By Leon Bent –
On July 4, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, a queen who served the poor and brought about peace between armies at war. She helped her country avoid a battle, during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Elizabeth was a Spanish princess who was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal at the age of twelve. She was very beautiful and very lovable. She was also very devout, and went to Mass every day. Elizabeth was a holy wife, but although her husband was fond of her at first, he soon began to cause her great suffering. Though a good ruler, he did not imitate his wife’s love of prayer and other virtues. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom.
Many members of the king’s court likewise embraced or accepted various forms of immorality, and it would have been easy for the young queen to fall into these vices herself. But Elizabeth remained intent on doing God’s will with a humble and charitable attitude. Rather than using her status as queen to pursue her own satisfaction, she sought to advance Christ’s reign on earth.
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.
Because St. Elizabeth was faithful to daily Mass, she found strength to carry her many great crosses. Her husband suspected her of having an affair with her boy-escort and decided to kill him. But, because her ‘page boy’ was faithful to daily Mass, he miraculously escaped death. We should try our best to make it a habit to go to Mass daily.
This amazing event helped greatly to make the King live better. He apologized to his wife in front of everyone and began to have a great respect for her. In his last sickness, she never left his side, except for Mass, until he died a holy death. She retired as a Franciscan tertiary, to the monastery of the Poor Clares. After the death of her husband Elizabeth set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile. Earlier Elizabeth has brought about reconciliation between her own son, Alonso, and her husband.
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.
St. Elizabeth lived for eleven more years, doing even greater charity and penance. She was a wonderful model of kindness toward the poor and a successful peacemaker between members of her own family and between nations.
Now this gold nugget! The work of promoting peace is anything but a calm and quiet endeavour. It takes a clear mind, a steady spirit and a brave soul, to intervene between people whose emotions are so aroused that, they are ready to destroy one another. This is all the more true of a woman in the early 14th century. But Elizabeth had a deep and sincere love and sympathy for humankind, an almost total lack of concern for herself, and an abiding confidence in God. These were the tools of her success.
The last frontier: The testimony of miracles accomplished through her intercession, after her death in 1336, contributed to her canonization by Pope Urban VIII, in 1625.
This is written in the stars! Someone should raise a glass and say, “To St. Isabella Elizabeth of Portugal: Blessed are the peacemakers…!”
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
Leon Bent regularly writes for 9 Catholic Magazines, Journals and Web Portals, worldwide – occasionally, the reach is over 5 million readers.