CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY

A religious order in the Romish Church, founded by Beatrix de Sylva, sister of James, first count of Portolegro, in the kingdom of Portugal. This lady, being carried to the court of Castile by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward, king of Portugal, whom the king of Castile had married, and the king falling in love with her on account of her beauty, the jealous queen locked her up in a chamber, where she left her without meat or drink for three days. In this condition she implored the a istance of the Virgin Mary, who, according to the legendary statement, appeared to her and comforted her, promising her a speedy release, which soon happened. But Beatrix, fearing the further resentment of the queen, privately withdrew from court, and fled to Toledo; where arriving, she retired to a monastery of Dominican nuns, in which she continued forty years in the practice of all sorts of austerities. Here she again imagined, or pretended, that the Virgin Mary reappeared to her, and inspired her with the desire of founding an order in honour of her own immaculate conception. To this end she obtained of the queen a grant of the palace of Galliana, where was a chapel dedicated to the honour of St. Faith. Beatrix, accompanied by twelve young maids of the Dominican monastery, took po e ion of it in the year 1484. These religious were habited in a white gown and scapulary, and a blue mantle, and wore on their scapulary the image of the Ble ed Virgin. Pope Innocent VIII. confirmed the order in 1489, and granted them permi ion to follow the rule of the Cistercians. The pious foundre died in the year 1490, at sixty-six years of age. After the death of Beatrix, Cardinal Ximenes put the nuns of the Conception under the direction of the Francis cans, as being the most zealous defenders of the immaculate conception; at the same time, he gave them the rule of St. Clara to follow. The second convent of the order was founded in the year 1507, at Torrigo, in the diocese of Toledo, which produced seven others, the first of which was at Madrid. This order pa ed into Italy, and got footing in Rome and Milan. In the reign of Louis XIV., king of France, the Clari es of the suburb of St. Germain, at Paris, embraced the order of the Conception . These religious, besides the grand office of the Francis cans, recite on Sun days and holy-days a le er office, called the office of the Conception of the Holy Virgin.— Brought on.