Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies

✶March 14, 1822

†December 28, 1889

1 candle burning, 3 lit in all

About their life

Dona Teresa Cristina, popularly known as "the Mother of the Brazilians", was Empress of Brazil as the wife of Emperor Dom Pedro II, a position she held from her marriage in 1843 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1889. Born a princess of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in present-day southern Italy, she was the daughter of King Francis I of the Italian branch of the House of Bourbon and his wife, Maria Isabella of Spain. Long portrayed by historians as timid and politically passive, modern scholarship has reassessed Teresa Cristina as a more complex figure, recognizing her intellectual curiosity, cultural patronage, and a quiet but consistent assertion of personal independence within the constraints of 19th-century court life.

Princess of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Empress of the Empire of Brazil (1822-1889)

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Biography from the article Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies on the English Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.