Have you cultivated the virtue of patience?

No man or woman is born virtuous. Good habits are not infused. Virtue must be sought out and can be acquired only by continual practice. You learn to ride a bicycle by riding a bicycle. You learn to play baseball by playing baseball. 

You learn to be patient by practicing patience.

Saint Beatrice da Silva spent a lifetime practicing patience and it led to something extraordinary.

Born into a noble Portuguese family in 1424, Beatrice became a lady-in-waiting to Princess Isabel of Portugal. When this princess became a Spanish queen, she became jealous of Beatrice’s beauty, and had her locked up in a small, dark cell. A conservative estimate is that she was confined for three days, but it may have been many more. 

During her imprisonment, Beatrice experienced a mystical vision of the Virgin Mary telling her to found a new religious order. Then, she escaped, though it is not known how, and made her way to the Dominican convent of Toledo.

The sisters agreed to help hide her there, even though she never joined their order. There, she spent over 30 years, a period marked by the continual practice of patience as she awaited the fulfillment of her vision to found a new religious order. But she was not stagnant or idle in her waiting. She humbly served the sisters of the convent and dove into prayer.

Eventually, her prayers and patience paid off. In 1484, with the support of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Beatrice founded the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, also known as the Conceptionists. As the first superior of the order, Beatrice guided her sisters with the patience she had so heroically cultivated.

Everything in Beatrice’s life seemed to take a long time, and that was fine with her. Even after she died in 1492, she wasn’t canonized until 1976. Today we know her as Saint Beatrice Da Silva.

The virtue of patience deepens your ability to meet life's challenges. It is a form of suffering. Though often mild, it does refine character and soul. You can discipline yourself to be patient. This is what the wise and happy do.

You cultivate patience by practicing patience. And that goes for all virtues. You become virtuous by practicing virtue.

How will you practice patience today?

Feast Day: September 1

Feast Day Shared By: Saint Egidio

Patron Saint of: Prisoners

Canonized: October 3, 1976

Canonized By: Pope Paul VI