St Beatriz da Silva (1424-1492)

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Excerpts from article from Tradition in Action

Her Early Life

Beatriz da Silva was born in 1424 in Ceuta in north Africa, then a Portuguese territory. She was the daughter of Ruiz Gómez da Silva and Dona Isabel de Meneses, who was related to the royal houses of Spain and Portugal.

Her parents entrusted the education of their 11 children to the Franciscans, who instilled in them a love for the Immaculate Conception. Two of her brothers, João and Amadeo, took the habit of St. Francis. Amadeo, who founded a new branch of the Minor Friars and headed a reform movement called the Amadeists, would, like his sister, be named a Saint.In 1437 the King of Portugal appointed her father alcaide (mayor) of Campo Maior near the Spanish border, and the family moved to a castle near that ancient rustic village. Even as a young girl, Beatriz was renowned for her angelic beauty. When her father contracted an Italian artist to paint a picture of the Virgin for the chapel in his castle, the artist told him the best model for the Virgin would be his daughter. In obedience to her father, Beatriz consented to pose for the painter. But in her modesty she would not raise her eyes in front of the painter. This resulted in a painting known until today as “The Virgin of the Closed Eyes,” which hangs in a church in Campo Maior.

The Court of Castile

In 1447, Juan II of Castile married the Infanta Isabel, daughter of King Afonso V of Protugal and cousin of Beatriz. The new Queen of Castile chose Beatriz as her first lady- in-waiting. And so, Beatriz left Lisbon, where she was already a member of the Infanta’s court, to accompany the new Queen to the Castilian court in Tordesillas.

According to biographers of the time, Beatrice was known for her beauty, purity and love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary. While in court Beatrice won the admiration and love of those around her, including her cousin the queen. However, one day, her rejection of a particular suitor’s advances would come to taint her image in the court. 

Out of spite, the rejected courtier planted the idea in Queen Isabel’s head that Beatriz was vying for the King’s love. The Queen became insanely jealous of her cousin, to the point she could no longer bear her presence. One day, the Queen asked Beatriz to accompany her to a cellar in the castle. Arriving there, she ordered Beatriz to open a large chest. Moved by turbulent passion, the Queen pushed her in the chest, closed the lid and locked it with a key. Three days passed and Don João de Meneses, the uncle of Beatriz, who was in the service of the Castilian King, became increasingly concerned about the disappearance of his niece. Knowing the great envy the Queen harbored against Beatriz, he feared the worst.

Finally, in response to his persistent questioning, the Queen told him, “Come and see her.” She led him to the chest where Beatriz was interred and told him to open it, thinking to find a body already disfigured by death. Instead, they found Beatriz alive, more beautiful than ever, her face shining with light.

Destitute of all human help, Beatriz had entrusted herself to the Virgin Mary, who appeared to her dressed in a white habit and scapular and a sky blue mantle with the Child Jesus in her arms. After announcing to her that she would be freed, Our Lady told her that she would found an Order dedicated to the honor of the mystery of her Immaculate Conception, and that the nuns should wear the same blue and white habit that Beatriz saw her wearing in the apparition. Beatriz offered herself to Our Lady as her hand maiden, made a vow of virginity, and promised to fulfill the mission she had been given. It was at this moment – when all seemed lost and her life over – that the first seeds of the Order of the Immaculate Conception were sown. 

After the Royal Court 

After leaving the royal court, for 30 years she lived a cloistered life in the Convent of San Domingo el Real. Although she followed the life and rule of the Cistercian nuns, she did not take their habit. Thus began a new stage in her life as a senora de piso, a laywoman who lived inside the convent without making a formal profession.  During this time, Dona Beatriz became renowned for her hidden life of prayer, sacrifice and charity. Her special devotions, which would characterize her future Order, were to the Holy Eucharist, the Passion of Our Lord and the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. 

Help from Isabel the Catholic and Papal Approval for the Order

After the death of Queen Isabel in 1496, her daughter, Isabel the Catholic was crowned. She and her husband King Ferdinand had a strong devotion to the Immaculate Conception and took an interest in Beatriz.

 In 1483, Queen Isabel offered Beatriz a castle and its adjoining chapel and property outside Toledo for the first Convent of the Order of the Immaculate Conception. For a second time Our Lady appeared to Beatriz wearing the white habit and blue mantle, this time to tell her the hour had arrived for her to undertake her mission. Shortly afterward, in 1484, Beatriz, accompanied by 12 companions – mostly Portuguese – whom she had been forming, installed themselves in the Castle of Galiana outside Toledo, the gift of the Queen to the fledgling Order. The castle’s chapel was called Santa Fe, and the first Convent of the Immaculate Conception took its name, the Convent of Santa Fe.

For the next five years Beatriz and her companions lived a strict cloistered life in their new Convent following the Cistercian rule and reciting the Ooffice of the Blessed Virgin. During this time, she herself draftered the norms for the new order.

Papal approval of her Order was received on April 30, 1489. On that date Pope Innocent VIII, at the request of Beatriz and Queen Isabel, signed the Bull Inter Universa, approving the new Order, the rule and the habit.

Our Lady provided a prodigious means for Beatriz to receive this good news. On the very day the Pope signed the Bull, a mysterious person appeared at the Convent in Toledo, communicating to Beatriz that the Pope had approved the Order. She believed that the messenger was St. Raphael, to whom Beatriz had a great devotion and prayed to daily since she was a girl.

But there was misfortune in store. That papal Bull, for which she was waiting, did not arrive. Three months after it was signed, news came to Toldeo that the ship carrying it had been lost at sea. This caused Beatriz great sorrow and anxiety of heart, and for three days she fasted and prayed. On the fourth day she went to open a chest to retrieve some necessary item, and found the original Bull on the top.

On August 2, 1490, the whole city of Toledo rejoiced with the nuns and organized a grand procession carrying the “miraculous Bull” from the Cathedral to the first Conceptionist Convent of Santa Fe. At the pontifical Mass, Bishop Garcia de Quijada of Guadix, a Franciscan, announced that in 15 days Beatriz and her companions would take their habits and veils.

Her Profession and Death

Five days later, however, when Beatriz was in devout prayer in the choir, the Virgin appeared to her for a third and last time. Our Lady told her, “My daughter, in 10 days you will be with me. It is not the will of My Son and mine that you enjoy here on earth what you have so long desired."

On August 17, 1490, the very day that had been assigned for her nuns to take the habit, Beatriz da Silva tranquilly died at age 66. Before she died she made her religious profession to her Franciscan confessor, Bishop Garcia, and received the Conceptionist habit and veil. Thus, she died a true Conceptionist, clothed in the white habit and scapular with the blue mantle, wearing the cloth medallion of the Virgin and the Franciscan hemp cord.

At the moment of her death marvelous things were seen. When the veil – which had covered her face since she left the royal court – was lifted to anoint her with oil, her face shone with such brilliance that all present were astonished. Then, in the middle of her forehead, there appeared a star that gave out a great light and splendor, which remained there until she took her last breath, as testified by six friars of the Order of St. Francis. It is for this reason that pictures of the Mother Beatriz da Silva represent her with a star on her forehead.

Today the mortal remains of this spouse of Christ repose in the church of the motherhouse in Toledo. There they bear witness that the star of Beatriz will always illuminate the firmament of the Conceptionist Order as the secure guide in the darkness and testimony of her unflagging confidence in the Immaculate Virgin.

St Beatriz da Silva, pray for us and intercede for us. Amen.

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