Roman Catholic Saint. A Portuguese general of great success, who played a decisive role in the 1383-1385 crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile and who would later become a mystic, Nuno Álvares Pereira was a native of Quinta do Bonjardim, near Sertã, Portugal, one of thirty three children born to Dom Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, Prior of Crato. Marrying Leonor de Alvim at seventeen years of age, Nuno started his military career quite early in life, having joined the army when he was only thirteen. A brave young man who soon proved to be an excellent leader, following his first victory over the Castilians in the Battle of Atoleiros in April 1384, João of Aviz named him Protector and 2nd Constable of Portugal, in practice, supreme commander of Portugal's armies and 3rd Count de Ourém, being at the time just twenty three years old. The mastermind of the Portuguese victory in the Battle of Aljubarrota, following the 1383-1385 crisis, Álvares Pereira received from King John I the titles of 2nd Count de Arraiolos and 7th Count de Barcelos, and was named furthermore, the 38th Major Majordomo of the Realm. Having had in the meantime fathered one daughter, who was to become the wife of Afonso, Count of Barcelos, the natural son of the mentioned John I of Portugal and first Duke of Bragança, following the death of his wife, he sought religious life through the Carmelite Order which he entered in 1423 at the Carmo convent in Lisbon, which edifice had been personally founded from his end in fulfillment of a vow. There he lived until his death in 1431. Noted for his long hours of prayer, his practice of penance and his filial devotion to the Mother of God, his remains were moved several times, with the precious reliquary conserving most of his remains being ultimately stolen in 1961 while on pilgrimage. Never recovered, fragments of his relics preserved elsewhere as well as the discovery of his original burial site in 1966 are what survive of his remains at present, being these fragments moved to Igreja do Santo Condestável. A cenotaph commemorates him at the Panteão Nacional at the Igreja de Santa Engrácia in Lisbon. Beatified on January 23, 1918 by Pope Benedict XV, he had been on the point of being canonized in 1940 by Pope Pius XII, but according to a statement by the postulator general of the Carmelite Order, his canonization was postponed for diplomatic reasons after the Portuguese government itself raised some difficulties. The canonization eventually took place on April 26, 2009 during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. His liturgical memory is celebrated on November 6.