Three biographies of Queen Saint Isabel from the XVIth century

Abstract

Continuing with the efforts to canonize D. Isabel de Aragão, king D. João
III obtained, in 1556, permit from the Pope that authorized the cult of the already beatified D. Isabel around the whole kingdom. He then asked the heads of the monasteries, namely the Santa Clara’s abbess, for a biography of the queen, based on existing documents from Santa Clara monastery. And so, three biographies appeared: De Vita et Moribus Beatae Elisabethae Lusitaniae Reginae by the jesuit priest Pedro João Perpinhão; Vida e milagres da gloriosa Raynha sancta Ysabel, molher do catholico Rey dom Dinis sexto de Portugal, published by the brothers of the Confraria da Rainha Santa Isabel, and “Vida da Bemaventurada sancta Isabel Raynha de Portugal”, by Frei Marcos de Lisboa, included in Chronicas da Ordem dos Frades Menores