Marburg - Elisabethkirche

Marburg developed at the crossroads of two important medieval routes. The settlement was protected by a small castle built during the ninth or tenth century. Since 1140 Marburg has been a town, owned by the Landgraves of Thuringia, residing on the Wartburg above Eisenach.

In 1228, the widowed Elizabeth of Hungary (aka Elizabeth of Thuringia), chose Marburg as her dowager seat. The countess dedicated her life to the sick and would become after her early death in 1231, aged 24, one of the most prominent female saints of the era. She was canonized already in 1235.

Marburg was a provincial town in Hesse, known for the University, the oldest Protestant-founded university in the world, founded in 1527.

St. Elisabeth had founded a hospital here in 1228, where she cared for sick and needy people until her death. She was buried in the hospital chapel. Immediately began a pilgrim's stream and numerous miracles of healing were witnessed.

What happened just after (or even shortly before) St. Elisabeth died, just 25 years old, is a cruel story. As she was venerated as a saint already during her lifetime, pious people (and relic merchants) are said to have literally pounced on the corpse. They tore pieces from their shroud, cutting off nails, hair and even her ears (some say a finger).

On May 1, 1236 Elisabeth´s bones were "translated" into a golden shrine. Emperor Frederick II ("stupor mundi") attended the translatio. Elisabeth´s skull had been separated from the skeleton and was taken into a special container crowned with Frederick´s "Crown of Jerusalem". This head reliquary was later on display in the church and used during processions in Marburg.

Three hundred years after her death, Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous", a leader of the Protestant Reformation and a strong supporter of Martin Luther, raided the church in Marburg. He had Elisabeth's bones removed from the shrine and the skull removed from the head reliquary in order to end the cult of the relics. He only returned what was left, after being imprisoned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

So this church was a center of huge pilgrimage for some centuries, and after Landgrave Philip I, who was actually one of many descendents of Elsiabeth had ended this, and the church became a place of harsh Protestantism.

It is no surprise, that here are many carved inscriptions and graffiti, left by Catholics (before the Reformation) and Protestants (after the Reformation).

Dogs? Lions? Two incarnations of the cerberus?