Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/274

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his wife. These letters show that they corresponded regularly once a year. There is reason to think that the corre- spondence was broken off by the inroads of barbarians about 40 7 . Butler. Bailie t. St Jerome, letter LYIII. Jerome spells her name Therasia. St. Theresa (7) of Avila, the reformer of the Carmelite order, is said to have received her name in honour of this saint

St. Theresa (2) or Therasia, Dec. 3, M. 9th century. Wife of St. Walfrid or Yalfridus of B^on, both martyred at Groningen, in Holland. Stadlor. Gahier.

St. Theresa (3) or Tarama, April 25, the daughter of Yoremund II., king of Castile. Her brother, Alfonso V. compelled her to marry Abdalla, king of the Saracens of Toledo. She escaped from him and ended her days in the convent of San Pelayo at Oviedo. She is called Saint by Bucelinus and by Wion, and she is mentioned in a great many calendars, but the church of Oviedo has always refused to give her any regular worship. AA.SS,, Vrmttr,

B. Theresa (4), July 15. I3th century. Teresa Gil de Yidaure was a wonderfully beautiful young lady, of noble birth at Yalencia. She was secretly married, as his second wife, to James I. the conqueror, king of Aragon. After a few years he tired of her and married, in 1235, Yoland of Hungary. The bishop of Gerona having advised Theresa to appeal to the Pope, James sent for him and had his tongue torn out. The Spanish clergy, upheld by the emissaries of the holy see, summoned him to appear before them as a penitent. To satisfy them, he had to build several churches and monasteries and to get rid of Theresa and all her claims. Ho secured to his two sons by her, the rank of royal princes, with the right of suc- cession to the crown, in the event of his leaving no heirs by Queen Tpland. He gave Theresa a palace, which had belonged to Zayda or Zaen, a Moorish king of Yalencia. Here she established a convent of Cistercian nuns. She called her house St. Mary of Grace, but among the people it retained its name of La Zaydia. She lived in great sanctity and her body remained fresh and sweet. Henriquez, Lilia Cistercii, Bucelinus. AA^SS.^ Prxter. Foster, Chronicle of James of Arragon, Intro- duction.

St. Theresa (5) or Taeasia, Jane 17, + 1250. Patron of Lorvan, where she founded a convent. She was princess of Portugal and queen of Leon. Sister of St. Sancha and B. Mafalda. Daughter of Sancho I., king of Portugal (1185-1212). She married her cousin Alfonso, king of Leon (1188-1214), and had several children. Alfonso and Theresa were a very devoted couple, and long resisted the decree of the clergy that they should separate on the ground of consanguinity ; but the country was desolated by famine, pestilence and war, and Theresa was persuaded that these evils came upon their people on account of the sin of the marriage of the sovereigns. The marriage was dissolved and she became a nun at Lorvan. It was a Benedictine monastery of great antiquity, respected even by the Sanuiens as a holy place ; but the monks had lapsed from their fi^rst fervour and were somewhat lukewarm in their piety, so Theresa had them removed and replaced by nuns of the stricter Cister- cian order. She repaired and adorned the house and church. She deferred taking the vows until within a few months of her death, as she wished to retain the power of giving, but she lived as humbly and feistod as rigorously as any nun. Her brother, Alfonso II. of Portugal, succeeded his father in 1212, quarrelleid with her and St. Sancha, and tried to take their lands for himself. Theresa fortified her towns and sent for help to her husband, who despatched a force to her assistance under her son Ferdinand, with the result that Alfonso had to withdraw his demands and leave his sisters in peace. When Sancha died in her own convent of Alenquer, her nuns wished to bury her there, but Theresa stole the body and buried it at Lorvan. She died in 1250 and was buried beside her sister. They were canonized together by Clement XI. in 1705, and are honoui^d together, Juno 17, the day of Theresa's death. Three hundred years after her death, the body