to love God. Amid
(06:07):
all her sufferings. The dear Saint had enjoyed one human
consolation the love and sympathy of the two companions of
her childhood, Guda and Ease and Trude. She was perhaps
scarcely conscious how much the loneliness of her now childless
widowhood was soothed by the presence of those who had
shared all her joys and sorrows, and taken part in
all her exercises of devotion and charity. But the keen
eye of Master Conrad had marked the spot where human
(06:28):
affections still lingered, and, having already dismissed all other members
of her household, with whom her clinging and tender heart
could not part without sensible pain, he came to the
two cherished companions of her childhood, Ease and Trude, the
best beloved, the sharer of her most secret thoughts and feelings,
was the first to be sent away. Then Gudha, who
had been her companion ever since she was five years old,
and whom she loved most affectionately, was taken from her.
(06:51):
Bitterly did she weep for the loss of these two
last objects of her love. She was left indeed alone
with God, but she was not to enjoy the blessedness
of that solitude, for Conde and Rod replaced her two
dear friends by two companions chosen for the purpose of
trying her patient spirit to the utmost. One of them,
named Elizabeth, was a peasant, coarse and rough to excess,
and so frightfully ugly that she served as a bugbear
(07:11):
to frightened children. The other was a widow who was old, deaf,
and ill humored. Elizabeth submitted to the change in her
companions with the most perfect sweetness, and set herself to
advance in humility by her intercourse with the rude peasant girl,
and impatience by enduring the scolding of the ill tempered
old woman. The two women tried her to the utmost
by continual ill treatment. In a spirit of penance, Elizabeth
took upon herself all the hard work of the household,
(07:34):
which they left to her without any scruple, And when
being absorbed in contemplation she made some blunder in the
preparation of their miserable meal, they would reprove her harshly,
telling her she was fit for nothing and could not
even make a basin of soup, as if, says her chronicler,
she had ever been taught to cook. They were also
always on the watch to report to her director the
slightest deviation of which they suspected her from his commands
(07:54):
respecting almsgiving. And they thus often drew down severe chastisements
upon her. But no problem occasion could induce her to
swerve for a moment from the obedience she had vowed
to him as the representative of Christ. So scrupulous was
her fidelity that when her old and beloved friends came
sometimes to visit her, she never ventured to offer them refreshment,
or even to speak to them, without having first obtained
the permission of her director. Elizabeth had sent her children
(08:17):
from her, Yet it would seem that some of them
occasionally came to see her when she would indulge her
mother's love by caressing them and imprining fond kisses upon
their foreheads. But either at Master Conrad's suggestion, or finding
that their presence, even at those distant intervals, disturbed her
union with God, she deprived herself of this last solace,
and the children came no more. Ten years afterward, when
(08:37):
Saint Louis was holding his court at Samer, a young
German prince about eighteen years of age, was as seen
in attendance upon the Queen Mother Blanche of Casteel. He
was pointed out with admiration as the son of Saint
Elizabeth of Hungary, and Queen Blanche would reverently kiss the
fair brow, which had been consecrated by the presence of
her lips. We loved to picture to ourselves the son
of Saint Elizabeth thus adopted by the mother of Saint Louis. Meanwhile,
(09:00):
the dear Saint was spilling her lonely hours with fresh
deeds and miraculous charity. On her daily visit to the hospital,
she one day found a poor, helpless child lying upon
the threshold. He was not only deaf and dumb, but
his limbs were so twisted and distorted that he could
only drag himself along on his hands and knees, like
some miserable animal. His mother had brought him there by
night and left him in the hope that the good
land Gravine would have compassion upon the miserable being, whom
(09:23):
she herself was ashamed to own. As soon as Elizabeth
saw him, she stooped over him with tender pity and said,
where are thy parents, dear child who brought thee hither?
But as the boy did not seem to understand her.
She repeated her question in a still softer tone, and said,
if she caressed him, what ails thee, poor child? Why
wilt thou not speak to me? The child then fixed
his eyes upon her without speaking. Not knowing that he
(09:44):
was dumb, she thought he was possessed, and said, in
a loud voice, in the name of our Lord, I
command thee and him who is in thee, to answer
me and tell me whence thou camest. The child stood
upright before her. His speech was immediately restored, and he said,
my mother brought me here. And then he told the
saint that he had never seen or heard before, and
that he had been born in the state in which
she had seen him. But now, said he as he
(10:04):
stretched out his limbs one after another. Now God has
given me motions, speech and hearing, and I speak words
which I have never heard nor learned from anyone. And
then he began to weep. And thank God. I knew not, God,
said he. All my senses were dead. I knew not
what a man is. But now I feel that I
am no longer like a beast. I can now speak
of God blessed me that question of yours, which obtained
from me the grace from God, not to die as
(10:25):
I have hitherto lived. At these words, Elizabeth perceived that
God had been pleased to work a miracle by her means,
and she fell on her knees and mingled her tears
with those of the child whom she had saved. Return now,
said she at once, to thy parents, and tell no
one what has happened. Above all, say nothing to anyone
about me. Say only that God help THEE, and guard
thyself day and night from mortal sin, or thou mayst
(10:46):
soon fall again into thy sickness. Never forget what thou
hast suffered, and always pray for me as I will
always do for THEE. And then she escaped from him
to avoid the glory of the miracle. The child's mother
came to the spot just as she disappeared, and amazed
to see her child's standing upright and to hear him speak, said,
who has restored thy speech? To which the child answered,
A sweet lady in a gray gown spoke to me
(11:07):
in the name of Jesus Christ, and words were given
me to answer her. The mother immediately went in pursuit
of Elizabeth and having recognized her at a distance, published
the miracle all over the country. This is but one
of the many instances of the miraculous attestation granted to
the sanctity of Elizabeth. And yet, strange as it may seem,
all these proofs of the love of God toward her
were wholly unable to remove from her mind a sort
(11:28):
of distrust of the divine mercy, arising from her keen
sense of her own unworthiness. It was this for which
our Lady had reproved her in the first days of
her widowhood. She was one day speaking upon the subject
to her old friend and confessor, Father Rodinger, who had
come to visit her, as they walked together on the
banks of the lawn. There is one thing, Reverend Father,
said she, which troubles me above all. I cannot help
having a sort of doubt of the love of God
(11:49):
for me, not but that I know Him to be
infinitely good and most lavish in his love. But because
of my many demerits which set me far off from him,
although I be on fire with his love. Nothing to
fear on that account, replied the Father. For the divine
goodness is so great that it is impossible to doubt
that God loves those who love him far more than
he is loved by them, And pointing to a beautiful
tree on the other side of the river, he told
(12:11):
her that that tree should sooner cross over to the
bank on which they were walking together, than God should
suffer himself to be surpassed in love by one of
his creatures. He had hardly uttered the words, when the
amazement of all present, the tree of which he spoke
was seen to cross the river and take root on
the opposite side. At this marvelous test owing to the
divine love, Elizabeth cast herself with the feet of Father
Rodinger to confess her want of faith and trust, and
(12:33):
to obtain forgiveness. End of Chapter nine of Saint Elizabeth
of Hungary. End of section twenty seven. Recording by Tatiana Chichilla, Columbus, Ohio.
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