Saint Angela of Foligno

Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, Italy, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position. As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction.

Around the age of 40, she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity.

Shortly after her conversion, her husband and children died. Selling most of her possessions, she entered the Secular Franciscan Order. She was alternately absorbed by meditating on the crucified Christ and by serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs. Other women joined her in a religious community.

At her confessor’s advice, Angela wrote her Book of Visions and Instructions. In it she recalls some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion; she also expresses her thanks to God for the Incarnation of Jesus. This book and her life earned for Angela the title “Teacher of Theologians.” She was beatified in 1693, and canonized in 2013.

Reflection

“Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Luke 5:12-13

The American spirit suggests that all things are possible if we work hard enough. We forget that sometimes people get a leg up by being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right person. The leper in today’s gospel is in the right place at the right time. Though his diagnosis of leprosy is terminal, by chance he encounters Jesus and recognizes him as the right person, the Christ. The person of Jesus, which contains God entire, desires the leper’s good health. We may be tempted to attribute this healing to the leper’s audacity in asking or to his sense of perception in recognizing Jesus. But the exchange between Jesus and the leper makes clear, it is Christ’s choice and desire to lift the leper out of his “uncleanness.” His will makes healing possible.