Elisabeth from Portugal

BIOGRAPHY

She came from the Spanish royal family. At the age of 12, she was married to King Dionysius of Portugal, with whom she had two children and by whose side she experienced a lot of suffering, not only because of his infidelity. She excelled in patience, love, and the ability to forgive and reconcile. She lived by loving the poor through many acts of mercy and resolving disputes in the community. It was a refuge for the public during the terrible plague. After her husband’s death, she became a tertiary, continued to be a charity, and finally died at the age of 65 as a sister of St. Clare’s.

BIOGRAPHY FOR MEDITATION

PEACE ANGEL

She was born in Spain around 1270-1271 as the daughter of the later Aragonese king, Peter III, and his wife, Princess Constance of Sicily. At the baptism, she received the name of her deceased aunt, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. In Spanish, she is called Isabela. Her birth is said to have contributed to Peter’s reconciliation with his father, James I. Elizabeth stayed with him until his death, around the age of five or six. Then she returned to her parents, and they provided her with education by good teachers. She had three brothers: Alfonso, who succeeded his father, Jakub, and Ferdinand, and a sister named Yolanda. Even in her childhood, Elizabeth was characterized by extraordinary piety and a strong interest in charity.

Before the age of 12, she married the young Portuguese king Dionysius, who had ruled since. 1279. She is said to have married him in 1282. She considered royalty and wealth to be entrusted hryvnias and tried to use them for acts of Christian mercy. She became the mother of the poor, the comforter of the suffering, the nurse of the lonely sick, and the protector of the persecuted. She helped impoverished families and orphans. Later, she set up a house for women who had gone astray and a foundling home for abandoned infants.

In her private life, she had a particular order, especially when it came to spiritual activities. She also prayed, attended church, and regularly attended Holy Mass. In her daily schedule, she made a point to remember those who needed her help. More than once, the sick recovered under her touch. E.g., to a woman full of ugly sores, they all suddenly disappeared. On Mandy Thursday, she washed the legs of the beggars and kissed the leg of a sick woman, and she immediately recovered. She was also detained by her husband when she had alms set up in her apron, and he asked her what she was carrying. The queen replied with a smile: “Rose”, thinking that she liked God as a symbol of love. The husband immediately checked the contents of the apron because there was no time for roses, but they were suddenly actually in it, her biographies state.

King Dionysius is said to have been originally good and only later became reckless. He was often unfaithful to his wife, kept two concubines in the yard, and with them had illegitimate children, whom his good wife took in. Alone, she was immensely grieving and crying over her husband’s sins, but she did not complain to people about him. She treated him kindly and forgave him for his infidelity and unkind behavior. She often prayed for him and fasted to convert him.

With him, she had a son, Alfonso, to whom the succession belonged, and a daughter, Constance, who married Ferdinand IV, King of Castile.

Biographies about Elizabeth report an incident involving her squire, whom she commissioned to distribute the alms she had given him to the poor. Another of the king’s servants noticed the queen’s private conversations and accused the squire that Elizabeth was unfaithful to him. The king plotted death for Elizabeth’s squire by burning him in lime. He is said to have ordered the lime keeper to throw the man, who would come in the morning asking if the king’s order had already been carried out, into the furnace. In the morning, the king sent the squire to the limestone with this question, but he stopped at the church for a short prayer. Holy Mass was about to begin, and they needed a minister, so the squire let himself be persuaded. The impatient king wanted to be sure and sent that accuser to find out how his order had been carried out. He was able to arrive before the squire, and no sooner had he uttered whether the king’s order had already been carried out than he found himself in the furnace. The Squire then received a positive answer and returned unscathed. The king later became convinced of his wife’s innocence and behaved better from then on. He saw God’s judgment in the incident.

In later years, the Queen made multiple reconciliation efforts in disputes that shook the Portuguese kingdom.

In the last years of King Dionysius, the queen clung to her son Alfonso, and the aging king was more inclined to one of his illegitimate sons, Sancho. From this arose the suspicion that, against the laws and law of the land, the king wanted to hand over the throne to Sancho. Alfonso, who married Beatrice, began to rule with her in Coimbra. Dionysius’ advisors incited the king to limit his son’s power, and his son was in turn exhorted by his friends to rebel against his father, so that he could deprive him of his succession.

Elizabeth tried to ask both of them for the gift of conciliation, but the situation escalated, and the king decided to raise an army against his son, Alfonso. He then marched with him to the city of Sintra to capture him. Elizabeth sent messengers to her son with a warning to flee. The king found out and terminated his wife’s position on the advice of bad advisors, stripping her of all pensions. She carried it patiently, but not her friends. They grumbled with remorse against the king that he was at war with his son and had banished his wife. It led, perhaps, to him at least accepting her back.

The father’s enmity with his son was again exacerbated by the siege of his father’s army at Coimbra. Elizabeth visited her husband and son in their encampment, but only a four-day truce was reached. She prayed, wept, and begged for them to stop the war, which she finally succeeded in doing. Before long, the discord over the Ranches was repeated, and the queen reconciled the two armies with great effort at Lisbon and prevented a bloody clash a second time. Father and son broke up. Dionysius fell seriously ill not long after, and the queen proved her noble and good heart not only by taking care of his physical needs, but also by reconciling with her son, who came to beg her father at her request.

The king died repentant. 1325. The words of Scripture have proven themselves to be true: “an unbelieving man is sanctified by marriage with a believing woman” (1 Corinthians 7:14). Elizabeth still made a barefoot penitential pilgrimage to Compo stela to the tomb of the apostle James, but perhaps already in tertiary robes. There, as a notum, she presented the bishop with her crown and royal jewels.

In Lisbon, she built the first shrine of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in the history of the Church.

In Coimbra, she decided to enter the monastery of the Order of St. Clary, whose construction she had only just completed. However, she was persuaded to continue living in a world where she was greatly needed. Elizabeth settled in the abode attached to the monastery, lived the life of a tertiary, and did a great deal of good. She used widows’ pensions to build temples, hospitals, almshouses, and, where necessary, bridges.

She proved herself again as a conciliator when her son Alfonso IV was going to war with her daughter’s husband, King Ferdinand of Castile. Sick of the flu, she set out to prevent war. In the city of Extreme on the Castilian border, she managed to secure peace, but in her fever, she recognized her impending end. It is said that she still made a religious vow then, and finally died in the hands of her son and daughter-in-law, invoking the heavenly Mother. She was called the “Angel of peace” and honored as a saint from the moment of her death.

She was buried in Coimbra, and her grave became a destination for pilgrimages and a place of extraordinary graces. In 1516, the canonization process began. Leo X then allowed her to be venerated in Coimbra. In 1612, her grave was opened, and the body was found intact, with no signs of any decay. The ceremonial canonization took place on the 25th. 2.1625 by Pope Urban VIII, who tightened the canonization procedure.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

I will learn to forgive Elizabeth and show love, even with the necessary sacrifices. When examining my conscience, I will think about what God expects of me.

God, You gave Your servant Elizabeth of Portugal the knowledge of the right Christian life, enabling her to triumph over evil with love and reconcile opposing sides. We ask You: teach us to know Your will, and give us the strength, so that we, like her, may live an exemplary life. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, for He lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit throughout all the ages of ages.