Blessed Angela of Foligno
Bl. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) Thirteenth Century Mystic - Passionate Lover of Jesus Within twenty five years after the world was to lose the little, great Poverello,[1] the Lord was to call forth a new light to brighten the world - our penitent Blessed Angela. In a city not far from Assisi, a cry would come forth in the night that would one day reach and touch some of the greatest Saints in the world, and now us. The seed had been planted by the contradictory Poor One and the Lord would not allow it to lie dormant in the ground. Like the Mustard Seed, a great strong tree would grow and having blossomed, bear great fruit. One might agree with such great Saints as Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa and say that Blessed Angela was one of the blossoms from that tree that would bring a new, delightful fragrance to the world by her love story with Jesus, so like that of St. Francis - her Spiritual Father. We often say, when the Lord wants something... Well, I guess He has wanted the story of Blessed Angela to be told, as over the years, we have received requests upon requests from mainly Religious to write and make a program on this little known Blessed here in the United States. Well, we journeyed in faith to Foligno, Italy, not knowing what, if anything we would find. But the Lord would not allow His sorrowful penitent's story to remain under a bushel basket. Somehow, we have a feeling there is someone who has sinned, as our Blessed accuses herself of doing and thinks he or she is too unworthy to be forgiven, no less loved by the Lord. Does the Lord want to touch that soul and say, You are mine; I have made you and I will always love you? Another star rises in the skies over the Umbrian Valley Another star rises
in the skies over the Umbrian Valley in
beautiful, picturesque Italy. Somewhere
around 1248, a girl child was born to an
aristocratic, wealthy, very influential
(very
A wasted youth Not much is known about Angela's childhood. All we know is that she suffered the loss of her father while still very young and married at around twenty years old and bore sons. This was not to bring her happiness nor fulfillment, for her life became one of meaningless entertainment and desperate diversion. She describes herself as one hell-bent on self-destruction, as were many of her class and time. Was there a hole in her heart that she was endeavoring to fill with noise and frivolity? Parties and flirtations - one, she confesses, led her to commit serious sin, over which she grieved endlessly and did penance. Like St. Francis before her, she was the life of any party she attended. She craved the attention of others and dressed lavishly, at times enticingly, to bring this about, complementing her magnificent gowns with heady, expensive perfumes and costly jewels. She will later confess she spent hours primping up, brushing and styling her hair. But God had planted gifts in this run-away maiden and He would not allow them to go to waste. Although she did not know it at the time, He had much for her to do. From her writings, which were many, we shall discover she was highly intelligent and cultured, quick-witted and later, through her admonitions to her spiritual children, we believe she suffered from being sharp-tongued and enjoying local gossip when all too available. But in 1285, this was all to come to a screeching halt. Now 37 years old, mid way through her life, was she assessing what her life meant, what she had contributed to the salvation of her soul and that of others? No one knows, for sure, only that she began to weep without ceasing, as if her heart would break. All we do know is that out of sudden fear and realization she might be headed toward the fire of eternal damnation in Hell, she ran to a confessor to unburden herself of all her sins. But, she later writes, not all of them. She was too ashamed to confess some of her sins, so now to compound the sin, she was receiving the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist sacrilegiously. Angela pleads for forgiveness Contemplating the sorrowful suffering of Our Savior during His Passion, she began her road as a penitent. She turned to St. Francis, pleading with him to find her a confessor. He appeared to her in a dream and said if she would have only asked him, he would have gladly obliged her, that much sooner. The next morning, she awakened and went to the nearby church of San Francesco. But she did not find her confessor there. Not to be disheartened, she went on to the Cathedral of San Feliciano, also near her home. There she heard a Franciscan preaching, who just happened to be a relative of hers. She was so moved by his homily, feeling the presence of God at that moment, she went to him and confessed, only now fully, leaving nothing out. He dispelled the fear she had that her sins were so grievous and sacrilegious that only a Bishop could absolve her of her offenses. He assured her that he could absolve her and she could, at last, know peace. This confessor, it is believed, was her cousin Friar Arnaldo, who would become her ongoing confessor and the one to whom she would dictate her visions. She began to shed her fine clothes and jewels and begin a life of penitence. No sooner did her conversion commence, than in around 1288, three years after her conversion, she was to know the deep sorrow of losing her husband, her mother and all her sons to the Angel of Death. Now, she would dedicate every waking hour to adoring her Lord, especially in His Passion. But it was not to be a grand leap, but tiny steps, one little one at a time, for almost five and a half years, before Angela would achieve the spirituality she sought, that intimacy of knowing she was loved by Her One and Only Love - her Lord Jesus Christ. She couldn't do enough to show the Lord how very much she loved Him. She shed all her belongings, even her country estate and gave all her worldly assets to the poor. She later wrote it was the finest piece of property she owned. Her relatives were furious and wanted to have her put away. Even her spiritual advisors were against her, admonishing her about her extreme behavior. Warning her that the life she was seeking was ill-advised, they told her they feared she was losing her mind, at the least, or at the worst she was possessed by the devil. They even had her doubting herself. We write one liners: It would be almost five and a half years before she would be close to her Lord, to show Him her love, her never-ending love only for Him and Him alone. It would be five and a half years before she would be able to shed all the lures of the world, dying inch by inch to old desires, especially that of human respect. But what sustained her those five and a half years, when she obviously was going through the dark night of the soul - feeling nothing - no word from the Lord? She had desired to love Him and Him alone. Now, she had no husband, no mother, no children, only Him. And where was He? She was finally accepted as a Tertiary by the Franciscans, allowed to wear the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and make her profession. She left for Assisi to ask St. Francis' intercession to give her the strength and determination to follow the Rule of St. Francis and to truly live the life of poverty. We have to remember, we write these one liners; but as zealous as she was, giving up everything and living a life of poverty, dependent on the alms of others could not be easy for someone who had had everything material. Angela travels to Assisi On the way to Assisi, between Foligno and Assisi, she and her traveling companions stopped at a crossroads a little beyond Spello at one of many wayside chapels - this one consecrated to the Holy Trinity. Deep in prayer, she had a revelation of the Holy Trinity, which had been foretold would happen to her in a prior vision. She could feel herself being filled with the Presence of God. She pulled back from the others, walking slowly, drinking in this new Life that had entered into her soul. She and her little band of Tertiaries went on to Assisi and the Basilica of St. Francis. At first they went into the lower Basilica and then they entered the Upper Basilica. There her eyes fell on the beautiful stain-glassed window depicting St. Francis being held up, like a child, closely nestled in the Bosom of Jesus. Although one sees St. Francis attired as an adult male, the glass window clearly reveals Francis as a child being lovingly embraced by his Father, clearly depicting Jesus' words in the Bible: "Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."[2] |
