God had heard her prayer." Beatrice showed great sweetness, patience, and perfect obedience daring her illness. "It is very common," says St. Theresa, "for souls given to prayer to wish for sufferings when they have none, but it is not common for those who have them to bear them and be glad." About a quarter of an hour before Beatrice died her face shone and was so full of joy that all present thought they were in heaven. A very sweet scent arose from her body as it was laid in the tomb. The candles that were used during the funeral rites and burial suffered not the least diminution of wax. Theresa, Foundations, xii.
B. Beatrice (16) of Cantona. 16th century. Abbess of the nuns of the Order of Christian Doctrine, founded 1568, by St. Charles Borromeo. Guénebault, Dict. d'Icon.
St. Beatte, Benedicta (4) of Sens.
St. Bebea, Barbea.
St. Bee of Egremont, Bega (1).
SS. Beenan and Sara, Dec. 10, MM. in Persia. Their history is promised in the coming volumes of the AA.SS.
St. Bega (1), Oct. 31, Sept. 6 (Bee, Bees, Beez, Bez, Begagh, Begga, Begha, Beya, Brega, Vaya, Vee, Vega, Veya), V. 7th century. Patron of the northwest of England, where she first landed; and of Norway. Probable patron of places called Kilbucho, Kilbees, Kilbegie, Kilbagie, etc., and founder of a nunnery near Carlisle, where the priory of Copeland was afterwards built.
The legend is that St. Bega, commonly called St. Bee of Egremont, was the daughter of an Irish king, and was the most beautiful woman in her country. She was to be married to the King of Norway, but she had from her infancy vowed herself to a religious, ascetic life, and in token of her betrothal to Christ had received from an angel a bracelet marked with the sign of the cross. The night before her wedding-day, while the guards and attendants were revelling or sleeping, she fled, taking the bracelet with her. Finding no ship, she cut a turf, and on it crossed the sea to the opposite coast. She landed on a promontory in Cumberland, then part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Here she lived in prayer and charity for a long time, and finally moved further inland for fear of pirates. In the Middle Ages she was especially appealed to against oppressors of the poor and against Scottish rievers. In the 12th century her bracelet was kept as a holy relic, on which persons were called upon to swear, as it was believed that a false oath made on that relic would be immediately exposed and incur a dreadful vengeance. It is not impossible that, having moved inland for fear of marauders, she went further and further, and finally settled on the eastern coast of Northumbria, where Christianity was established and protected. On this supposition she is identified by some authorities, among them the Aberdeen Breviary, with St. Begu and St. Heiu. She may be Begu, but I cannot see that she can be Heiu also.
AA.SS. Boll. Brit. Sancta. Forbes, Scot. Cal. Montalembert, Monks. Lanigan, Eccles. Hist. Butler, Lives. Châtelain, Voc. Hag.
St. Bega (2), Begu.
St. Bega (3), Vey.
St. Begea, or Begeus, Dec. 23. Abbess in Egypt. Giry, Dict. Hag.
St. Begga (1), Dec. 17. 7th century. Patron of Anden.
Represented (1) with a bear or boar, to show that she built her church in a place previously the resort of wild beasts, or in memory of a tradition that her grandson, Charles Martel, killed a bear at Anden; (2) with a hen and seven chickens, or a flock of ducks in a little pool. (The site of her churches is said to have been indicated to her by seven little animals grouped round their mother.) She holds in her hand a complicated building to represent the seven churches that she built.
Begga was daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace under Clothaire II. (612) and Dagobert I. (628), Kings of France, and Sigebert II. (638), King of Austrasia. Her mother was B. Ida. Her sister was the famous St. Gertrude of Nivelle. Begga married Ansigisilus, or Anchisus, son of SS. Arnulf and Doda.
