Angela of Foligno

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Saint Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F.

(18th-century print)
Mistress of Theologians
Born 1248
Foligno, Holy Roman Empire
Died January 4, 1309(1309-01-04)
Foligno, Papal States
Honored in Roman Catholicism
(Third Order of St. Francis)
Beatified 11 July 1701 by Pope Clement XI
Canonized 9 October 2013, (equivalent canonization) by Pope Francis
Major shrine Chiesa di San Francesco
Foligno, Perugia, Italy
Feast 4 January (7 January in the United States)
Patronage those afflicted by sexual temptation, widows

Saint Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F. (1248 – 4 January 1309) was a Christian author, Franciscan tertiary and mystic.

She was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to accept becoming an enclosed religious order that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need.[1]

Pope Clement XI approved the veneration paid to her in her beatification on 11 July 1701 and Pope Francis extended the veneration to all the Church on 9 October 2013, declaring her a saint.

Her feast day is celebrated by the Third Order of Saint Francis, both Secular and Regular, on 4 January (7 January in the United States).

Early life and conversion

Angela of Foligno, fresco by Francesco Mancini, Dome of Foligno Cathedral
A holy card depicting Saint Angela
Part of a series on
Christian mysticism

Angela was born in 1248 into a wealthy family at Foligno, in Umbria. She married at an early age, she loved the world and its pleasures and led a disorderly[citation needed] life. But finding inspiration in God, she prayed to St. Francis of Assisi, who then appeared to her in a dream.

From that time, with a deep sorrow for her sins, she began to lead a life devoted to higher perfection, and to an understanding of the deepest mysteries. Angela has herself recorded the history of her conversion in her "Book of Visions and Instructions", which contains seventy chapters, and which was written from Angela's dictation by her Franciscan confessor, Father Arnold of Foligno.[2][3]

About 1288 this became easier when her whole family died. With one holy serving woman, Masazuola, as her companion, she began to divest herself of her possessions and to live as a penitent.[4]

Probably in 1291 Angela joined the Third Order of St. Francis.[2]

Angela placed herself under the direction of a Franciscan friar named Arnoldo, who would serve as her confessor. She dictated in her Umbrian dialect an account of her conversion and spiritual progress, known as the Memoriale, which was transcribed in Latin by Brother Arnoldo. This work was probably begun in 1292, when Angela had completed twenty stages (passus, or mutations) of her itinerary to God. The first nineteen stages are described in the first chapter.

Brother Arnoldo remained with her until 1296 while she completed the higher and more difficult final ten stages, but since it proved impossible for him to understand these fully, he condensed them into seven ‘supplementary stages’ whose description takes up the larger portion of the Memorial. The text was finished by 1298, and submitted to Cardinal James of Colonna and eight Franciscans, who gave it their approval. It seems that Brother Arnoldo revised it shortly after, in 1299-1300.[4]

Between around 1296 and her death in early 1309, the fame of Angela's sanctity gathered around her a number of other tertiaries, both men and women, who strove under her direction to advance in holiness. Later she established at Foligno a community of Sisters, who added to the Rule of the Third Order a commitment to a common life without, however, binding themselves to enclosure, so that they might devote their time to works of charity.

The final version of the Book appends a series of 36 Instructions to the Memorial.[2] These reflect Angela’s teaching during this period. These teachings are rather more conventional in tone and have differences in vocabulary and emphasis from the Memorial – which may reflect redaction by several hands. Nevertheless, the Instructions seem to reflect Angela’s teaching, albeit at some remove.[5] "No one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection. Therefore if you want to begin and to receive this divine light, pray. If you have begun to make progress, pray. And if you have reached the summit of perfection, and want to be super-illumined so as to remain in that state, pray. If you want faith, pray. If you want hope, pray. If you want charity, pray. If you want poverty, pray. If you want obedience, pray. If you want chastity, pray. If you want humility, pray. If you want meekness, pray. If you want fortitude, pray. If you want any virtue, pray." (( from Voices of the Saints, Bert Ghezzi ))

"And pray in this fashion: always reading the Book of Life, that is, the life of the God-man, Jesus Christ, whose life consisted of poverty, pain, contempt and true obedience." (( from Voices of the Saints, Bert Ghezzi ))

At Christmas, 1308, Angela told her companions she would die shortly. A few days later Christ appeared to her, promising to come personally to take her to heaven. She died in her sleep on January 3, 1309.

Angela died surrounded by her community of disciples. Her remains repose in the Church of St. Francis at Foligno.[2]

Many people attributed miracles to her, which were accomplished at her tomb.[2]

On October 9, 2013, Pope Francis has declared Blessed Angela a saint.

Saint Angela's authority as a spiritual teacher may be gathered from the fact that Bollandus, among other testimonials, quotes Maximilian van der Sandt, of the Society of Jesus, as calling her the "'Mistress of Theologians', whose whole doctrine has been drawn out of the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, Our Lord".[2]

References

  1. ↑ ‘Bl. Angela of Foligno’, in Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Robinson 1907.
  3. ↑ "Angela of Foligno". Franciscan Women: History and Culture. St. Bonaventure University. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 McGinn 1998, p. 143.
  5. ↑ McGinn 1998, p. 144.

References

  • McGinn, Bernard (1998). The Flowering of Mysticism. pp. 143–144. 
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Robinson, Paschal (1907). "Bl. Angela of Foligno". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia 1. Robert Appleton Company. 

Further reading

The Book of Blessed Angela consists of the Memoriale and the subsequent Instructiones.

  • A critical edition is Ludger Thier and Abele Calufetti, eds, Il libro della Beata Angela da Foligno, (Rome: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1985)
  • Angela of Foligno, Complete works, translated, with an introduction by Paul Lachance; preface by Romana Guarnieri, (New York: Paulist Press, 1993)
  • Angela of Foligno, Memorial, translated by John Cirignano, (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999)

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