Beatrice of Silva
| Saint Beatrice of Silva, O.I.C. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Nun, mystic and foundress | |
| Born | ca. 1424 Campo Maior, Alentejo Region, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | 9 August 1492 Toledo, Crown of Castile |
| Venerated in |
Catholic Church (Conceptionist & Franciscan Orders, Spain & Portugal) |
| Beatified | 28 July 1926, Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Pius XI |
| Canonized | 3 October 1976, Vatican City, by Pope Paul VI |
| Major shrine | Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, Toledo, Spain |
| Feast | 17 August (1 September by the Franciscan Order) |
| Patronage | Prisoners |
Beatrice of Silva, O.I.C., also known (in Spanish) as Beatriz da Silva y de Menezes and (in Portuguese) as Beatriz de Menezes da Silva, (Campo Maior, Portugal ca. 1424 – Toledo, Castile, 9 August 1492) was a noblewoman of Portugal, who became the foundress of the monastic Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady in Spain. She is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Beatrice was one of the eleven children of Rui Gomes da Silva, the first governor of Campo Maior, Portugal, after its reconquest from Arab rule, and of Isabel de Menezes, the Countess of Portalegre, an illegitimate 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, O.F.M., a noted reformer of the Order of Friars Minor. She was long thought to have been born in the Portuguese colony of Ceuta in North Africa, where her father was serving as a military adjutant at that time. Modern research has determined that she was, in fact, born in the family home at Campo Maior.
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, (and later was to receive her support when she founded the Conceptionists). 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.
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