Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/439

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ST. JANE 425 This story was preserved among the Moors, and the descendants of the wit- nesses of the miracle confirmed the informacion juridica (1560), which is preserved in the archives of Granada. That city has a special devotion to these martyrs. Their statues are placed on the altar of the Church of St. Gregory, but on the pedestals the names of Cathe- rine and Lucy (Catalina and Lucia) are placed by mistake. On one side of the high altar are four bas reliefs represent- ing four principal scenes in the life of the sisters. Bilches. St. Jane (13), Mart (53) db Maillac. St. Jane (U), May 12, 1452-1490. The Lifanta Juana of Portugal. Patron of Aveiro. Daughter of Alfonso V., king of Portugal, and Isabel his wife. Isabel was her husband's first cousin, both being grandchildren of John I., king of Portugal. The queen died in 1456, a few days after the birth of a prince, afterwards John 11. The king had her establishment kept up as it was in her lifetime for the Princess Juana and her infant brother. When Juana was only fifteen, she was tall and looked twenty; but her mental powers and acquirements were oven more in advance of her age than her bodily gifts. Her fervent piety showed itself in all that she did. Her chaplain translated the prayers called " Hours '* for her, from Latin into Portuguese, that she might recite them with more understanding and devotion. She withdrew herself as much as her rank permitted from the pomps and vanity of the world, and spent certain hours of the day alone in her oratory. She persuaded her servants to procure for her the coarsest of garments, which she wore secretly under the silk and embroideries in which she was obliged to appear in public. Then she took to wearing a hair shirt made as roughly as possible from the hair of horses and cows. After being obliged to appear in gorgeous raiment at some public function with her father and brother, she would shut herself into her oratory and pray. At night, instead of resting in the lux- urious bed prepared for her, she spent hours in prayer, tearing her tender fiesh with a scourge, especially on those festivals which oommemorafe more par- ticularly the sufferings of Christ. She never changed her coarse woollen under- garment until it became so swarming with vermin as to be quite unbearable. Her apartment had two divisions: one was a sort of cellar under the other ; and there she had a bed placed nominally for her secretary, but really for herself. This bed was as hard and uncomfortable as it oould be made ; it had a coarse mattress stuffed with bark of trees, a woollen pillow, and old ragged clothes instead of blankets. This penitential bedding was preserved and sent as a great treasure to the prioress of the convent where Juana ultimately took the veil. Meantime, the fame of the beauty, wisdom, and holiness of the Infanta was spread through all the courts of Europe, so that nearly every sovereign aspired to win her either for himself or for some prince of his house. One of these was Louis XI. of France, who asked her in marriage for his brother Charles. The Infanta, seeing her father bent upon this alliance, and herself wishing to lead an exclusively religious life, pleaded youth and lack of experience in the world. Another of her suitors was Maximilian, afterwards king of the Eomans, son of the Emperor of Germany. Juana visited the Cistercian convent of St. Dionysius, at Odivellas, and learnt all particulars of the rule there, as well as in the Dominican convents. Soon after this, when she was eighteen and her brother fifteen, the king determined to cross over to Africa with a great army, to fight against the infidels, for the glory of God« Pope Paul II. granted indulgences to all who should join the expedition. The Infant Don John was a weak and delicate boy, so that Juana was looked upon by many as heiress of the kingdom. The prince^ however, went with his father and the other crusaders, and received the cross with great devotion from the hands of the Archbishop of Lisbon, who gave the in- dulgence to all who went for it, at the same time fastening the holy badge on the breast or shoulder of each, and de- claring him bound to proceed to the