BL. BEATRIX DA SILVA - 17 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 17th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. BEATRIX DA SILVA 

[Blessed Beatrix da Silva Meneses] was a Portuguese nun; she died September 1, 1490. In Portuguese she is known as Blessed Brites. 

She was a member of the house of Portalegre and descended from the royal family of Portugal. She accompanied the Portuguese Princess Isabel to Spain, when she married John II of Castile. 

A VISION OF OUR LADY

There Beatrix seems to have aroused the jealousy of her royal mistress and was imprisoned for three days without food. 

After a vision of Our Blessed Lady, whom she saw attired in the blue mantle and white dress of the Conception Order which she was afterwards to found, Beatrix was allowed to retire to Toledo where she entered the Dominican Order. 

AN ORDER IN HONOUR OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

There she lived forty years, being specially honoured and frequently visited by Queen Isabel the Catholic. 

The latter aided her to found an order in honour of the Immaculate Conception, which adopted the Franciscan Rule. It was approved by Innocent VIII in 1480 and with some modifications by Julius II in 1511. 

SHE IS MUCH HONOURED IN SPAIN

Beatrix died ten days before the solemn inauguration of her new order. She is much honoured in Spain, and there is a life of her by Bivar. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)