As one of the 13 patrons of World Youth Day (WYD) 2023, which this year will be held in Lisbon in early August, the Diocesan Organizing Committee (COD) took advantage of the 571st anniversary of the birth of Saint Joana Princesa, which was celebrated yesterday, to launch the “Joana de Portugal Route. The daughter of King Afonso V was born on February 6, 1452 and, at the age of 20, after rejecting several royal suitors and determined to be the “wife” of Jesus Christ alone, she retired to the Convent of Odivelas, from where she moved to the Convent of Jesus, in Aveiro. It was there that she practiced a life of penance and assistance to the underprivileged, and died at the age of 38, on May 12 (Aveiro’s municipal holiday, of which she is patroness).
