Infanta Mafalda of Portugal (also known as Blessed Mafalda, O.Cist. (c. 1195 – 1 May 1256 in

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...

, Gondomar; ) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

infanta ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

'' (princess), later Queen consort of Castile for a brief period. She was the second youngest daughter of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Sancho I of Portugal Sancho I of Portugal (), nicknamed "the Populator" ( pt, "o Povoador"), King of Portugal (Coimbra, 11 November 115426 March 1211) was the second but only surviving legitimate son and fifth child of Afonso I of Portugal by his wife, Maud of Savoy. ...

and

Dulce of Aragon Dulce of Aragon, also called Dulce of Barcelona, was Queen of Portugal as the wife of King Sancho I of Portugal. Life As the eldest daughter of Queen Petronila of Aragon and her husband, Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, she was the sister ...

. Married briefly to the ten-year-old

Henry I of Castile Henry I of Castile (14 April 1204 – 6 June 1217) was king of Castile. He was the son of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine). He was the brother of Berengu ...

, she held for a time the title Queen of Castile. Upon the dissolution of the marriage, Mafalda returned to her homeland. She chose to become a

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

, and became noted for the holiness of her life. She was declared

Blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

by the Catholic Church five centuries after her death.

Life

Early life

Mafalda of Portugal was born around 1195, the daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and his queen, Dulce of Aragon. On the death of her father, Mafalda, under the provisions of his will, was to receive the Seia Castle and the remaining portion of the municipality as well as all income produced there. Furthermore, she was granted the right to use the title of queen. This created a conflict with her brother

Afonso II Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

''O Gordo'', who, wanting a centralized power, hindered his sister from receiving the titles and the corresponding rights. Afonso feared that something similar could happen with his two sisters, Teresa and Sancha, and their eventual heirs, creating a problem of sovereignty that could come to divide the country. Much of the Portuguese nobles sided with Mafalda and her sisters, but they were defeated. On the death of Afonso II, his son Sancho II granted some lands and castles to his aunts but he made them renounce the title of princess-queen. The final peace came in 1223.

Marriage

In 1215, a political marriage was arranged between Mafalda and her young cousin

. As he was about ten years old, the marriage was never consummated, and it was dissolved the following year on grounds of consanguinity. She then returned to Portugal. Sé do Porto-Altar de Nossa Senhora da Silva-20142910

Sé do Porto-Altar de Nossa Senhora da Silva-20142910

Monastic life

In 1220, Mafalda chose not to marry again and became a

at the Abbey of Arouca, though she was granted a special dispensation to retain control of her inheritance. She became

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

of the community, then one of

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nuns, and in 1226 had her request to transfer the abbey to the

Cistercian Order The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Sain ...

granted by the pope. She had a great devotion to Our Lady of Silva and made substantial donations to the shrine. She also had a hospice for travelers built as well as a number of bridges, churches, monasteries, and hospitals. Merton, Thomas
''In the Valley of Wormwood''
Liturgical Press, 2013, She helped to establish her own abbey as a major religious center in the region for centuries. Returning from a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Silva, she fell ill at

, Gondomar, and died at the monastery of Cistercians monks there on 1 May 1256. In 1616, wanting to return her body to Arouca as part of the process of her possible

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

, it was found not to have deteriorated, which generated a strong devotion to the Portuguese princess. She was beatified in 1792 by

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799. Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...

. Her

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is celebrated on June 20, together with her two sisters.

Ancestry

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mafalda of Portugal 1190s births 1256 deaths House of Burgundy-Portugal Portuguese infantas Castilian queen consorts 13th-century Portuguese nuns Female saints of medieval Portugal Cistercian abbesses Cistercian beatified people Roman Catholic royal saints 13th-century Christian saints 13th-century venerated Christians Incorrupt saints 13th-century Spanish women 13th-century Castilians Beatifications by Pope Pius VI Daughters of kings