September 1st, St.Beatrice of Silva

St.Beatrice of Silva, the founder of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was born at Campo Maior, Portugal  in 1424.

 She died in Toledo, Castile, on 16 August 1492.  She was a noblewoman of Portugal.

Beatrice was one of the eleven children of Rui Gomes da Silva, the first governor of Campo Maior, Portugal, after its re-conquest from Arab rule, and of Isabel de Menezes, daughter of Dom Pedro de Menezes, 1st Count of Vila Real and 2nd Count of Viana do Alentejo, in whose army her father was serving at the time of her birth.

One of her brothers was the Blessed Amadeus of Portugal, a noted reformer of the Order of Friars Minor

Beatrice was raised in the castle of Infante John,  Lord of Reguengos de Monsaraz.  In 1447 Beatrice accompanied his daughter, Princess Isabel of Portugal, to Castile as her lady-in-waiting when Isabel left to marry King John II of Castile and became Queen of Castile and León.  Beatrice was her good and close friend.

Soon, however, her great beauty began to arouse the irrational jealousy of the Queen, who had her imprisoned in a tiny cell. During this incarceration, Beatrice experienced an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which she was instructed to found a new Order in Mary's honor.

Beatrice finally escaped her imprisonment with difficulty, and took refuge, in the Dominican Second Order monastery of nuns, in Toledo. Here she led a life of holiness for thirty-seven years, without becoming a member of that Order.  In 1484 Beatrice, with some companions, took possession of a palace in Toledo, set apart for them, by Queen Isabel for the new community under the name Monastery of Santa Fe, which was to be dedicated to honoring the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

In 1489, by permission of Pope Innocent VIII, the nuns adopted the Cistercian Rule, bound themselves to the daily recitation of the Office, of the Immaculate Conception, and were placed under obedience to the Arch Bishop. The foundress determined on the religious habit, which is white, with a white scapular and blue mantle, with a medallion of Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception.

Beatrice died in the monastery, she had founded on 16 August 1492.  Her remains are still venerated in the chapel of that monastery. She, is venerated as the patron saint of prisoners.

The Order founded by her,  soon spread through Portugal, Spain, and their colonies in South America, as early as 1540, as well as in Italy, and France. At its height, there were some 200 monasteries of the Order throughout the world.