St. Elizabeth of Hungary is pretty awesome.

It’s said that she and her husband, Ludwig of Thuringia, were so in love that they slept holding hands.

Her life is a great example of how the graces of Holy Matrimony help the spouses make each other holy. Ludwig supported her charitable work against the chatter of the court because he loved her. But even he batted an eye when he came home to find a leper in the royal bed.

Yet before he could complain to her, he was graced with a mystical vision to see Christ crucified laying in his bed, being cared for by his wife. He told, “It is Christ you serve, Elizabeth,” and continued to support her work with even deeper piety.

When Ludwig took up the cross of the crusader and died of plague on his way to the Holy Land, Elizabeth was heartbroken. Worse, her brother-in-law expelled her and her children so that he could usurp the throne.

Making sure that her children were cared for, Elizabeth then became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, built the Franciscan hospital at Marburg and there served the poor and sick for the rest of her life. She died at the age of 24.