St. Ferdinand III of Castile 
(A.D. 1252)

The father of Ferdinand III was Alfonso IX, King of Leon, and his mother was Berengaria, who was the elder daughter of Alfonso III, King of Castile; her mother was a daughter of Henry II of England, and her sister Blanche became the mother of St. Louis of France.  The death of her brother, Henry, in 1217 left Berengaria heiress to the throne of Castile, but she resigned her rights in favor of her eighteen-year-old son Ferdinand. Two years later he married Beatrice, daughter of King Philip of Swabia, and they had seven sons and three daughters.  

Ferdinand was severe in the administration of justice, but readily forgave personal injuries.  His wisdom showed itself particularly in the choice he made of governors, magistrates and generals; the archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Ximenes, was chancellor of Castile and his principal adviser for many years.  In 1230, on the death of his father, Ferdinand also became king of Leon, but not without strife, for there were those who supported the claim of his two half-sisters

King Ferdinand was the real founder of the great University of Salamanca; but it is as the tireless and successful campaigner against the Moors that he impressed himself on the minds and hearts of Spaniards.  For twenty-seven years he was engaged in almost uninterrupted warfare with the oppressors.  He drove them out of Ubeda in 1234, Cordova (1236), Murcia, Jaen, Cadiz and finally Seville itself (1249). It was at the battle of Xeres, when only ten Spanish lives were lost, that St. James was said to have been seen leading the host on a white horse.  In thanksgiving for his victories, Ferdinand rebuilt the cathedral of Burgos and turned the great mosque of Seville into a church.  Unlike some warriors he was a forbearing ruler:  it is remembered of him that he said he feared the curse of one old woman more than a whole army of Moors; and he fought primarily not to extend his territories but to rescue Christian people from the dominion of infidels.

On the death of Queen Beatrice, Ferdinand married Joan of Ponthieu, who bore him two sons and a daughter: that daughter was Eleanor, who became the wife of Edward I of England.  He himself died on May 30, 1252 and was buried in the cathedral of Seville in the habit of the Friars Minor. Ferdinand was declared a saint by Pope Clement X in 1671.