St. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) Image Courtesy: Saints & Martyrs
(Franciscan Media) Some Saints show marks of holiness very early–Not Angela. Born of a leading family in Italy Foligno, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position and later as a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction.
Around the age of 40, Angela recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the ‘Sacrament of Penance’ her Franciscan Confessor helped her to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity.
Shortly after Angela’s conversion, her husband and children died–selling most of her possessions, she subsequently entered the ‘Secular Franciscan Order’ and became absorbed in meditating on Jesus Christ and in serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs, other Women joined her in the religious community.
At Angela’s Confessor’s advice, she wrote her ‘Book of Visions and Instructions’ in it, she recalled some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion–she also expresses her thanks to God, for the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
This book and her life earned Angela the title ‘Teacher of Theologians’ in 1693 she was Beatified and Canonized by Pope Francis on the 09 October, 2013
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