Bl. Theresa of Portugal

Teresa was born in Coimbra around 1181, a daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal. Her sisters Mafalda and Sancha are also venerated as Blesseds.

She married her relative Alfonso IX, King of León, and they had three children. In 1196 the marriage was declared invalid because the couple were too closely related. A few years later Teresa withdrew to the monastery of Lorvão, which she had founded, and turned it into a Cistercian abbey, taking the veil there herself.

She spent the rest of her life at Lorvão with some three hundred nuns and died there in 1250. She was buried beside her sister Sancha.

Theresa of Portugal was beatified in 1705.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.