The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-19
HUNGARLANs PRAY TO
 MOTHER HUBBARDa
 FOR sUoCoR ToDEY

In churches throughout Hungary to-
 day sad-faced women and hungry chiI- dren and bent and bowed old people
 or both sexes will assemble to seek the
 intercessfon and succor of their pa
 fron, Mother Hubbard = for that her
 oine of the nursery rhyme has been i identified with St Elizabeth, the pa- tron of Hungarians and of all wid- oWs, the friend of the poor and the ill., and one Of the sweeetst saints of the Roman calendar. This is the festival St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who
 was born in 1907 and died on Mo- venlber 19, 1231. She was canonized
 four years after her death, and ever since the people of Hungary in partic- su1ar and of the Christian world in general, has observed her feast on
 the nineteenth Of November. She was only twenty-four when she died but a widow. and she has always
 been considered the patron of widows. Thousands of widows, made such by the terrible war in which Hungary is
 now involved, will make pitifu1 ap- peals today to the fair saint whose
 whole life was devoted to comforting the afflicted.
 tDie Adutter von Ungarn" is the popular name of St. ElIzabeth in Hun gary, and from that the transition to the English Mother Hubbard'' is
 clearly traced. It is. now definitely |
 a mere nursery tale, but that it is
 an allegory based on the life of the Hungarian saint. One authority says on this subject:
 In the cupboard was bare, Of the
 nursery tale. we find the empty
 treasury of Hungary. exhausted by
 Elizabeth to supply the wants of the
 poor. Ia her seeking clothing for her
 poor dog we see the fair saint giv- ing away her own robesJev tearing 1 off her rich mantle to bestow upon a beggar. In the search for white wine
 and red, we find E1izabeth's charity and visits to the hospitals which she l had founded; in the sickness of her 1 four-footed companion, the sick and suffering whom Elizabeth relieved with her own hands. and the leprous child for whom she cared laying him
 in her own bed. Even so, as in the l nursery-tale Mother Hubbard thought
 Beth's unselhshness and self-deniaI shine forth like stars. The bare cup
 board may also indicate the famine which afflicted Thuringia in s1226, which was followed By a plague in which Ehzabeth herself nursed the sufferers.''
 Elizabeth was princess, daughter
 Of a Hungarian king, and in her in- l fancy she was bethrotned to Louis, I Landgrave of Thuringia, and was
 brought up at his fathers court. AIpeF she became the bride of the Land-
 grave, she devoted herself entirely to i work among the poor and the sick. and the palace doors were flung wide l open to the anlicted- She built many l hospitals and toi1ed as nurse. rum ming the risk of all sorts of con tagions.
 When the Land grave died the widz l ow was driven from the palace. The i ,-f,xzrsI I +YsaassI1y- had been made as bare E as Mother Hubbard cupboard by Elizabethss predigality. and the Iland- graves royal relatives were very aE1- gry E1iza;beth with her little cllil- 1 dren, wandered through the streets, living upon the bounty Iof those whom I she had befriended in her prosperous
 days. but often prex to both cold and hunger Returning to Hungary, I she continued to do all in her power
 for the poor, although she was herself j pennfless and homeless. The fame oa l her biety and charity spread far and
 wide, and the saint has been iranorT 1 talized in the humble guise of MothAr I Hubbard.