Saint Angela of Foligno

Saint Angela of Foligno was a wife and mother from Umbria who, after her conversion and the loss of her family, became a Franciscan tertiary and one of the great mystics of the Middle Ages. She entrusted her experience of God to a book written down by her confessor. The Church commemorates her on January 4.

She was born about 1248 in Foligno, into a well-to-do family. She lost her father early, and her mother brought her up rather superficially. When she was a little over twenty she married one of the leading men of the town and bore several children. She lived a carefree, worldly life, with no thought for the salvation of her soul, and she even looked down on the penitents, who for the sake of Christ gave up their possessions.

After she turned thirty she was shaken by violent events: the earthquake of 1279, a hurricane, and the long war with Perugia. She began to reflect on her life and to fear damnation. In 1285 she called upon Saint Francis of Assisi, who appeared to her in a vision, and then made a general confession to one of the friars in the church of San Feliciano.

Three years later, within a few months, her mother, her husband, and all her children died. Angela sold all her possessions and gave the money to the poor. In 1291 she entered the Third Order of Saint Francis and placed herself under the spiritual direction of a Franciscan, Brother Arnaldo, her relative and fellow townsman. In the same year she made a pilgrimage to Assisi, during which she received special mystical gifts.

After years of severe penance God led her toward an ever deeper union, up to the experience of the Most Holy Trinity dwelling in her soul. She told her confessor about it, and he wrote down her words in Latin. This is how the “Memorial” came to be, the first part of the “Book of Blessed Angela”; it covers her experiences from her conversion until 1296, while the second part consists of the “Instructions” she gave to her disciples. Angela confessed that she was unable to put into words what she had seen. She taught that whoever wants to keep grace must not take the eyes of the soul off the Cross.

In the last years of her life she gathered around her many disciples from Italy and from abroad, to whom she was a spiritual mother. Following the example of Saint Francis, she nursed lepers in the hospital of Foligno and saw Christ in each of them. She died in Foligno on January 4, 1309, surrounded by her spiritual children. Her tomb is in the church of Saint Francis there. Later centuries called her the teacher of theologians.

After her death she was venerated and called blessed, and even saint. In 1701 Pope Clement XI allowed the Friars Minor Conventual and the diocese of Foligno to pray the office in her honor, and in 1766 Clement XIII added the Mass. In 1993 John Paul II prayed at her tomb, and in 2010 Benedict XVI devoted a catechesis to her. On October 9, 2013, Pope Francis extended her veneration to the whole Church and enrolled her in the catalog of saints by way of an equipollent canonization.