Angela of Foligno

Angela of Foligno (c. 1248 – 4 January 1309) was a Christian author, Franciscan tertiary, and mystic. She was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious order.
==Early life and conversion==
Angela was born into a wealthy family in the city of Foligno, Italy (near Assisi). She married at an early age, and traditional accounts state that she lived "wildly, adulterously, and sacrilegiously" in her early years.Blessed Angela of Foligno in the Patron Saints Index However, Angela's lifestyle abruptly changed following the deaths of her family and an unknown shameful sin. In 1285, she prayed to Saint Francis of Assisi, who then appeared to her in a dream and offered to help.
Some time after her conversion Angela had placed herself under the direction of a Franciscan friar named Arnoldo, who would serve as her confessor. It was to Arnoldo that Angela dictated the account of her conversion, a work that has come to us as the Book of Visions and Instructions. Further, it was under Arnoldo's instruction that Angela joined the Third Order of St. Francis.
In the course of time, the fame of her sanctity gathered around her a number of other tertiaries, both men and women, who strove under her direction to advance in holiness. Later she established at Foligno a community of Sisters, who added to the Rule of the Third Order a commitment to a common life without, however, binding themselves to enclosure, so that they might devote their time to works of charity.
Angela died surrounded by her community of disciples. Her remains repose uncorrupted (her corpse has never deteriorated) in the church of St. Francis at Foligno. Many people attributed miracles to her, which were accomplished at her tomb. Pope Innocent XII approved the veneration paid to her in her beatification. Her feast day is celebrated by the Order on January 7th.
Blessed Angela's authority as a spiritual teacher may be gathered from the fact that Bollandus, among other testimonials, quotes Maximilian Sandaeus, of the Society of Jesus, as calling her the "'Mistress of Theologians', whose whole doctrine has been drawn out of the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, Our Lord."
==References==
==External links==
* Saint of the Day, January 4 at St. Patrick Catholic Church
Category:1248 births
Category:1309 deaths
Category:Beatified people
Category:Franciscans
Category:Christian mystics
Category:Women of medieval Italy
Category:14th-century venerated Christians
Category:People from Foligno
de:Angela von Foligno
es:Ángela de Foligno
fr:Angèle de Foligno
it:Angela da Foligno
sw:Anjela wa Foligno
hu:Folignói Boldog Angéla
pl:Aniela z Foligno
pt:Ângela de Foligno
ro:Angela de Foligno
ru:Анджела из Фолиньо
sv:Angela av Foligno