Rainha Santa Isabel (1271 – 4 July 1336), was queen consort of Portugal,wife of the king D. Dinis and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Elizabeth was a descendant of one of the most powerful families in Europe: daughter of King Peter III of Aragon and Queen Constance, and maternal granddaughter of Manfred of Hohenstauffen (son of German Emperor Frederick II), conqueror of Sicily. The date and location of her birth remain unclear, although historians have suggested Saragoza or Barcelona, between 1269 and 1271.
Elizabeth showed an early enthusiasm for religion. She said the full Divine Office daily, fasted and did other penance, as well as attended twice-daily choral mass.
Her marriage to King Denis of Portugal was contracted in 1281 when she was less than ten years old, receiving the towns of Óbidos, Abrantes and Porto de Mós as part of her dowry. It was only in 1288 that the wedding was celebrated. Denis was 26 years old, while Elizabeth was 17. Denis, a poet and statesman, known as the Rei Lavrador (English: Farmer King), because he planted a large pine forest near Leiria to prevent the soil degradation that threatened the region.
Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her maidenhood and was devoted to the poor and sick. Naturally, such a life was a reproach to many around her and caused ill-will in some quarters. A popular story is told of how her husband's jealousy was aroused by an evil-speaking page, of how he condemned the queen's supposed guilty accomplice to a cruel death and was finally convinced of her innocence by the strange accidental substitution of her accuser for the intended victim. Elizabeth took an active interest in Portuguese politics and was a decisive conciliator during the negotiations concerning the Treaty of Alcanizes, signed by Denis and Sancho IV of Castile in 1297 (which fixed the borders between the two countries). In 1304, the Queen and Denis returned to Spain to arbitrate between Fernando IV of Castile and James II of Aragon, brother of Elizabeth.
They had two children:
a daughter named Constance, who married King Ferdinand IV of Castile;
a son Afonso (who later became King Afonso IV of Portugal).
Elizabeth would serve as intermediary between her husband and Afonso, during the Civil War between 1322 and 1324. The Infante greatly resented the king, whom he accused of favoring the king's illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches. Repulsed to Alenquer, which supported the Infante, Denis of Portugal was prevented from killing his son through the intervention of the Queen. As legend holds, in 1323, Elizabeth, mounted on a mule, positioned herself between both opposing armies on the field of Alvalade in order to prevent the combat. Peace returned in 1324, once the illegitimate son was sent into exile, and the Infante swore loyalty to the king.
After Denis' death in 1325, Elizabeth retired to the convent of the Poor Clares, now known as the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (which she had founded in 1314) in Coimbra. She joined the Franciscan Order, devoting the rest of her life to the poor and sick in obscurity. During the great famine in 1293, she donated flour from her cellars to the starving in Coimbra, but was also known for distributing small gifts, paying the dowries of poor girls, educating the children of poor nobles, and was a benefactor of various hospitals (Coimbra, Santarém and Leira) and of religious projects (such as the Trinity Convent in Lisbon, chapels in Leira and Óbidos, and the clauster in Alcobaça.
She was called to act once more as a peacemaker in 1336, when Afonso IV marched his troops against King Alfonso XI of Castile, to whom he had married his daughter Maria, and who had neglected and ill-treated her. In spite of age and weakness, the Queen-dowager insisted on hurrying to Estremoz, where the two kings' armies were drawn up. She again stopped the fighting and caused terms of peace to be arranged. But the exertion brought on her final illness. As soon as her mission was completed, she died of a fever on 4 July 1336, in the castle of Estremoz.
Although Denis' tomb was located in Odivelas, Elizabeth was buried in the Convent of Santa Clara (later the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha) in Coimbra, in a magnificent Gothic sarcophagus. After frequent flooding by the Mondego River in the 17th century, the Poor Clares moved her mortal remains to the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova (also in Coimbra). Her body was transferred to the main chapel, where it was buried in a sarcophagus of silver and crystal.
Miracles were said to have followed upon her death. She was beatified in 1526 and canonized by Pope Urban VIII on 25 May 1625, Her feast was inserted in the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints for celebration on 4 July. In the year 1694 Pope Innocent XII moved her feast to 8 July, so it would not conflict with the celebration of the Octave of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. In 1955, Pope Pius XII abolished this octave. The 1962 Roman Missal changed the rank of the feast from "Double" to "Third-Class Feast". The 1969 reform of the Calendar classified the celebration as an optional memorial and restored it to 4 July.
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