Saint Eleanor

Let’s say it right away, because it’s the truth: there is no Saint Eleanor canonized by the Church. The figure the name-day tradition leans on is Eleanor of Provence, whose cult was never made official but who is considered a saint in some places all the same. It happens more often than you’d think, and telling it as it is is worth more than inventing a biography. Eleanor was born in Aix-en-Provence around 1223, the second daughter of Raymond Berengar IV, Count of Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy. In 1236 she married Henry III and became queen consort of England and duchess of Aquitaine: she would remain so until 1272. She died at Amesbury in 1291. She was famous for her beauty, and so were her three sisters — a remarkable family story, that of the counts of Provence, who in a single generation placed their daughters on the most important thrones in Europe. The English chronicler Matthew Paris wrote about her, describing her wedding to the king of England. But the real reason this page exists today is something else: **today is the name day of every Eleanor**, and in Italy it’s a name that has become much loved again. If you know an Eleanor, today is her day — and now you also know that behind the name there’s a queen from Provence who ended up in England. Some names carry a story that nobody tells anymore. It’s worth opening it up again, even if only for one day a year.