What a good choice St. Elizabeth is for Enumclaw Regional Hospital.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is one of the Catholic patron saints of nurses, hospitals and charities.

Catholic saints are, or were at one time, regular Joes like us who, like Jesus, walked the walk and talked the talk. Through their everyday lives, they did extraordinary things. Some were sacrifices, others were simple things we can do like feeding the poor or caring for the sick. The point was, they responded to God’s invitation to use the gifts he had given them.

Patron saints are chosen as special protectors or guardians over areas of life. These areas can include occupations, illnesses, churches, countries —­­ just about anything.

Each year at Sacred Heart Church, where I teach religious education, we put on a Saints Festival for All Saints Day Nov. 1. The children, and teachers like myself, dress as saints and tell their stories to a small audience. I love when we get to study the patron saints. The children often select a saint with meaning in their lives. In the past I have been Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists and writers, and Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, who produced a religious magazine and later in life died with other prisoners in a German concentration camp.

All the hospitals in the Franciscan Health System family follow the pattern: St. Joseph in Tacoma, St. Francis in Federal Way, St. Clare in Lakewood and St. Anthony in Gig Harbor.

But, St. Elizabeth isn’t just a good choice because she’s the patron saint of hospitals and nurses and it looks good on Franciscan stationery.

It’s her story that hits close to home.

According to information the folks at Franciscan Healthcare provided and what I found on my own, Elizabeth was born in 1207, the daughter of the king of Hungary. She married a prince and could have lived a life of leisure. Instead, she dedicated herself to helping the poor.

She became associated with the Franciscans when they established a monastery near her home. A few years later, she built a Franciscan hospital at the base of a mountain and often personally tended the sick and poor.

What a coincidence: our hospital is associated with the Franciscans and is at the base of a mountain.

It’s either really good public relations, or faith at work, that Enumclaw Regional Hospital would become St. Elizabeth. I’m leaning toward faith.

As we sat around the table with hospital leaders, they were sure, with time, like St. Joseph, which everyone calls Saint Joe, St. Elizabeth would get a nickname.

They liked the sound of St. E – for Elizabeth or Enumclaw.