While her birth name is lost, it is recorded that she was a
ladina (a Spanish-speaking native of the Philippines who had no Spanish ancestry) who belonged to an affluent and influential family from
Pampanga on the island of
Luzon, then part of the
Spanish East Indies. Inspired by the lives of the Colettine Clares who had arrived from Spain in 1621 under the leadership of Mother
Jerónima de la Asunción, P.C.C., and established the Royal Monastery of Santa Clara in
Intramuros, she wished to become a nun herself. In this, she was able to secure the support of the monastic community. Due, however, to the colonial regulations of the
Spanish Empire which ruled the islands and the existing racial prejudices of the period, she was barred from admission. Instead, in 1633, with the assistance of the
Minister General of the
Franciscans, she was sent to a newly opened
monastery in the Portuguese colony of
Macau. Together with several Spanish
postulants, she was formally received into the Colettine Order on board a ship sailing the
South China Sea, at which time she was given the
religious name by which she is now known. The precise details of Mother De San Bernardo's death are unrecorded. The Colettines officially give the years 1639–40, saying that she died in Macau while on mission. ==Veneration==