St. Angela Merici
Founder of the Ursulines, the first teaching order of women religious devoted to educating girls.
- Born
- 1474, Desenzano, Italy
- Died
- 1540, Brescia
- Canonized
- 1807 by Pope Pius VII
- Patronage
- The sick, the disabled, the grieving
St. Angela Merici was born in 1474 in Desenzano, a small town on the shore of Lake Garda in northern Italy. Orphaned in her early teens, she went to live with an uncle in nearby Salò and became a Franciscan tertiary, devoting herself to prayer, fasting, and works of charity. Returning to Desenzano as a young woman, she was grieved to find that many girls of her town received no religious instruction at all, and she began gathering them for informal lessons in the faith—work she later continued in the city of Brescia. Angela's life combined contemplation with remarkable initiative. She made pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to Rome; according to tradition, she was struck blind on the island of Crete during the outbound journey yet insisted on completing the pilgrimage, and her sight was restored at the same spot on the return voyage. Pope Clement VII, impressed by her reputation for holiness, invited her to remain in Rome, but she declined, preferring her quiet apostolate in Brescia. On November 25, 1535, Angela and twenty-eight companions consecrated themselves to God under the patronage of St. Ursula, the early virgin martyr, founding the Company of St. Ursula. Her plan was strikingly original: the members were consecrated virgins who continued to live with their families, sanctifying ordinary life while teaching girls the faith. From this company grew the Ursulines, honored as the first teaching order of women religious in the Church, whose schools would eventually spread across Europe and the Americas. Angela left her daughters a Rule, together with her Counsels and Testament, writings full of maternal wisdom and confidence in God's providence. Angela died in Brescia on January 27, 1540. She was beatified in 1768 by Pope Clement XIII and canonized in 1807 by Pope Pius VII. Her body rests in the Sanctuary of St. Angela Merici in Brescia, where pilgrims still venerate her. Her feast is celebrated on January 27, and she is invoked as a patron of the sick, the disabled, and those grieving the loss of parents.