The hermit princess, Elionor d’Urgell

Abstract

In this paper we present a brief biography of Elionor of Urgell, a descendant of the kings of Aragon and the emperors of Constantinople, with the aim of understanding her eremitic vocation during the last period of her life. Elionor was born around 1380, the daughter of Count Pere of Urgell and Margarida of Montferrat. She found herself involved in the political and military confl icts triggered by the demise of King Marti I of Aragon, since her brother Jaume was one of the pretenders to the throne. After the enthronement of Ferran I (1412) and the rebellion of Jaume of Urgell, Jaume, his mother and Elionor herself were judged and condemned. Elionor had all her properties confi scated and was exiled from the county. After a long pilgrimage across the country with her sister and her sister in-law, during which she lived in poverty and constantly struggled to recover some part of her patrimonial wealth, she decided to withdraw from the world and live as a hermit in the solitude of an abrupt mountain slope, in a sparsely- inhabited place. She followed in the footsteps of a penitent, the hermit monk Pere Marginet, and led a life of penance, fasting and prayer in the hermitage of Sant Joan de Montblanc, in a cave called Nialo, until her death during the plague outbreak Of 1430.