St. Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336) queen and wife
Elizabeth
of Portugal was an agent of peace both in her own family and between
the nations of Portugal and Spain. She cared for lepers with her own
hands and had an extraordinary knowledge. She also engaged in building
projects: 20th century scholars identify an "isabeline" style of
architecture called after her.
Elizabeth regularly attended the Liturgy of the Hours and sometimes even corrected the Latin of the clerical chanters.
Marriage to King Denis of Portugal
Elizabeth, or
Isabel, was born in Saragossa, Spain, in 1271, the daughter of Peter
III, king of Aragón and Queen Constanza.
She was christened Elizabeth
after her great-aunt Elizabeth of Hungary.
Many European monarchs sought
to have her as a bride for their sons and one must wonder how much she
understood when at the age of twelve she was married to King Denis of
Portugal who was then twenty.
Family
Elizabeth and Denis had two children.
Their daughter, Constanza, was born after the couple had been married
for eight years, and Afonso, the crown prince, a year later.
But Denis
fathered seven other children by other women. Elizabeth agreed to care
for these and educate them.
Family troubles
One of her greatest trials,
however, was that her own son Afonso allied himself with the Spanish
kingdom of Castile in a bid to overthrow his father, who, he felt,
favoured one of his half-brothers.
Elizabeth had to mediate between the
two men closest to her heart, husband and son, each of whom led an army.
Denis, believing that his wife was intriguing against him, had her
exiled to the fortified city of Alenquer.
She accepted this and at times
did succeed in bringing peace between them.
Elizabeth's devotion
Elizabeth regularly attended the Liturgy of the Hours and sometimes even corrected the Latin of the clerical chanters.
In 1320, she obtained from the bishop of
Coimbra a proclamation establishing the solemn observance of the feast
of the Immaculate Conception of Mary on 8th December throughout the
whole country.
Her building projects
She also engaged in a
number of building projects.
She had a convent built in Coimbra to
house the Poor Clare nuns, as well as a house for herself next to the
convent, a hospice for the aged poor, a hospital and an orphanage.
She
drafted the sketches herself, and managed the day-to-day progress of the
projects.
Twentieth-century scholars have identified the buildings that
date back to Elizabeth by their common architectural features, speaking
of an "isabeline" style of architecture.
Caring for lepers
Elizabeth would at times bring
lepers to her private room, wash and bandage their wounds, replace their
rags with clean clothes and serve them with a meal.
One Good Friday, as
the lepers were going away, one of them, unable to keep up with the
rest, fell at the main entrance, where the doorkeeper found him.
Not
knowing of the queen's secret works of mercy, the doorkeeper rebuked the
sick man and hit him on the head with a stick.
Egg-white and effective remedy in healing wounds
One
of the queen's servants saw the incident and reported to the queen that
the wounded man was bleeding profusely. Elizabeth immediately had him
brought to a secluded room, where she washed the gash on his skull, and
applied egg-white before bandaging it.
When, the next day, the leper
announced that he had no more pain, that the wound was closed and
healed, the rumour spread that the queen had performed a miracle.
Doctors have commented on this episode, praising Elizabeth's medical
knowledge.
It seems that the protein and fibrinogenic components in
egg-white can be an effective remedy for a bleeding wound.
In 1779, the
Portuguese Academy of Sciences chose St. Elizabeth as its patron saint.
Widowhood and death
King Denis became ill in 1324
and died the following year. Elizabeth nursed him and he was obviously
repentant.
After his death she went on pilgrimage to Compostela and,
although she thought about becoming a Poor Clare nun, she remained a
simple tertiary.
She retired to the house she had built near the Poor
Clare convent at Coimbra and devoted herself to the care of the needy.
Peace-making and death
In 1336 Elizabeth's son,
now King Afonso IV, went to war against Alfonso XI of Castile.
Elizabeth
was again able to make peace, but it wore her out and she died before
she was able to return home.
Feast and canonisation
Pope Leo X authorised the celebration of her feast locally in 1516: Pope Urban VIII canonised her in 1626.