Seeing double in Odivelas : nuns and monks at the Monastery of St Dinis, a royal pantheon in late medieval Portugal

The Monastery of St Dinis was founded at Odivelas (Lisbon) in 1295 by King Dinis of Portugal with his consort, Queen Isabel of Aragon, and entrusted to the female branch of the Cistercian Order. In 1318, when the founder-benefactor couple decided they would be buried in the monastery's church, the abbey became the royal family's pantheon. In the same year, King Dinis instituted a chaplaincy comprising five monks who were to celebrate five daily masses for his soul, even whilst the king still lived, as well as for the souls of his relatives. The small male community was housed in a hospice built opposite the nunnery. Although the two communities were independent institutions, their proximity and the fact that both were patronized by the monarch combined to make them de facto a double-convent. In addition to the evidence and memory of this unusual arrangement inferred from archival sources, the iconographic program displayed on King Dinis's imposing sarcophagus presents a further, intriguing testimony.