St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici, Religious

JANUARY 27A.D. 1540

Foundress of the Ursuline Nuns, Angela Merici was born on March 21, 1470 or 1474, at Desenzano del Garda, Lombardy, in northern Italy. She died on January 27, 1540, in Brescia, near Desenzano. The Ursuline order is the oldest teaching community of women in the Church. Orphaned at the age of ten, Angela Merici and her sister were reared and educated by their wealthy uncle in nearby Salo. Both sisters were extremely devout and when they were very young they wanted to live in a hermitage. However, their uncle wisely restrained them. After the death of her sister, Angela became a Franciscan tertiary.

In about 1495 she returned to Desenzano upon the death of her uncle. There, she received a vision, wherein she saw herself giving religious instruction to young girls. She gathered together other qualified tertiaries and in her home began a school for girls. In 1516 she moved to Brescia, where she opened a similar school. In 1524, while on the island of Crete on her way to a pilgrimage of the Holy Land, Angela was struck blind. However, on her return to Italy, her sight was miraculously restored when she again stopped at Crete. During a visit to Rome in 1525, Pope Clement VII asked her to stay and carry on her charitable works there, but she declined and returned to Brescia.

In about 1533 a band of 12 women joined Angela in her endeavor to help the poor and instruct the ignorant. They moved into a house near the Church of St. Afra in Brescia, where they formed the nucleus of the Ursuline order. It was named after St. Ursula, then regarded as the patroness of medieval universities. By November 25, 1535, the formal date of the establishment of the teaching order, the group had increased to 28. However, it was not until a later date that the order took vows or developed a secluded community life.

In 1535, Angela was unanimously elected mother superior of the little group of women, a position that she held until her death. Pope Clement XIII beatified her on April 30,1768, and she was canonized by Pope Pius VII on May 24, 1807. St. Angela Mericis feast day is Jan 27. [MICHAEL R. HOAG, S.J.]
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