Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Angela of Foligno "the Mistress

Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Angela of Foligno "the Mistress 1/8/2024

She is sometimes called "the Mistress of Theologians." Her tomb is in the church of St. Francis in Foligno. Many miracles have been recorded there.

Born in Foligno on January 4, 1248 to a well-to-do family, she soon lost her father, and received little supervision from her mother. Thus, did she spend youth far from faith. Beautiful, intelligent, passionate, she married a notable local man, by whom she had several children.

Blessed Angela of Foligno was born in 1248 of a prominent family in Foligno, three leagues from Assisi.

Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, Italy, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position. As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction.

She was born on 21 March, 1474 in Desenzano, a small town on the shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy. When Angela was only 10 years old, she and her older sister became orphans. They went to live with their uncle in Salo, where they led a quiet and devout Catholic Christian life.

In her late 30s, she experienced a moral crisis. She had committed a sin so serious that she feared hell. She prayed through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, who had died some 60 years earlier, and he appeared to her in a dream promising he would render her aid. Soon after, Angela met a relative who was a Franciscan friar and priest. She made a full confession, did penance for her sins, and began to embrace Franciscan spirituality.

Around the age of 40, she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity.