Who Am I?

My name appears a few times in one of the books of the Old Testament.

I was the Queen of Persia . . . for a while . . .  until I disobeyed the king.

I was very beautiful but I would not stoop to lay down with a king who was drunk when he summoned me.

I was replaced as queen by a Jew more beautiful than I. She ruled well and her people were safe from their enemies in all the king’s domain from India to Egypt.

She won favor with her husband the king who refused her nothing.

The kings words to his new queen were prophetic and would one day be applied by the Church to the unique privilege of Mary the Queen’s Immaculate Conception. “Thou shalt not die: for this law is not made for thee, but for all others.”

I rejoice now, therefore, that I was deposed by the King of Persia and replaced by so virtuous a Jew as won his favor in my stead. God surely does bring good out of evil.