SAINT ELIZABETH
Middle Rhine Region, Trier, beginning of the 16th century
Sandstone, traces of the original polychromy
Height without base: 85 cm | base: 41.5 cm
Provenance: from the former “Sankt-Elisabethen-Mühle” (Mill Saint Elizabeth)
near Ruwer/ Eitelsbach, today city of Trier
St. Elizabeth of Thuringia (Bratislava 1207 - 1231 Marburg) has been one of the most venerated female saints since the late Middle Ages. The Hungarian princess, as Landgravine of Thurinigia, devoted her entire life to caring for the poor and sick in the hospital she founded in Marburg.
The sandstone sculpture of the saint giving bread to a beggar kneeling beside her, was probably created around 1520 for the monastery and hospital of St. Elisabeth, which was subordinate to the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier. For a long time, the sculpture was located in the St. Elisabeth Mill near the small village of Ruwer, northeast of Trier, which had been in existence since the High Middle Ages and was part of the monastery's estate.