Sancha Ponce de Cabrera

[a][b] She was the wife of the important magnate from the Kingdom of León, Vela Gutiérrez.

In 1149, King Alfonso VIII of León gave the couple as a wedding gift the villa of Nogales which they, in turn, donated to Aldara Pérez, abbess at the Monastery of San Miguel de Bóveda in Ourense.

The abbess was entrusted with the task of bringing nuns from her monastery to the new one which would be governed by the Rule of Saint Benedict.

[1] When Vela Gutiérrez, her husband, died, the nuns returned the new monastery, the construction of which was not yet completed, to Sancha who, in 1164, donated it to the Monastery of Santa María de Moreruela that had been founded by her father, Count Ponce, and it was then turned into a monastery governed by the Cistercian Order.

Sancha died in 1176 and her remains, as well as those of her husband and son, received burial at the newly founded monastery.