FRANCESCA d'AMBÒSSE, Blessed. — Carmelite, born in 1427 at Rieux, daughter of Luigi d'Amboise, viscount of Thouars (Normandy); in 1448 she married Pierre II, Duke of Brittany; after her husband's death (1457), she founded (1463) in Vannes (Brittany) the first monastery of Carmelite nuns, and in 1467 she 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, Brussels 1894, pp. 520-526; A. Daux, La merveilleuse odyssée de Françoise d'A. duchesse de Bretagne, Paris 1930. Ambrogio di Santa Teresa.