The Queen leaves on the Queen’s feast

Queen Elizabeth II - during her coronation and at Parliament

The Queen of Heaven was honored yesterday on the feast of the birth of the Blessed Mother – and on the same day the most popular Queen on earth leaves us at the age of 96. So much has been written already and more will be printed and cyberspaced over the next few weeks, but I highlight her deep spiritual faith in this post. Elizabeth had a profound personal Christian faith — a faith she publicly articulated more frequently as she got older. Just a few months ago, for her services rendered as supreme governor of the Church of England, she was awarded the Canterbury Cross, to mark her Platinum Jubilee. But Elizabeth II, more than any other monarch, has embodied the title ‘Defender of the Faith.’ Each year of her reign, she has made a broadcast at Christmas, shown on television and broadcast on radio — a tradition started by her grandfather George V when the wireless first became popular, and continued by her father, George VI. Since the turn of the century, she made her message increasingly personal and explicit about her own faith.  In 2000 came a marked change when she spoke of the millennium being the moment that marked the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, "who was destined to change the course of our history.” She went on to speak very personally and frankly about her own faith: "For me, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example." In 1947, to mark her 21st birthday, then Princess Elizabeth, made a public commitment, saying: "I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service. ... God help me to make good my vow."

Queen Elizabeth with her immediate family a few weeks ago.

Throughout her reign, Elizabeth led the nation at regular services, to honor the war dead, or for thanksgiving for her jubilees. Each year at the traditional Maundy Thursday service, she distributed gifts to elderly people at an ancient royal ceremony established to imitate Christ serving his disciples by washing their feet and turn the spotlight on the monarch's role of service. Elizabeth II was instrumental in improving relations between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, making many visits to the Vatican to visit different Popes and hosting both John Paul II in 1982 and Benedict XVI in 2010 on visits to Britain, while herself visiting Pope Francis in 2014 at the Vatican. No other British monarch, even before the Reformation, had ever done so and the papal visits to Britain and her personal welcome were a remarkable turnaround for a monarchy that once broke so spectacularly from Rome.  Just how much her Christian faith meant to Elizabeth II was revealed in a small book published to mark her 90th birthday in 2016. In a highly unusual move, she wrote the forward to the Bible Society publication, ‘The Servant Queen and the King she serves,’ about her faith. May Elizabeth II rest in peace, hoping that she can now meet the Queen of Heaven, on whose feastday she departed this earth.

With Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014.