Only twelve years after German women had been granted voting rights, the German medievalist Elisabeth Busse-Wilson, a first-wave feminist activist and scholar, challenged centuries of silence about violence against women by taking on the case of the most famous European saint, the young Elisabeth of Thuringia (1207–1231). Married at a very young age, St. Elisabeth soon fell under the spell of the notorious confessor and inquisitor Konrad von Marburg. His brutal treatment of the young woman was erased from the cult of St. Elisabeth to protect male privilege both in the church and society at large.
Published to coincide with the 700-year anniversary of her death, Busse-Wilson’s study caused a storm of controversy. Translated for the first time into English, this book reintroduces to a contemporary audience this long-forgotten but still provocative and timely classic.
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Elisabeth Johanna Auguste Busse-Wilson (1890-1974) was a German historian. She was one of the first generation of German women to receive a university education.

Introduction to the Translation - Ulrike Wiethaus
Chapter One: Research Objectives and Categories of Analysis
Chapter Two: Elisabeth’s Life
Chapter Three: On the Road to Sainthood
Chapter Four: The Poverella of Marburg
Appendix
Chronology
Annotated Bibliography
Translator’s Introduction: Select Bibliography
Translator’s Acknowledgments
Note on the Translator