Elizabeth and the Wartburg Castle
Mention Wartburg Castle to a Lutheran and he may recall that it had something to do with Luther. Indeed it did. After the Diet of Worms in 1521 at which Luther made his famous saying, whether he actually said it or not is beside the point, “Here I stand, God help me, I cannot do otherwise.” Though given a safe conduct to Wittenberg, it was feared that once it expired he would be seized and put to death.
A hundred before a safe conduct to a Council in Rome hadn’t done Jon Hus much good. He was arrested and burned. About the same in England, the church reached into the grave of John Wycliffe, who had been dead for 40 years, dug up what bones they could find and burned them. In 1498, a priest from Florence, Italy was hanged and burned for preaching against immorality in the church.
With the Church proving to be untrustworthy in regard to their critic’s lives, Elector Frederick the Wise ordered Luther to be kidnapped and taken to Wartburg Castle that overlooked the little town of Eisenach, Luther’s home town. There he remained for ten months.
Three hundred years before the events of the Reformation a teenage bride named Elizabeth lived in Wartburg Castle with her husband Louis of Thuringia. Elizabeth was born in 1207 in Pressburg, Hungary to King Andrew II and his wife Gertrude. She was married to Louis at the age of fourteen in a political arranged marriage. She gave birth to three children. Elizabeth demonstrated a spirit of Christian charity making Wartburg Castle a center of hospitality for the sick and needy. She was widowed at age twenty. After making provision for her children, she entered into the strict life of a nun in the Order of Saint Francis. Her self- denial led to ill health and an early death at age 24. Elizabeth is commemorated through the numerous hospitals named in her honor.
As we move toward Thanksgiving and the time of Christmas might use Elizabeth as a model of hospitality and care for the sick and the needy.
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