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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, 16 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. ==Life== 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.〔(Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum ) - Decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (Vatican, 12 October 2010) which states that modern research has proven her birthplace to have been Campo Maior, in Portugal.〕 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.〔(Foley O.F.M., Leonard. "St. Beatrice of Silva", ''Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons and Feast'', (revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.), Franciscan Media )〕 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. 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 ordinary of the archdiocese. 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Santa Beatriz de Silva: Aprobación de la Orden )〕 Her remains are still venerated in the chapel of that monastery. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beatrice of Silva」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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