Educated by Beguines, Beatrice became an oblate and at 15 years old entered the novitiate of the local Cistercian order, founding a new monastery in 1236 called Our Lady of Nazareth, where she was elected its first Prioress. Her writings on interior growth and direction, particularly The Seven Stages of Holy Loving are considered one of the earliest recorded works of mystical prose in the Church and one of the first works in the Dutch vernacular.  This biography is a condensation of an older Latin biography written by an anonymous Cistercian cleric.