Saint Irene of Tomar

Irene led such a secluded life that she only went out once a year to visit the church of Saint Peter, on the day of his feast. During one of these outings, a young lord named Ber tanid be came enamored with her; and this love consumed him so much that it caused him to fall into a wasting sickness. Irene learned by revelation what was happening; and, moved by God, she went to find him well accompanied, and spoke to him with such force about the excellence of chastity that she removed his foolish passion; Bertanid recovered his former health.

Our young nun was making new progress in perfection day by day, when the devil stirred up against her one of the strangest persecutions one could imagine. It was through the means of her director. Thi s wretch forg ot himself to the point of revealing to her the criminal flames by which his insides were consumed, in order to excite similar ones in her innocent heart. But Irene, far from listening to him, reproached him bitterly. The shameless man was quite surprised to see himself thus rebuffed; but his shame only served to drive him to the final extremities of despair. To take revenge, he spread the rumor that Irene was pr egnant. Bertanid, informed of these rumors, fell into such a furious jealousy that, without inquiring into the truth, he charged a soldier to put her to death. The latter, having found the Saint on her knee s on the bank of the Nadau River, where she was praying to Our Lord to deliver her from the disgrace that such great malice had brought upon her, pierced her with a sword stroke and thus made her the victim of the one whose life she had saved two years earlier.

The executioner threw her body into the river at that very hour to hide the crime; but God made known to Abbo t Selio al l that had happened. He divulged the fact for the honor of his dear niece, and a great assembly of people of all conditions gathered to go and seek her precious remains. The Nadau river had cast them into the Nezere, and the latter into the Tagus; the angels had formed for them wi th t heir own hands a precious tomb, as they had formerly done for Saint Clement. There was no difficulty in approac hing this tom b, because the waters of the river had miraculously receded to leave a free path to the middle of its bed, where it was placed. The body of the Saint was found there in a ravishing whiteness and beauty; they wished to draw it from there to transport it solemnly into a church, but it was impossible to move it. Then, so as not to oppose the will of God, who had himself prepared this sepulcher for his spouse, they contented themselves with taking a part of her hair and shreds of her tunic, which were placed as precious relics in the monastery o f which her uncle was abbot. The blind and the paralyzed were healed by their touch, and they became sources of health in the land. Scarcely had the procession moved away from this miraculous tomb, when the river, returning to its bed, surrounded it and covered it entirely.

The city of Santarem (that is to say, Saint Irene) owes its current name to the glory of this illustrious martyr of chastity. It was previously called Scalabi s.

Cf. Acta Sanctoru m, year July 20.