sainte Élisabeth, reine du Portugal . 1271 + 1336

Élisabeth, née en 1271, reçut ce nom à son baptême, en souvenir de sainte Élisabeth de Hongrie, sa tante. À l'âge de huit ans, elle récitait chaque jour l'office divin et conserva cette pratique jusqu'à sa mort.  Elle méprisait le luxe, fuyait les divertissements, soulageait les pauvres, multipliait ses jeûnes et menait une vie vraiment céleste. Toutes les œuvres de piété d'Élisabeth étaient accompagnées de larmes que l'amour faisait monter de son cœur à ses yeux. Le temps que ses exercices religieux lui laissaient libre, elle aimait à l'employer à l'ornementation des autels ou aux vêtements des pauvres.  Élevée sur le trône de Portugal par son mariage avec Denys, roi de ce pays, elle fut d'une patience remarquable dans les épreuves qu'elle eut souvent à subir de la part de son mari, et ne lui montra jamais, en échange de ses procédés injustes, qu'une amabilité croissante, une douceur toute affectueuse et un dévouement sans bornes, qui finirent par triompher de ce cœur rebelle. Élisabeth est célèbre par le don que lui fit le Ciel de rétablir la paix entre les princes et les peuples.  Peu de Saintes ont montré tant de charité pour les membres souffrants de Jésus-Christ ; jamais aucun pauvre ne partait du palais sans avoir rien reçu ; les monastères qu'elle savait dans le besoin recevaient abondamment le secours de ses aumônes ; elle prenait les orphelins sous sa protection, dotait les jeunes filles indigentes, servait elle-même les malades. Tous les vendredis de Carême, elle lavait les pieds à treize pauvres, et après les leur avoir baisés humblement, elle les faisait revêtir d'habits neufs. Le Jeudi saint, elle remplissait le même office près de treize femmes pauvres. Or, un jour qu'elle lavait les pieds à ces pauvres, il se trouva dans le nombre une femme qui avait au pied une plaie dont la mauvaise odeur était insupportable : la reine, malgré toutes les répugnances de la nature, prit ce pied infect, en pansa l'ulcère, le lava, l'essuya, le baisa et le guérit. Même miracle arriva en faveur d'un pauvre lépreux. Un jour qu'elle portait dans les pans de sa robe de l'argent pour les pauvres, son mari lui demanda à voir ce qu'elle portait, et il fut émerveillé d'y voir des roses hors de saison. Après la mort du roi, elle voulait se retirer chez les Clarisses, mais on lui fit observer qu'elle ferait une meilleure œuvre en continuant ses libéralités. Enfin, après une vie toute d'œuvres héroïques, elle mourut, le 04 juillet 1336, en saluant la Très Sainte Vierge, qui lui apparut, accompagnée de sainte Claire et de quelques autres Saintes. Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.

	©Evangelizo.org 2001-2016

 

wikipédia . en ligne lundi 4 juillet 2016

Elizabeth of Aragon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Isabella of Aragon, see Isabella of Aragon (disambiguation).

Elizabeth of Portugal
Santa Isabel de Portugal, by Francisco de Zurbarán, c. 1635
Queen consort of Portugal
Tenure	26 June 1282 – 7 January 1325
Born	1271 Aljafería Palace, Zaragoza, Kingdom of Aragon[1]
Died	4 July 1336 Estremoz Castle in Estremoz, Alentejo, Kingdom of Portugal
Spouse	Denis, King of Portugal
Issue	Constanca, Queen of Castile Afonso IV, King of Portugal
House	House of Barcelona
Father	Peter III, King of Aragon
Mother	Constance of Sicily
Religion	Catholic Church

Elizabeth of Aragon, more commonly known as Elizabeth of Portugal,^[2] T.O.S.F. (1271 – 4 July 1336; Elisabet in Catalan, Isabel in Aragonese, Portuguese and Spanish), was queen consort of Portugal, a tertiary of the Franciscan Order and is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Elizabeth showed an early enthusiasm for her faith. She said the full Divine Office daily, fasted and did other penance, as well as attended twice-daily choral Masses. Religious fervor was common in her family, as she could count several members of her family who were already venerated as saints. The most notable example is her great-aunt, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, after whom she was named.

Contents

• 1 Marriage
• 1.1 Dowager Queen
• 1.2 Sainthood
• 2 Family and Ancestors
• 3 Popular culture
• 4 Ancestry
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Marriage

King Denis of Portugal, the Rei Lavrador, and Queen Elizabeth of Portugal

Her marriage to King Denis of Portugal was arranged in 1281 when she was 10 years old, receiving the towns of Óbidos, Abrantes and Porto de Mós as part of her dowry.^[3] It was only in 1288 that the wedding was celebrated, when Denis was 26 years old, while Elizabeth was 17.^[3] Denis, a poet and statesman, was known as the Rei Lavrador (English: Farmer King), because he planted a large pine forest near Leiria to prevent the soil degradation that threatened the region.
Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her youth and was devoted to the poor and sick. Naturally, such a life was a reproach to many around her and caused ill will in some quarters. A popular story is told of how her husband's jealousy was aroused by an evil-speaking page, of how he condemned the queen's supposed guilty accomplice to a cruel death and was finally convinced of her innocence by the strange accidental substitution of her accuser for the intended victim.^{[clarification needed]} Eventually, her prayer and patience succeeded in converting her husband, who had been leading a sinful life.^[4]
Elizabeth took an active interest in Portuguese politics and was a decisive conciliator during the negotiations concerning the Treaty of Alcañices, signed by Denis and Sancho IV of Castile in 1297 (which fixed the borders between the two countries).^[3] In 1304, the Queen and Denis returned to Spain to arbitrate between Fernando IV of Castile and James II of Aragon, brother of Elizabeth.^[3]
She had two children:

• a daughter named Constance, who married King Ferdinand IV of Castile;
• a son Afonso (who later became King Afonso IV of Portugal).

St. Elizabeth of Portugal.
Queen, Widow and tertiary
Canonized	25 May 1625, Rome by Pope Urban VIII
Major shrine	Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, Coimbra, Portugal[1]
Feast	4 July; 8 July (1694–1969 calendars)

Elizabeth would serve as intermediary between her husband and Afonso, during the Civil War between 1322 and 1324. The Infante greatly resented the king, whom he accused of favoring the king's illegitimate son, Afonso Sanches.^[3] Repulsed to Alenquer, which supported the Infante, Denis was prevented from killing his son through the intervention of the Queen. As legend holds, in 1323, Elizabeth, mounted on a mule, positioned herself between both opposing armies on the field of Alvalade in order to prevent the combat.^[3] Peace returned in 1324, once the illegitimate son was sent into exile, and the Infante swore loyalty to the king.^[3]

Dowager Queen

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal. Portrait by José Gil de Castro, Museo Colonial de San Francisco (Santiago, Chile)

After Denis' death in 1325, Elizabeth retired to the monastery of the Poor Clare nuns, now known as the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (which she had founded in 1314) in Coimbra. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, devoting the rest of her life to the poor and sick in obscurity.^[4] During the great famine in 1293, she donated flour from her cellars to the starving in Coimbra, but was also known for modest in her dress, humble in conversation, habit to provide lodging for pilgrims, distributing small gifts, paying the dowries of poor girls, educating the children of poor nobles, and was a benefactor of various hospitals (Coimbra, Santarém and Leiria) and of religious projects (such as the Trinity Convent in Lisbon, chapels in Leiria and Óbidos, and the cloister in Alcobaça.^[5]
She was called to act once more as a peacemaker in 1336, when Afonso IV marched his troops against King Alfonso XI of Castile, to whom he had married his daughter Maria, and who had neglected and ill-treated her. In spite of age and weakness, the Queen-dowager insisted on hurrying to Estremoz, where the two kings' armies were drawn up. She again stopped the fighting and caused terms of peace to be arranged. But the exertion brought on her final illness. As soon as her mission was completed, she took to her bed with a fever from which she died on 4 July, in the castle of Estremoz. She earned the title of Peacemaker on account of her efficacy in solving disputes.^[4]
Although Denis' tomb was located in Odivelas, Elizabeth was buried in the Convent of Santa Clara in Coimbra, in a magnificent Gothic sarcophagus. After frequent flooding by the Mondego River in the 17th century, the Poor Clares moved her mortal remains to the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova (also in Coimbra). Her body was transferred to the main chapel, where it was buried in a sarcophagus of silver and crystal.

Sainthood

Miracles were said to have followed upon her death.^{[examples needed]} She was beatified in 1526 and canonized by Pope Urban VIII on 25 May 1625.^[6] Her feast was inserted in the General Roman Calendar for celebration on 4 July. In the year 1694 Pope Innocent XII moved her feast to 8 July, so it would not conflict with the celebration of the Octave of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles.^[7] In 1955, Pope Pius XII abolished this octave.^[8] The 1962 Roman Missal changed the rank of the feast from "Double" to "Third-Class Feast".^[9] The 1969 revision of the Calendar classified the celebration as an optional memorial and restored it to 4 July. Her feast is also kept on the Franciscan Calendar of Saints.

Family and Ancestors

Isabel (as she remains known by speakers of Portuguese and Spanish) was named after her grand-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. King Alfonso III of Aragon, King James II of Aragon and King Frederick III of Sicily were her brothers.

Popular culture

She was the subject of a 1947 Portuguese-Spanish film The Holy Queen in which she was played by Maruchi Fresno.

Ancestry

[show]Ancestors of Elizabeth of Aragon

Preceded by Beatrice of Castile

Queen Consort of Portugal 1282–1325

Succeeded by Beatrice of Castile

[show] v t e