Monday, January 27, 2025

Saint Angela Merici, Teen Orphan, Founder of 1st secular institute, author of the Rule

January 27 marks the feast day of Saint Angela Merici, Teen Orphan,
Founder of 1st secular institute, founder of the first teaching order of women in the Church and author of the Rule. prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience. She is patron saint of educators and teachers. of the sick, disabled, physically challenged, and those who are grieving the loss of parents.


• Established the Order of Ursulines in 1535 

• The first woman to create a Rule of life for women who wanted to live a religious life outside of a convent 

• Believed that Christian education was essential for girls and young women 

• Her vision was to elevate family life through education 


Angela was born in 1474 on a farm near Desenzano del Garda, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy, Italy. She and her older sister, Giana Maria, were left orphans when she was ten years old. They went to live with their uncle in the town of Salò. Young Angela was very distressed when her sister suddenly died without receiving the last rites of the church and prayed that her sister's soul rest in peace. It is said that in a vision she received a response that her sister was in heaven in the company of the saints. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis around that time. People began to notice Angela's beauty and particularly to admire her hair. As she had promised herself to God, and wanted to avoid the worldly attention, she dyed her hair with soot.




Angela's uncle died when she was twenty years old and she returned to her home in Desenzano, and lived with her brothers, on her own property, given to her in lieu of the dowry that would otherwise have been hers had she married. She later had another vision that revealed to her that she was to staet an association of virgins who were to devote their lives to the religious training of young girls. This association was a success and she was invited to start another school in the neighboring city of Brescia.

Angela was invited to become a live-in companion for a widow in the nearby town of Brescia. There she became the spiritual advisor of a group of men and women with ideals of spiritual renewal and service to those in need. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, Angela was struck with blindness. She proceeded to visit the sacred shrines, seeing them with her spirit. On the way back while praying before a crucifix, Angela’s sight was restored

On 25 November 1535, Angela gathered with 12 young women who had joined in her work in a small house in Brescia near the Church of Saint Afra, where together they committed themselves in the founding of the Company of St. Ursula, placed under the protection of the patroness of medieval universities. Her goal was to elevate family life through the Christian education of future wives and mothers. They were the first teaching order of women religious.

Four years later the group had grown to 28. Merici taught her companions to serve God, but to remain in the world, teaching the girls of their own neighborhood, and to practice a religious form of life in their own homes. The members wore no special habit and took no formal religious vows. Merici wrote a Rule of Life for the group, which specified the practice of celibacy, poverty and obedience in their own homes. The Ursulines opened orphanages and schools. On 18 March 1537, she was elected "Mother and Mistress" of the group. The Rule she had written,prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience, was approved in 1544 by Pope Paul III.


Angela Merici died in Brescia, Italy, in 1540. Clothed in the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, her body was interred in Brescia’s Church of Saint’ Afra. 

In the early 1600s, Companies that had expanded into France were re-organized into the religious Order of St. Ursula, to teach girls. Angela’s words continue to inspire the Ursuline nuns’ mission of education, a mission that spread worldwide. The Company of St. Ursula also continued to exist and is federated worldwide today with members in 30 countries. Angela Merici was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807.

Saint Angela's  Rule

It is directed to the members of the “ Company of St. Ursula” It indicates the way to become what we are called to be “ true and intact spouses of the Son of God” In the prologue a syntheses of our call is expressed: to be together serving the Lord. Jesus Christ is the absolute reference; he is the all of life. Perfection becomes union with Christ.

In this key virginity is presented as an exclusive love for Christ, a love which sustains and manifests itself in poverty and obedience. Angela emphasizes several times that the origin of the call is in the invitation of Jesus, in the mystery of His ineffable love. The core of this call we find it in a constant reference to the Word of God and in particular to the Gospel with which Angela sustained herself continuously.



Prayer to Saint Angela


Let us pray. O God, Who by means of our blessed Mother Saint Angela didst cause a new Order of holy virgins to flourish in Thy Church: grant, through her intercession, that we may imitate her angelic virtues, and, forsaking all earthly things, may be found worthy of eternal bliss. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
R. Amen.

Prayer Source: Kyrie Eleison — Two Hundred Litanies by Benjamin Francis Musser O.F.M., The Magnificat Press, 1944






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