Joan of Portugal, Bl.
JOAN OF PORTUGAL, BL.
Eldest child and heiress to Alfonso V, king of Portugal; b. Lisbon, Feb. 6, 1452; d. Aveiro, Portugal, May 12, 1490. Despite family pressure to contract an advantageous marriage alliance, Joan, devout from her earliest years, resolved to maintain her virginity and to join a convent. She remained briefly in the cloister of Odivellas before entering the Dominican convent of Jesus at Aveiro. There in 1475 she assumed the Dominican habit; however, she was not professed, nor did she give up control of her property; this was in deference to her father's desire to maintain a clear line of succession to Portugal's throne. She died, apparently of a fever, and was buried in the cloister of Aveiro, which is today a museum. At the request of King Pedro, she was beatified by innocent xii on April 4, 1693.
Feast: May 12.
Bibliography: m. pinheira, Vita, Acta Sanctorum May 7:711–749. f. correia de lacerda, Virtvosa vida, e sancta morte da princesa dona Ioanna (Lisbon 1674). Crónica da fundaçaõ do Mosteiro de Jesus, de Aveiro e memorial da infanta santa Joana, filha del Rei Dom Alfonso V, ed. a. g. da r. madahil (Aveiro 1939). m. c. de ganay, Les Bienheureuses dominicaines (Paris 1913). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 2: 291–292. a. g. da r. madahil, Iconografia da infanta santa Joana (Aveiro 1957). r. f. dos santos, Rumos cruzados (Fátima 1968).
[a. o'malley]