Catholic Fun Fact: Queen Nazli of Egypt converted from Sunni Islam to Roman Catholicism in 1950. Following her conversion, she adopted the Christian name Mary Elizabeth. Born Nazli Sabri, she was the Queen Consort of King Fuad I and later the Queen Mother to Egypt's last reigning monarch, King Farouk. Her relationship with her son fractured completely after she left Egypt for medical treatment in 1946 and eventually settled in California. In 1950, Queen Nazli supported the marriage of her youngest daughter, Princess Fathia, to Riyad Ghali, a Coptic Christian commoner. King Farouk was deeply enraged by this union.
In August 1950, he officially stripped both his mother and sister of their royal titles, rights, and allowances, forbidding them from ever returning to Egypt. Definitively cut off from her homeland, Queen Nazli chose to formalize her lifelong appreciation for French Catholic education by being baptized into the Roman Catholic Church later that same year.
Queen Nazli passed away penniless in Los Angeles on May 29, 1978, at the age of 83. Because of her faith, she received a Roman Catholic funeral service and was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, under her baptized name, Mary Elizabeth Fouad.
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