St. Elizabeth of Portugal

St. Elizabeth of Portugal, a princess, was born in 1271 in Aragon, Spain. She was the daughter of King Pedro III of Aragon and the great-niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She received excellent religious instruction as a child and married the king of Portugal when she was 12. In 1323 her husband and her son, Prince Affonso, began a civil war. St. Elizabeth of Portugal rode onto the battlefield and succeeded in reconciling the two. After her husband died in 1325, she gave her property to the poor and retired to a Poor Clares monastery in Coimbra which she had founded. She died of a fever in 1336, and it is said there were miracles at her tomb. St. Elizabeth of Portugal is patron saint of peace.