Collection: 📚 St. Isabella

St. Isabella (Elizabeth) of Portugal
St. Isabella, known in Portugal as Isabel and in the Church’s calendar as St. Elizabeth of Portugal, was born in 1271, a daughter of King Peter III of Aragon and a grandniece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Married as a young girl to King Denis of Portugal, she lived a life of prayer, fasting, and generous charity as queen, caring for the poor, the sick, and pilgrims, and founding hospitals and religious houses.

She bore her husband’s unfaithfulness with patience and became known above all as a peacemaker, more than once reconciling her husband and their son and bringing peace between the kings of Portugal and Castile. After King Denis died in 1325, she joined the Third Order of St. Francis and lived humbly beside the Poor Clares at Coimbra. She died on July 4, 1336, at Estremoz, while on a journey to make peace between two kings, and was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1625.

Lived: 1271 – 1336 | Feast Day: July 4 (July 5 in the United States) | Canonized: 1625 by Pope Urban VIII
Patronage: Peace, queens, widows, difficult marriages, and the Third Order of St. Francis.