Blessed Beatrice d'Este
{{About|the daughter of Azzo VI and Sophia Eleanor|her niece|Saint Beatrice d'Este}}
{{for|other women with this name|Beatrice d'Este (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox saint
|name= Blessed Beatrice d'Este
|birth_date= 1192
|death_date= 10 May 1226
|feast_day= 10 May
|venerated_in=Catholic Church
|image= Abbess Beatrice d'Este.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption= Beatrice d'Este in the Genealogia dei principi d'Este (1470s)
|birth_place= Castello Estense, Ferrara
|death_place=
|titles= Benedictine nun
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Blessed Beatrice d'Este ({{langx|oc|Biatritz}} or {{lang|oc|Beatritz d'Est}}) (1192 – 10 May 1226) was the daughter of Azzo VI of the Este family by his second wife, Sophia Eleanor, daughter of Humbert III, Count of Savoy. She was the aunt of Saint Beatrice d'Este.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02375a.htm Thurston, Herbert. "Beatrix." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 3 Aug. 2014]
Life
An account of her life was written, in both medieval Latin and the Italian vernacular, by a Brother Alberto of the church of the Holy Spirit (S. Spirito). This text was unknown for centuries, until it was rediscovered by the historian Giovanni Brunacci in the eighteenth century in an “old Ferrarese codex."{{Cite book|last=Brunacci|first=Giovanni|url=http://archive.org/details/wotb_6743673|title=Della B. Beatrice d'Este, Vita Antichissima. Ora la Prima Volta Pubblicata, con Dissertazioni dell' Abbate Brunacci|date=1767|publisher=Padua: Stamperia del Seminario|others=}}
Beatrice was born at the Castello Estense, the seat of her family's power. About her youth Alberto wrote:
| :Passoe li anni de la sua adolescentia in pompe et fauori del seculo: in delitte de la sua carne, in ornamenti et uanitate de diuerse facte come è usanza di nobile femina et seculare.
| :She passed the years of her adolescence in the pomp and appearances of the age: in delights of the flesh, in ornamentation and vanity of diverse fabrication, as is typical of noble, secular women. |
She became the object of the courtly love of Rambertino Buvalelli, a Bolognese troubadour who traveled widely in northern Italy. In nine of his cansos Rambertino celebrates the beauty and character of Beatrice, whom he frequently calls by the senhal (a "sign", as in a nickname) Mon Restaur ("My Refreshment" in Occitan). The relationship between Rambertino and the young Beatrice was purely poetic, lyric, and musical.
Beatrice became a Benedictine nun at Solarola near Padua at the age of fourteen, and in 1221 founded a religious house at the site of an abandoned monastery in Gemmola, formerly inhabited by hermits. In the 17th century it was turned into villa by a Venetian merchant. Today the Villa Beatrice d'Este houses a nature museum.[http://www.museicollieuganei.it/villa-beatrice/ Villa Beatrice d'Este Gemola] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730020156/http://www.museicollieuganei.it/villa-beatrice/ |date=July 30, 2014 }}[http://www.collieuganei.it/ville/villa-beatrice-este.html Villa Beatrice d'Este]
Sant'Antonio in Polesine
File:128FerraraSAntonioInPolesine.JPG
The name "in Polesine" does not refer to the area of Polesine, but to its original situation, high ground surrounded by water. The original monastery, founded in the early Middle Ages by Augustinians hermits, stood on an island in the middle of the Po River.[http://www.ferrarainfo.com/en/ferrara/discover-the-area/art-and-culture/abbeys-monasteries-sanctuaries/monastery-of-santantonio-in-polesine "Monastery of Sant'antonio in Polesine", Emilia Romagna Turismo]
Beatrice received the monastery from her father as a gift for her community. She moved into the convent, where she died in 1226.{{Cite web |url=http://www.suaweb.org/index.php?pg=1186# |title="Convent of St. Anthony in Polesine", Siti Unesco del' Adriatico |access-date=2014-08-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812201623/http://www.suaweb.org/index.php?pg=1186# |archive-date=2014-08-12 |url-status=dead }}
Her body was removed to Padua for burial in Santa Sofia. Subsequently, her remains were returned to the cloister chapel of the Monastery of Sant'Antonio in Polesine which she founded. Her cultus was approved for Roman Catholics on 19 November 1763 by Pope Clement XIII and her feast is May 10.
Notes
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Sources
{{refbegin}}
- Bertoni, Giulio. I Trovatori d'Italia: Biografie, testi, tradizioni, note. Rome: Società Multigrafica Editrice Somu, 1967 [1915].
- Field, W. H. W. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2846950 Review] of Le poesie by Rambertino Buvalelli, ed. Elio Melli. In Speculum, 56:2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 362–366.
{{refend}}
External links
- [http://www.magicoveneto.it/euganei/baone/villabeatricedeste-montegemola.htm Villa Beatrice d'Este Monte Gemola]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20131227085243/http://www.comune.baone.pd.it/villa-beatrice-deste-sul-monte-gemola Villa Beatrice d'Este sul Monte Gemola]
{{Subject bar |portal1= Saints |portal2= Biography |portal3= Catholicism |portal4= Italy}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deste, Blessed Beatrice}}
Category:13th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns