Beatrix da Silva

Infobox Saint
name=Blessed Beatrix da Silva
Blessed Brites
birth_date=unknown
death_date=death date|1490|9|1|df=y
feast_day=
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


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birth_place=Portugal
death_place=Toledo, Spain
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Blessed Beatrix da Silva (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.

Beatrix accompanied the Portuguese Princess Isabel to Spain, when she married John II of Castile. There Beatrix seems to have aroused the jealousy of her royal mistress and was imprisoned for three days without food. After a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 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.

There she lived forty years, being specially honoured and frequently visited by Isabella of Castile. 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. 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. (See also the "Anal. jur. pont.", III, 549.)