Saint Beltaine

Saint Beltaine, with her full name being known as Beltaine Godicca Læfleur, was an ordinary Imperial citizen from a non-important world of Igravis, now a Saint and a patron of the Order of the Silver Hand.

Early life
Only a little is known from her early life. She was born to a humble family of a craftsman on a fringe world of Igarvis, located near the Segmentum Tempestus and Segmentum Ultima border. She was a rather nondescript and shy girl, that was often bullied by her peers for her very timid personality. She was very pious, and the behavior of her fellow children only strengthen her belief in the Emperor, as she believed he will protect her if she keeps venerating him with all her heart. Despite her weak and fragile body, her heart burned with passion for everything she had and loved.

Adult life
Life wasn't exactly keen on her in her adult years either. Her parents were violently murdered just a few days she turned nineteen by a group of gangers. The truth was her parents owed money to a local usurer to keep their small tailoring shop and haberdashery running, the usurer blackmailed them and demanded more and more money. Beltaine was kept in misinformation until that very day. The usurer told her he will return if she didn't pay the still growing amount of money. This only made her belief stronger as the asked the Emperor for protection regularly, several times a day.

Months and years passed and there was no sight of the usurer or his mooks. She later found a lover, Auriel Isidore Durand, with whom she happily lived, and who later fathered all three her children, a four-year-old boy called Emile Ærmand, and two she still carried under her heart.

Miracle, death, and sainthood
Eight years later, the usurer returned, surrounded by a gang of his gangers. They again demanded their money, an amount they never had a chance of paying, even if they wanted to. As they refused to pay, the usurer ordered the gangers to kill them, just as they killed her parents. The boy was killed first, the father a second later with a stub-round to the head. She closed her eyes, hoping for a swift death while praying to the Emperor. The ganger aimed his pistol at her and pulled the trigger several times. The rounds struck her body but didn't kill her. When she opened her eyes again, she was engulfed with a golden aura and held a burning sword in her hand, and there were awe and horror in the ganger's eyes.

What followed after remains shrouded in mystery as witness testimonies vary greatly, but nearly all speak of a bloodied, visibly gravid woman with golden translucent angelic wings, holy aura, and brightly lit sword chasing striking down a group of armed men. After finishing her revenge on the gangers, she collapsed on the ground, and despite the best effort of the bystanders, she died to her wounds minutes later. Her remains were buried in the cathedral of her home town.

Local ecclesiarchs called it a miracle, and she has been later declared a saint, as patron of mothers, family, and justice. A once nondescript girl entered history as Saint Beltaine, The Mother Protector.

Guardian Angel
Her death and elevation to sainthood was not the end of her, however. Her first revelation occurred nearly seventy years later when a similar fate was about to happen as it once happened to her. A jealous man along with a group of his friends was about to violate and murder a woman and her family. Saint Beltaine manifested as a translucent figure, looking exactly the same as she passed. Bloodied, winged, gravid and with a golden aura and brightly burning sword in hand. She struck the killing blow a second before the enraged man's attack was about to land on the defenseless woman. After the other men fled in horror, Beltaine gave the unknown lady a blood-stained white flower, before she disappeared into a mist again. It is said the flower never stopped blossoming.

Manifestations
She often manifested on her homeworld, or close planets to protect those with pure spirit from harm by the wicked, tainted or corrupted.

Her manifestations were irregular, seemingly at random, often decades apart and her interventions varied greatly. Often she slew those who were about to cause harm to an innocent, often she manifested to stop somebody from doing that would cause harm to themselves or gave advice, help or guidance to those who were struggling or lost, either physically or mentally. Rumors and supposes witnesses are she often helped wild animals as well.

Her manifestations had two things in common. If she had manifested to somebody, that person, or an animal, was on a brink of death, or their death was inevitable, and wherever she manifested, there the blood-stained white flower was found lying or growing in the soil.

Miracle at the Vakarian starport
With the creation of the Cicatrix maledictum, and subsequent increase in the activity of the Archenemy, the world of Igravis was invaded and later fell into the enemy's hand. Beltaine's remains were, along with many other holy requisites shipped off-world to prevent their destruction or desecration. The ship carrying her remains was the Angel of Astraea (now part of the Battlefleet Europa), which was headed to Vakaria, where her remains were put in a crypt to be kept safe. On this world, she manifested only once, and that was during the final push against the Archenemy's forces when the remnants of the Order of the Silver Hand, the Imperial Guard and the PDF were trying to escape the doomed planet. St. Beltaine stood in front of the advancing forces, slaying hundreds of corrupted souls with her burning sword and filled the hearts those still loyal to the Emperor with courage and will to endure.

Once the perimeter was secured end evacuation in progress, Saint Beltaine approached Palatine Veronika, the highest-ranking Sororitas present, with a smile on her face, and tears in her eyes. The following words became the creed of the order for centuries to come.

"Listen, my child. Time of this world draws near, and so does mine. You proved your mind is devout and your spirit pure, for I give a word of wisdom. Value life, and value love, for every moment you spend with your loved ones has a value nothing in this world can match. Protect love wherever your fate takes you, spread it wherever you set your foot. Carry this pendant, my child, with it you carry me, and my light will guide you in the dark, and may the odds ever seem hopeless, pray for me and I'll come."

- St. Beltaine during the Fall of Vakaria

With these words, Saint Beltaine placed a silver pendant into Veronika's hands. Before the Sister Palatine said she will, the saint's spirit turned around and walked away, soon disappearing into nothingness.

Aftermath
Saint Beltaine manifested two more times after the battle, however only in Veronika's dreams, not in the real world, and only during the duration of voyage away from Vakaria.

The first time she stood with a little redheaded girl with a golden necklace by her side, gently patting her head, with soft words on her lips. ''Protect this child, Veronika. Her mind may be tainted, yet her heart is pure as mine...'' It wasAlexandra, a girl born aboard the Angel of Astrea who became a powerful psyker and helped to save the ship and the crew.

The second time it happened, Beltaine walked aboard some yet unknown space station that lacked any Imperial iconography, yes it was occupied by humans. ''Don't allow your mind to be blinded, Veronika. An enemy, at first sight, may be your greatest friend...'' It was one of the docking bays aboard the Torus Orbital Ring Station above Europa Prime Saint Beltaine was walking in.

Legacy
After the arrival to Europa Prime and the subsequent reorganization of the nearly obliterated order, Veronika, now a Canoness, made sure to fully honor the saint and adopted Beltaine as the patron of the order. Also, the creed and directives once held identical to the ones of the Argent Shourd were modified to truly serve the role of guardians their patron was.

Also the pendant, once a delicate, now battered piece of jewelry which Beltaine gave Veronica had become one of the holiest relics the order possesses. It depicts an angel with her feathery wings spread, holding a flower in one hand, and a sword in the other.