BEATRICE I D'ESTÉ, BEATA

BEATRICE I d'ESTE, Blessed. — Benedictine nun, born on an uncertain date (c. 1191?) to Azzo VI d'Este and a Savoyard woman, likely Sofia, daughter of Count Umberto III the Blessed, in the castle of Este; died 10 May 1226. She lived for several years at the court of her brother Azzo VII. Around 1220 she retired to the monastery of Salarola and, in 1221, founded a monastery under the Benedictine Rule on Mount Gemolo, one of the Euganean Hills, where she took the habit. There she spent her final five years, refusing any dignity and devoting herself to a life of penance, “ex animo divinae legis amatrix,” as the contemporary tomb inscription reads. In 1578 her remains were transferred to Padua, to the church of S. Sofia. Her cult was approved in 1763.