Saint Elizabeth of Portugal
Queen and Religious
- Feast Day
- July 4
- Life
- 1271–1336
- Canonized
- 1625
- Order
- Third Order of Saint Francis (Secular Franciscan)
- Born
- Zaragoza, Crown of Aragon
Saint Elizabeth (Isabel in Portuguese and Spanish) was born in 1271, daughter of King Peter III of Aragon and great-niece of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, after whom she was named. At twelve she was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal. Despite her husband's infidelity she raised his illegitimate children alongside her own and pursued a life of intense prayer, daily Mass, and almsgiving.
She founded hospitals, orphanages, and a hospice at Coimbra; she established the convent of Poor Clares at Coimbra (Santa Clara-a-Velha), where she retired after the king's death. Twice, in 1323 and 1336, she rode to mediate civil wars, first between her husband and her son Afonso, and finally, at age sixty-five and already mortally ill, between her son King Afonso IV and her grandson Alfonso XI of Castile, the latter intervention bringing peace shortly before her death at Estremoz on July 4, 1336.
After her husband's death in 1325 she made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James at Compostela and entered the Third Order of Saint Francis as a tertiary. Her body, incorrupt at her exhumation, was translated to the new convent of Santa Clara-a-Nova at Coimbra in 1677, where it remains. Pope Leo X beatified her in 1516; Pope Urban VIII canonized her on May 25, 1625.
The Optional Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal honors a queen whose witness consisted in patience under domestic suffering and active peacemaking between Christian princes. Her royal almsgiving, like that of her great-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, made her a paradigm of the Beatitude blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), the verse inscribed on her tomb at Coimbra.
Patronages
Portugal · Coimbra · tertiaries · victims of unfaithfulness · peacemakers
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Elizabeth of Portugal
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Elizabeth of Portugal's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- Diocese of Port Elizabeth — Port Elizabeth
- St. Elizabeth — Killaly, SK
- St. Elizabeth’s — BC
- St. Elizabeth of Portugal Parish — Ilagan, ISABELA
- St Ann’s, Elizabeth East — Elizabeth East, SA
- St Thomas More, Elizabeth North — Elizabeth North, SA
- St. Elizabeth Seton Parish — Los Osos, CA
- St. Elizabeth — Temagami, ON
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Crawfordville, FL
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Mission — Turkey, TX
- St. Elizabeth — Elizabethtown, NY
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Groton, SD
- St. Elizabeth Seton — Ocean Springs, MS
- St. Elizabeth — Cannon Ball, ND
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Quinton, VA
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Lexington, KY
- St Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church — Smethport, PA
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church — Springfield, MO
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Kinmundy, IL
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Three Bridges, NJ
Sources