St Beatrice of Silva
Prayer to St. Beatrice da Silva
Oh God, who called your handmaid blessed Beatrice to seek you before all else, grant that, serving you, through her example and intercession, with a pure and humble heart, we may come at last to your eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Women)
Beatrice has significant connection to the Franciscan movement. The Order she founded was not incorporated into the Franciscans until after her death but is today a major branch of the Franciscan family.
Beatrice was born in Ceuta, Morocco. She was related to the Portuguese royal family and served for a time as a lady-in-waiting to the queen of Castile. Leaving that position, she went to a Dominican convent in Toledo, where she lived (though she never took the vows of that Order) for 37 years. Continue reading after advertisement
Seven years before her death, Beatrice established a contemplative community that observed the Cistercian Rule. Three years after her death, Pope Alexander VI placed her community under the Observant Friars Minor and gave it the Rule of Saint Clare. These nuns are now known as the Conceptionist Poor Clares, and by 1968 formed almost 20 percent of the Second Order. Beatrice was canonized in 1976.
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