Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, was born in 1271 in the royal house of Aragon.
As a presage of her future sanctity, her parents, contrary to custom, passing over the mother and grandmother, gave her in baptism the name of her maternal great aunt, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. No sooner was she born then it became evident what a blessed peacemaker she was to be between kings and kingdoms; for the joy of her birth put a happy end to the miserable quarrels of her father and grandfather.
From her early years, she was remarkable for her mortification, devotion to prayer and charity towards the poor. As she grew up, her father, admiring the natural abilities of his daughter, was wont to assert that Elizabeth would far outstrip in virtue all the women descended of the royal blood of Aragon; and so great was his veneration for her heavenly manner of life, her contempt of worldly ornaments, her abhorrence of pleasure, her assiduity in fasting, prayer and works of charity, that he attributed to her merits alone the prosperity of his kingdom and estate. On account of her widespread reputation, her hand was sought by many princes; at length she was, with all the ceremonies of holy church, united in matrimony with Dionysus (Dennis), King of Portugal.
She continued to live a holy life in the married state. She gave herself up to the exercise of virtue and the education of her children, striving indeed to please her husband, but still more to please God.
For nearly half a year she lived on bread and water alone; and on 1 occasion when in an illness she had refused to take the wine prescribed by the physician, her water was miraculously changed into wine.
She instantaneously cured a poor woman of a loathsome ulcer by kissing it. In the depth of winter, she changed the money she was going to distribute to the poor into roses, in order to conceal it from the king. She gave sight to a virgin born blind, healed many other persons of grievous distempers by the mere sign of the cross, and performed a great number of other miracles of alike nature.
She built and amply endowed monasteries, hospitals, and churches she was admirable for her zeal and composing the differences of kings, and unwearied in her efforts to alleviate the public and private miseries of mankind.
After the death of her husband, Elizabeth, who had been in her youth a model to virgins, and in her married life to wives, became in her solitude a pattern of all virtues to widows. She immediately put on the religious habit of St Clare.
She assisted with the greatest fortitude at the king's funeral, and then, proceeding to Compostella, offered there for the repose of his soul a quantity of silk, silver, gold and precious stones. On her return home she consumed in wholly and pious works all she had that was dear and precious to her; she completed the building of her royal monastery of virgins at Combria, and, wholly engaged in feeding the poor, protecting widows, sheltering orphans and assisting the afflicted in every way, she lived not for herself, but for the glory of God and the well-being of men.
On her way to the noble town of Estremola, whither she was going in order to make peace between the two kings, her son and son-in-law, she was seized with illness and died a holy death on July 4th, 1336.
After death, she was glorified by many miracles, especially by the sweet fragrance of her body, which has remained incorrupt for nearly 300 years; and she is always distinguished by the names of "Holy Queen.” At length, in the year 1625, she was solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Pope Urban the VIII.
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