The complicated case of Queen Isabella’s beatification cause

Isabella is considered the most important monarch in Spanish history—but also the most controversial.

The beatification cause for Isabella, queen of Castile in the 15th and early 16th centuries, is perhaps the most contentious in the Spanish-speaking world.

Servant of God Isabella of Castille (Museo del Prado).

Isabella is considered the most important monarch in Spanish history—but also the most controversial.

Her detractors claim that her role in the expulsion of Jews and Muslims and the mistreatment of the indigenous people in the Americas exclude the possibility of her sainthood, especially in today's context. 

Nevertheless, her cause has attracted many prominent supporters, including Pope Francis.

Her defenders argue that the expulsion of Jews was both common and non-controversial at the time, before the development of the idea of religious freedom within the Catholic Church. Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and France in 1304. More recently, they had been expelled from Parma, Milan, and Warsaw in the late 1400s.

Isabella’s admirers also note that the queen demonstrated not only personal virtue, piety, and a push for evangelization in the Americas, but also a passionate defense of the indigenous people in the Americas, going as far as arresting Christopher Columbus for enslaving the native population.

Isabella’s cause for beatification, open since the 1950s, had been quietly advancing but was halted at the Vatican in 1991, just one year before the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas.

The main reason for the pause in the cause was her role in the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, a request led by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustigier of Paris, a Jewish convert, to John Paul II.

Since 2018, however, Spanish bishops have organized to defend the historical figure of Isabella and promote devotion to her, apparently prompted by Pope Francis himself, who supported the cause during his time as superior of the Society of Jesus and Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

To answer questions about the current status of the cause and the controversies surrounding it, The Pillar spoke with the Archbishop of Valladolid and president of the Spanish episcopal conference, Luis Argüello.

Valladolid is the diocese where the cause for beatification was opened decades ago.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is the current status of the cause for the beatification of Queen Isabella in the Vatican?

The diocesan process has been completed and, once the evaluation of the historical study is finished, the next step would be the advancement of the cause in Rome with a commission of theologians. This is the next step, but we are not aware that it has happened yet.

In the 1990s the cause was paused out of pastoral prudence by the Secretariat of State. But I can say that today the cause is not closed, we have never been told that it is closed or paused at this time. From the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints we have been encouraged to continue promoting devotion to the queen and gathering historical information. This is what we are doing.

We have received many testimonies from people all over the world, of favors granted in Ibero-America and the United States, from people who are in favor of the cause and recognize the holiness of Isabella and her fundamental role in the evangelization of the Americas. It is something that many Catholics in Latin America and the U.S. today are grateful for. Many bishops from Ibero-America and Spain have renewed the request for the cause to go forward, including, at the time, then-Cardinal Bergoglio.

Why, after the cause was halted by John Paul II, has Pope Francis shown renewed interest in it? What has he said about the cause?

In his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Bergoglio spoke out in favor of recognizing the merits of Queen Isabella and her role in the evangelization of America.

Our conversations about the cause have been mainly with the Dicastery [for the Causes of Saints], which has always encouraged us to continue the cause, so we assume it is something that comes from the pope and his appreciation for the impetus that Isabella gave to the evangelization of America.

Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid (Archdiocese of Valladolid)

Can you point to concrete examples of how Queen Isabella lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree? What is known about her spiritual life and her virtues?

There is a text on the official page of the cause called “Moral Profile of Queen Isabella” that includes a biographical sketch and gives a review of all the virtues of the queen.

As a ruler she showed prudence and justice in government, and a great concern for the respect of the human dignity of her subjects.

Now, the problems of the cause come not only from the accusations of anti-Semitism, but also now from the indigenist movements, which are mixed with ‘wokeism.’ Therefore, it is important to show how the queen pushed for the recognition of the dignity of the indigenous population, long before there was even an idea of human rights.

As a result of this vision of the queen, the law of nations arose in the 16th century. The “discoverers” arrived and were faced with this new reality and there was no theological, philosophical or legal backing that would make it easy to defend these populations. 

Columbus thought he had the right to trade indigenous slaves, but it was the queen herself who stopped him. Thus, she pushed for theology and law to affirm the dignity of the native people of the newly discovered America. When one reads how she spoke of her subjects in the Indies, one sees that she wanted them to be treated with gentleness and devotion, not to be enslaved.

One also values her temperance and austerity in dress, life and government, and her chastity, which was not a virtue much cultivated in the Renaissance nobility and courts, not even within the Church.

Something very important is that this inexhaustible charity of the queen has a social and political dimension, which is what the current Social Doctrine of the Church asks of the laity, that politics be a public and concrete expression of the virtue of charity.

In the 16th century, shortly after her death, teaching institutions and universities appeared throughout America, which developed as a result of this impulse and desire of the queen to live charity as a social and political virtue.

Isabella was an extremely pious woman, who in all her travels always sought places to pray. Whenever she stayed in a monastery or convent, she lived at the pace of the monks and nuns. She had a great zeal for the glory of God, which is the key to a lay apostolate, and she sought first and foremost the salvation of souls to a degree and extent that astounds historians.

While the reform of Luther divided, the reform of Isabella in Castile united the Church. She promoted the reform of the clergy, of religious congregations and of the people of God.

For us, the promotion of this cause has to do with the Christian lay vocation in its social and political dimension: we want Elizabeth to inspire those who are professionally engaged in public life to cultivate Christian virtues in the social sphere. 

Whether the cause advances in the Vatican or not, this is what motivates us. Now, we understand that this has a special difficulty in the case of a queen. For this reason, we are not only looking at the aspect of popular devotion, but also at promoting historical studies from the Commission. We leave the beatification in God's hands.

The cause was paused mainly because of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Isn't this reason enough to keep the cause suspended?

There are three major difficulties: This one you mention, relations with the Islamic world, and today the issue of indigenism, which views evangelization and respect for native cultures in a problematic way, both historically and ecclesially.

These historical contributions help to situate everything well. For example, it is necessary to understand her relationship with Islam from a perspective of the reconquest of Spain, from a time of conflict.

All this has been studied. What we have to do is to highlight the historical context and the concrete steps that the Queen took to avoid further conflict, especially in relation to the Jews. We cannot judge events of 500 years ago with today's eyes, that would not be fair.

Don't you think that the recent wave of anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States calls for caution with a cause that can easily be manipulated for political purposes?

Whenever there is talk of a cause for the beatification of a ruler, there are always difficulties of this kind. But I repeat, we cannot read situations of five centuries ago with today's eyes. Most of the difficulties come from here.

Certainly, these concerns are born from within the Church, from certain bishops and people in the Holy See concerned about this problem you mention.

Now, a cause for beatification promotes the virtues of someone and offers them as a model to follow, as a good for the Church and evangelization. If the cause is manipulated, it can become the opposite, a factor of disunity. The Church does not want that. The Archdiocese of Valladolid does not want that. 

We want to promote the virtues of the queen, and to make historical and theological studies that offer an enlightening perspective on the historical and political context of the queen.

Do you see the cause coming to fruition in the short term?

In the short term, I don't think so. In the medium term, maybe. If we did not have the hope that the cause would come to something, we would abandon this endeavor. I don't see the situation changing in the short term, but we will continue to make known the historical texts we have and have prepared.

Soon, we will publish a text based on the extensive historical studies that have been done to answer these kinds of questions and controversies about the cause to shed more light on the situation.