Yesterday I attended the wedding of my cousin's son. Today's Saint is in honor of the bride, whose name is Elizabeth. St. Elizabeth of Portugal is also the patroness of brides.
Elizabeth of Aragon, better known as Elizabeth of Portugal, was born to the royal house of Aragon in 1271. She was the great niece and namesake of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She was educated very piously and led a life of strict regularity from her childhood. Her marriage to King Denis of Portugal was arranged when she was 10 years old. The wedding was not celebrated until 1288, when Denis was 2 and Elizabeth was 17.
Elizabeth quietly pursued the regular religious practices of her youth and she also took an active interest in Portuguese politics. She was a decisive conciliator during the negotiations between her husband and Fernando IV of Castile which fixed the borders between their countries. She also served as an intermediary between her husband and her son during the civil war in the 1320s.
After Denis' death, Elizabeth retired to a Poor Clare monastery. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, devoting the rest of her life to the poor and sick. She was once again called upon to be a peacemaker in 1336, when Afonso IV marched his troops against King Alfonso XI of Castile, to whom he had married his daughter and who had neglected and ill-treated her. Once the Queen-dowager had stopped the fighting and caused terms of peace to be drawn up, she fell ill from the the exertion. She took to her bed with a fever from which she died on July 4.
Elizabeth's feast day is July. In addition to brides, she is also the patron of charitable societies, difficult marriages, peace, queens, victims of adultery and widows.
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