Little St. Elizabeth's 'who's tallest' game hides a secret prayer

EISENACH, Thuringia, 1211 AD — Saint Elizabeth of Hungary played the same games as the other girls at the Wartburg castle. They played chasing games, hopping on one foot, and a game with rings. But in every game her thoughts were on God.

She had arrived there in 1211 AD, when she was four. Her father, King Andrew II of Hungary, had arranged her marriage. She was to marry into the family of the landgrave of Thuringia.

Knights from Thuringia brought her there with a rich dowry, the wealth a bride brings to her marriage. At the Wartburg, a fortress on a hill above the town of Eisenach, she was promised to the landgrave’s son.

Seven new playmates

The landgrave’s wife, Sophia, spent St. Elizabeth’s first night in Eisenach with her. The next morning she took the little girl up to the castle. Sophia was a kind mother to her.

As soon as St. Elizabeth arrived, the landgrave, Hermann I, chose seven girls to grow up with her. They came from the leading families of his court and were about her age. His own daughter was one of them. One was Guda, who was about five, a year older than St. Elizabeth.

At five, St. Elizabeth still couldn’t read. She would slip into the chapel anyway and throw herself down in front of the altar. Then she opened a big psalter, as if she were reading the prayers in it.

When the maids who looked after the girls were watching, she hid her praying inside a game. She pretended to chase one of the girls and ran straight into the chapel. There she knelt at the altar with her hands folded and her face pressed to the floor. In the hopping game, she chased the others toward the chapel. If it was locked, she kissed the lock, the door and the walls instead.

The Golden Legend, a famous old book of saints’ lives, keeps a Tradition about her games. Just when she was enjoying a game most, she would stop and say she wouldn’t play any more. She was giving up the rest of the game for God. She told the other girls: “I leave you the remnant for God’s sake.”

The tallest-girl trick

The girls played for small prizes, and St. Elizabeth played to win. She gave a tenth of what she won to the poorer girls. Each girl who got a present from her had to say a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys in return. In the ring game, she made God a promise. If she won, she would kneel down a number of times and say a Hail Mary each time.

Sometimes she couldn’t do all that kneeling without the grown-ups noticing. So St. Elizabeth said to the other girls: “Let us lie down on the ground, to see which of us is the tallest.” Then she lay down beside one girl after another. Each time she lay flat, she was really bowing low to God and saying a Hail Mary. Years later, as a wife and mother, she liked telling people about these tricks.

The girl who never forgot

Guda stayed beside St. Elizabeth for seventeen years. She became one of the women who served her and kept her company. Guda was still there when St. Elizabeth married Ludwig, who by then ruled Thuringia. She stayed on after Ludwig died on his way to a crusade in 1227 AD.

Conrad of Marburg was the priest who guided St. Elizabeth. In the autumn of 1228 AD, he sent away the two maids she loved most, and Guda was one of them. Conrad did it to break St. Elizabeth’s will, so that she would give all her love to God. When Guda left, St. Elizabeth cried and sobbed. Conrad put harsh women in their place. St. Elizabeth accepted Conrad’s decision.

St. Elizabeth died at Marburg in November 1231 AD. She was twenty-four.

On New Year’s Day, 1235 AD, Church officials at Marburg questioned four of her serving women about her life. Guda was one of them. Under oath, Guda told them about St. Elizabeth’s games at the Wartburg. The two of them had been small girls then.