A Sister in the World: Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in the Golden Legend Cover Image

A Sister in the World: Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in the Golden Legend
A Sister in the World: Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in the Golden Legend

Author(s): Linda Burke
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Történettudományi Intézet
Keywords: Elizabeth of Hungary; thirteenth-century sainthood; Golden Legend; Franciscan spirituality; Dicta Quatuor Ancillarum

Summary/Abstract: I begin this essay with background information for a study of Elizabeth’s life story as disseminated throughout Western Christendom by Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend: first, her historical originality as a model of sanctity, and second, the remarkable transmission of the Legend itself, both in Latin and the vernacular. I conclude this section with a note on the larger political agenda of the Legend. The essay continues with sections on the uniqueness of Elizabeth’s example as a “sister in the world” within the context of other saints’ lives in the Legend, the author’s evidently purposeful deletions and additions to his source for her life, and Elizabeth’s legacy as perpetuated by the Golden Legend.

  • Issue Year: 5/2016
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 509-535
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: English