ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, ST.

Queen, Franciscan tertiary; b. 1270 or 1271; d. Estremoz, July 4, 1336. Elizabeth (Isabella), daughter of Pedro III and Constance of Aragon, and grandniece of elizabeth of hungary, married King Dinis of Portugal in 1282. She bore his infidelity with loving patience, raised his illegitimate children as her own, and frequently intervened between him and their rebelling son, Alfonso. She devoted herself to the welfare of her subjects, especially the poor, and on several occasions averted war between the kings of Aragon and Castile. When widowed in 1325, she took the habit of the Franciscan Third Order and lived close to the poor clares in Coimbra. She died in Estremoz on her way to make peace between her son and her nephew, Alfonso XI of Castile. Urban VIII canonized her in 1625. Her iconography shows her in regal garb with a dove or olive branch.

Feast: July 4 (formerly July 8).

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum July 2:169–213. a. de vasconcelos, Evoluçaão do culto de Dona Isabel de Aragaão, 2 v. (Coimbra 1894), reprinted as Dona Isabel de Arag o: a Rainha Santa, 2 v. (Coimbra 1993). j. crespo, Santa Isabel na doença e na morte (Coimbra 1942). p. cantero cuadrado, Santa Isabel, reina de Portugual (Zaragoza 1971). a. muÑoz fernÁndez, Mujer y experiencia religiosa en el marco de la Santidad medieval (Madrid 1988). d. giesregen, The Search for St. Elizabeth (Park Falls, Wis.1992). f. b. leite, O Rei D. Dinis e a Rainha Santa Isabel (Coimbra 1993). v. j. mcnabb, St. Elizabeth of Portugal (New York 1937). j. branquinho de carralho, As festas da canonização da Rainha Santa Isabel promoridas (Coimbra 1953). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 3:37–38.

[m. f. laughlin]