BEATRICE I d'ESTE, blessed. – Benedictine nun, born on an uncertain date (ca. 1191?) to Azzo VI d'Este and a Savoyard woman, probably Sofia, daughter of Count Umberto III the Blessed, at the castle of Este; died on 10 May 1226. She lived at the court of her brother Azzo VII for several years. Around 1220 she withdrew to the monastery of Salarola and, in 1221, founded a monastery under the Benedictine Rule on Gemolo, one of the Euganean Hills, and donned its habit. Here she lived out the last five years of her life,
rejecting every dignity and devoting herself to a life of penance, «ex animo divinae legis amatrix», according to the contemporary tomb inscription. In 1578 her remains were transferred to Padua, to the church of S. Sofia. Her cult was approved in 1763.