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The Holy Queen festivities are the most genuine manifestation of the city’s veneration to its patron saint, the wife of King Dinis. Queen Isabel of Aragon led a life devoted to helping those in need, and even during her life, various miracles and cures were attributed to her. The most remarkable would have been the so-called Miracle of Roses. According to legend, one of the many times she was preparing to distribute alms and bread, she was surprised by King Dinis, who had realized that she had hidden something in her lap, and demanded to know what it was, to what the Queen replied: “They are roses, my King.” But the King did not believe her and forced her to open the mantle. Miraculously, the loaves had turned into roses.
After her death in Estremoz in 1336, her dying wish was satisfied and she was returned to Coimbra, having King Afonso IV, fulfilled his mother’s wish, translating her body to Coimbra and burying it in the Monastery of Santa Clara. Despite the long duration of the voyage to Coimbra and the fact that was summer, the urn that contained the body of Isabel of Aragon exuded a gentle scent of roses. Impressed with this fact, the people did not wait to call her Saint and to worship her.
After her beatification, in 1516, by Pope Leo X, the cult of the Holy Queen was recognized by King Manuel I. Isabel of Aragon was canonized in 1625 by Pope Urban VIII. Nowadays, the festivities in honour of the Holy Queen are held in July, in even years. In a mix of religious and profane manifestations, the high moments of the festivities are the two processions (one during the day and another at night) in which the image of the Queen is transported to the church of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, later returning to its place of origin, the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, where the incorrupt body of Isabel of Aragon is buried. These are days of great devotion, in which the city, decked, gains a unique and very own atmosphere.