SAINTS OF THE DAY – FEAST DAY ~ JANUARY 27TH

MEMORIAL OF SAINT ANGELA MERICI, VIRGIN – FEAST DAY ~ JANUARY 27TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Angela Merici, Virgin.

SAINT ANGELA MERICI, VIRGIN: St Angela (1474 – 1540) was an Italian religious educator, born on March 21, 1474 at Desenzano on the shore of Lake Garda, Italy, Province of Brescia. Early in life she dedicated herself to Christ as His bride. Her parents died when she was ten, and soon afterwards she lost her sister with whom she was very close. St. Angela went to live with her uncle, and, despite lacking a formal education, she grew in wisdom and virtue. St. Angela was worried because her sister had died without receiving the last sacraments. She was consoled by a vision in which she saw her sister radiantly happy in the company of the Blessed Virgin and the other saints. In gratitude, Angela consecrated herself more completely to God. She committed herself to prayer, penance, and serving the poor, eventually joining the Third Order of St. Francis at the age of fifteen. When her uncle died she returned to her home, and, seeing a great need for the education of young girls in the Christian faith, began a school for girls in her house. She daily gathered all the little girls of her village and taught them the faith. St. Angela became known for her holiness, and soon she was invited to establish another school in a neighboring town.

St. Angela visited many shrines in Italy, but the great ambition of her life was to visit the Holy Land. St. Angela Merici was happy in 1524 when she was able to join a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The travelers stopped at Canea on the island of Crete. Here Angela suddenly became blind. She insisted on continuing the pilgrimage and visited the holy places with great devotion, “seeing” through the eyes of the others. She was happy to bear her cross along the way made holy by the cross of her Redeemer. On the return voyage the pilgrims again visited Crete. Angela suddenly recovered her sight at the very place where she had lost it. The year 1525 was a Holy Year, and Angela went to Rome to gain the special indulgences. She had an interview with Pope Clement VII who wished her to stay in Rome and do her work there. But Angela preferred to return to Brescia where she had established herself in two small rooms attached to the church of St. Afra, and the pope respected her wishes.

One day while in prayer she received a vision, in the vision God revealed to her that she would establish a “company” to promote the welfare of souls. That vision was realized when at Desenzano she established a school for the instruction of young girls and a second school at Brescia. She gathered around her twelve religious companions and founded the Order of Ursulines in 1535 at Brescia, under the protection and patronage of St. Ursula, the first teaching order for women approved by the Church. From this organisation later sprang the monastic Order of Ursulines, whose nuns established places of prayer and learning throughout Europe and, later, worldwide, most notably in North America. St. Angela was of a reflective bent and possibly the first to grasp the changed role of women in the society transformed by the Renaissance. She envisaged that those who joined her would remain in the world but devote themselves to every type of corporal and spiritual work of mercy, with special emphasis on education. However, St. Angela’s idea of education was very different from that of a convent school. She preferred to send her followers to teach girls in their own families. Through this she hoped to effect an improvement in social conditions. For it was her belief that “disorder in society is the result of disorder of the family.” Her idea of a religious order of women without distinctive habit and without solemn vows and enclosure was also in advance of her times—although her Order was obliged to adopt the canonical safeguards then required of all nuns. On November 25, 1535, the solemn canonical institution of the company of St. Ursula took place in the Oratory of the Piazza del Duomo. As a patron, St. Angela chose St. Ursula because ever since her martyrdom St. Ursula was regarded as the ideal type of Christian virginity.

St. Angela died on January 27, 1540 at the age of 65 at Brescia, Republic of Venice; her body remained incorrupt for thirty days. Remarkable phenomena occurred at her burial in the Church of St. Afra. In the year of Angela’s death in1540, it was estimated that at least half the town of Brescia was Lutheran of Calvinist. However, the schools of the Ursulines did their share in strengthening and extending Catholicism and in safeguarding Italy from what is now termed “modern unbelief.” She was Beatified on April 30, 1768, Rome, Papal States by Pope Clement XIII and Canonized on May 24, 1807, Rome, Papal States by Pope Pius VII. St. Angela is the Patron Saint of: Bodily ills; disabled people; handicapped people; illness; loss of parents; physically challenged people; sick people; sickness, courage, strength and determination. Her feast day is January 27.

“Disorder in society is the result of disorder in the family.” ~ St. Angela Merici

PRAYER: Lord, let St. Angela never cease commending us to Your kindness. By always imitating her charity and prudence may we succeed in keeping Your teaching and preserving good morals. Amen🙏