Ignore fascist links and beatify Queen of Italy, say admirers

Admirers of Elena of Montenegro, the penultimate Queen of Italy, are calling on the Vatican to beatify her, despite her family’s association with fascism.
The wife of Victor Emmanuel III, she was queen from 1900 until 1946, when her husband abdicated, and died in exile in Montpellier, France, six years later. The king is seen as being complicit with fascism after failing to block Benito Mussolini’s rise to power and for also signing the notorious 1938 race laws, which stripped the oldest Jewish community in Europe of their civil rights.
Despite the controversy, Elena’s supporters say she never demonstrated any sympathy for Mussolini’s fascism, nor for his ally, Hitler, in Nazi Germany, and instead should be beatified for her many examples of good works inspired by her Catholic faith. These include her turning the ballroom of the Quirinal Palace in Rome into a hospital for soldiers wounded during the First World War.
She also participated in the humanitarian response to three devastating earthquakes in southern Italy at the start of the 20th century, promoted medical research, especially into cancer, and encouraged the humane treatment of patients by medical staff. A hospital in Rome still bears her name today.
Her journey towards sainthood was launched in 2001 by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, who was then the Archbishop of Bordeaux, and supporters have now formed a committee to further press for her beatification, despite Pope Francis’s preference for those on the periphery of society, rather than aristocrats, to be recognised.
“When no one was around she went to assist the wounded soldiers in the Quirinal Palace ballroom,” said Luciano Regolo, a biographer of Queen Elena, who is the head of the beatification committee. “She held the hands of those who were dying and helped to wash the bodies of the dead,” Regolo said.
“Pope Francis wants an outgoing church, and who could be more outgoing than Elena? The Pope has no prejudice against the aristocracy. Sanctity brings together the peasant woman and the princess. What is valued is their witness to the gospel,” he said.
Elena, born Princess Jelena Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro, married the heir to the Italian throne in 1896. The two made an odd couple. The 6ft tall Elena towered over the diminutive Victor Emmanuel, of the House of Savoy. The king measured just 5ft and she was said to refer to him affectionately, in French, as “mon petit roi” (my little king).
The committee hopes they will help her to swell the ranks of Savoy family members honoured for their holiness. There are currently six Savoys recognised as “blessed” by the Catholic Church, ranging from Umberto III, Count of Savoy, who died in 1189 and was beatified in 1838, to Maria Cristina of Savoy, Queen of the Two Sicilies, who died in 1836 and was beatified by Pope Francis a decade ago.
Beatification recognises that a person has been admitted to heaven and has the capacity to intercede for people who pray in their name. In the case of the Savoys it underscores the enduring links between secular and religious power in Italy.
Pasquale Palmieri, the author of a book on politics and religion in 18th-century Italy, said the campaign for Queen Elena’s beatification illustrated the enduring influence of the Savoy family. “There’s a strong desire to legitimise this ancient alliance between throne and altar,” he said.
He has cited the Savoy family’s use of the Turin Shroud since it came into their possession in the 15th century as an example of the intertwining of secular and religious power. Owned by the Holy See since 1983 and believed by some Catholics to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, it is now proven to be a fake, but is still periodically put on display to be venerated, Palmieri said.
Elena converted from Orthodox Christianity to Catholicism on her marriage but remained a lifelong advocate of interreligious dialogue.
Shortly before her death from cancer, Regolo said, she had visited the Catholic shrine at Lourdes, but urged her companions not to pray for her but rather for mothers who had lost their sons during the war. She herself had lost her second child, Mafalda, who died a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp 80 years ago.
On being admitted to hospital in France, Regolo said, she had instructed her assistant not to reveal her identity so that she would not be given privileged treatment. He is confident that Elena’s progress towards the official recognition of her sanctity will not be delayed as a result of prejudice over her rank or the troubled history of her time.
She was not someone who just sent money to assist the afflicted, but she rolled up her sleeves and went to help in person, he said.
Queen Elena demonstrated her sensitivity on one occasion when the royal family was hosting a visiting sovereign from Asia, Regolo recalled. The tables were decorated with flowers and water for rinsing one’s hands. Unfamiliar with the European etiquette, the visitor had picked up the decorative container and drunk the water. “She immediately did the same, to make him feel at ease, under the astonished gaze of her husband,” he said.