Blessed Beatrice of Ornacieux

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Beatrice of Ornacieux was born of noble lineage in the second half of the twelfth century, in Southeastern France. At thirteen, with the precocious maturity of medieval women, she joined the Carthusian nuns of Parménie, where she had for novice mistress Marguerite of Oingt, a nun well known even today for the writings she has left us. She also wrote the life of her holy novice.

Beatrice was very charitable and patient, providing help to all the necessities of her sisters, working in the kitchen and the infirmary.

The Evil one tormented her with dreadful impure fantasies and nocturnal phantasms: ferocious animals and frightful noises. At first her reaction was to ask God to take her out of the exile of this earthly life, but a miraculous voice told her not to desire anything which would not accomplish the will of God. “Receive the consolations that I give you and refuse not the sufferings that I send you”, the voice added. From then on she abandoned herself into God’s hands and she only wanted to do His will.

Beatrice was an ardent soul, aflame with love for her Bridegroom Jesus Christ. This love was the dynamic behind the life of penance she led to follow Christ as close as possible in his sufferings. He responded to her ardent love and sacrifices by granting her an intimate knowledge of Himself. Later, however, the apparent abandonment of the Lord made her suffer very much. Eventually Beatrice enjoyed full union with God and regained her perfect peace of soul, never to lose it again.

In 1300, Parménie made a new foundation at Eymeu, also in the Southeastern France. Beatrice was chosen to be its foundress and Prioress. There she died a holy death, November 25, 1303.

When the Order was not able to keep up Eymeu, her relics were brought to Parménie. The latter monastery had to be abandoned because of an uprising of the Albigensians. Soon after the nuns fled from the monastery, the heretics burned the House, and the precious relics of Blessed Beatrice got lost in the rubbish of the destruction. Yet her cult was never to die, especially in the Carthusian Order, where she was continually honored, as an abundant iconography shows us. In the seventeenth century a shepherdess of that region found the relics, and in 1697 Cardinal Le Camus declared that they were authentic. They were again inspected by the Bishop of Grenoble in 1839, with the opening of her tomb. In 1869 Blessed Pius IX permitted her feast to be celebrated in the Carthusian Order every November 25.

Prayer:

Father, Blessed Beatrice was a virgin consumed by love in imitating the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With the help of her prayers and example may we arrive at eternal glory by sharing on earth in the sufferings of Your Son.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.