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[tree_and_leaf]

So you get the unstructured squee here, as I notice that today is the (Anglican) feast of S. Elisabeth of Thuringia (or Hungary), who is very possibly my favourite saint. She didn't want political power, but she used it when she had it; she was passionate about God, but also about her husband (she shocked the court by actually running out to greet him and hugging him before he got off his horse), and she was heart-broken by his death but seized the opportunity to do what she really wanted, nursing work with the poor and outcast, following God's call to leave everything and follow him. She was concerned with social justice and an early form of fair trade, refusing to eat food obtained by violence and oppression (well, by the standards of the day, anyway). She was also horribly, cheerfully, absent-minded, and given to letting the soup burn.

I don't think the church of the day quite knew what to do with her. I'm not sure we'd do all that much better now. But she was an amazing woman and a great saint.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

an activist

I somehow read that as "alchemist" ... ;-)