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Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, crowned, carrying roses in the fold of her skirt, painted by Francisco de Zurbarán about 1635

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal

The queen who rode between two armies to reconcile her son and her husband

Honoured as
the Peacemaker
Western calendar
4 July
Orthodox calendar
Not kept

Elizabeth was a daughter of the King of Aragon, named after her great-aunt Elizabeth of Hungary, and Portugal knows her by the Spanish form of the name, Isabel. Married very young to King Diniz, whose court was corrupt, she said the full Divine Office every day and gave every moment she could spare to the poor and the sick, and when her son Affonso rose against his father in 1323 she rode in person between the two armies and reconciled them. In 1336, a widow in the Franciscan Tertiary habit, old and weak, she hurried to Estremoz to stop a war between her son and the King of Castile, saw the peace made, and died of a fever.

Sources

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A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

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We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

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