FRANCESCA D'AMBOISE, beata. – Carmelite, born in 1427 at Rieux, to Luigi d'Amboise, viscount of Thouars (Normandy); in 1448 she married Pietro II, duke of Brittany; after her husband’s death (1457), she founded (1463) at Vannes (Brittany) the first monastery of Carmelite nuns, and in 1467 took the religious habit there; by order of Sixtus IV she was sent to the monastery of N. S. de Couëts (near Nantes), where, after a life rich in virtue, she died on 4 November 1485. Her cult was approved by Pius IX on 16 July 1863.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Novembris, II, Bruxelles 1864, pp. 520-526; A. Dalit, La merveilleuse adresse de Françoise d'A. d'Andreize de Bretagne, Parigi 1930. – Ambrogio di Santa Teresa