Saint Beatrice de Silva

Beatrice de Silva was born in 1424, the daughter of the nobles Ruy Gomes de Silva and Isabel de Menezes. Her brother Amadeus was a Franciscan friar and reformer. In 1447 she was called to court as lady-in-waiting to Isabel, niece of the king of Portugal; when the princess married the future king of Castile, John II, Beatrice followed her to Spain. She was a very beautiful woman, and at the court of Castile this cost her dearly: the queen, out of jealousy, had her locked in a small closet for days. That experience, according to the story, is what made her decide to leave court life for good. Around 1454 she withdrew to the Dominican convent in Toledo, without, however, taking vows: she lived there as a guest for thirty years. Then another queen, Isabella of Castile, gave her a building so she could found a new monastery there, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Pope Innocent VIII established it with the bull Inter universa of April 30, 1489. Beatrice died shortly afterward, on August 9, 1492, before she could even wear the habit of her congregation. The monastery later adopted the rule of the Poor Clares, and from there came the Order of the Conceptionists, which spread throughout Spain and the Americas. Paul VI proclaimed her a saint in 1976. If your name is Beatrice, today is your name day.