Blessed Beatrice d'Este

Who was Blessed Beatrice d'Este?

Blessed Beatrice d'Este 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.

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. She was born at the Castello Estense, the seat of her family's power. About her youth Alberto wrote:

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 Mon Restaur. The large age difference between Rambertino and the young Beatrice probably amused the Estense court, although there was probably never an actual relationship between the two, their intercourse being purely poetic, lyric, and musical.

Beatrice became a Benedictine nun at Solarola near Padua at the age of fourteen, and later founded a religious house at the site of an abandoned monastery in Gemmola in 1221. She died there in 1226 and was removed to Padua for burial in Santa Sofia. From there she was transferred in 1256 to the Este mausoleum of Santa Tecla. Her cultus was approved for Roman Catholics on 19 November 1763 by Pope Clement XIII and her feast is May 10.