Introducing My Friend Angela

Welcome (back) to my blog dear reader! I am so glad you are here. 😄 I hope you enjoy your time here.

Today I thought I would share a little bit about the saint I received in 2019 saint of the year generator. I wrote a post a few months ago about how I developed a relationship with Saint Joseph last year. So this is a follow up to that. Well, who is she? I hear you ask, dear reader. Saint Angela of Foligno is my new saint friend for 2019.

I said she was Blessed on my Instagram story and then found out Pope Francis canonized her in 2013. My bad. I fail as a Catholic nerd. I am glad I was told about Saint Angela though because she is not that well known from what I have heard.

So what is her story?

She was born in Foligno Italy in 1248. She married at a young age and had several children. Since she was wealthy she participated in many social events in the city. Around the age of 40 to 45, she had a vision of St. Francis of Assisi which revealed to her the emptiness of the worldly life she was living.

Within three years of this vision, her mother, husband, and children all died. She began to give away all of her possessions and became a member of the Franciscan Third Order. Saint Angela devoted herself to caring for the needy and living as a penitent. Her visions continued and were documented by her confessor in the late 1200s. These visions showed her mature union with Christ and the gift of revelation, which He had given to her. She is sometimes called "the Mistress of Theologians." Her tomb is in the church of St. Francis in Foligno. And as I mentioned before she was canonized by Pope Francis on October 9th, 2013.

I also wanted to include this quote from Pope Benedict XVI from his General Audience on October 13th, 2010 because it captures a lot of the sentiment of my reasoning for developing a relationship with Saint Angela.

“Dear brothers and sisters, Blessed Angela's life began with a worldly existence, rather remote from God. Yet her meeting with the figure of St Francis and, finally, her meeting with Christ Crucified reawakened her soul to the presence of God, for the reason that with God alone life becomes true life, because, in sorrow for sin, it becomes love and joy. And this is how Blessed Angela speaks to us. Today we all risk living as though God did not exist; he seems so distant from daily life. However, God has thousands of ways of his own for each one, to make himself present in the soul, to show that he exists and knows and loves me. And Blessed Angela wishes to make us attentive to these signs with which the Lord touches our soul, attentive to God's presence, so as to learn the way with God and towards God, in communion with Christ Crucified. Let us pray the Lord that he make us attentive to the signs of his presence and that he teach us truly to live.”

Wow. I need to print that bold part out and read it every day. It is so powerful.

Saint Angela has helped me this year in a lot of ways. First off her name sounds super modern but she lived in the 1200 and 1300s. That to me is a great reminder of the eternal faith of the Catholic Church and the fact that Jesus exists outside of the constraints of time. Also, she was a 3rd Order Franciscan. My boss for one of my jobs this year is also a 3rd Order Fransican! By interacting with my boss I get to see the modern equivalent of some of the work Saint Angela did with her community. It really makes her story come to life and gives me things to talk with her about.

St. Angela is also the patroness of those affected by sexual temptation. In the modern world of the 21st century, help is needed more than ever in that fight. I ask her to pray for me and for anyone else I know or see who might be struggling with that temptation. Let’s be honest here. In today’s modern secularization I do not think there is a single person who is not affected. And because of this, we chat a lot.

I think making friends with saints is one of the coolest parts of being Catholic. If you have not done it yourself, I greatly encourage it! If you don’t know where to start, looking up saints you share a name or profession with are a great start. Being friends with a saint is just one more way to find the beauty in the crazy.

☀️💙