SAINT ANGELA MERICI (c. 1474-1540)

January 27

                  Born in Northern Italy, orphaned in childhood, Angela Merici faced a society in which education was largely the privilege of wealthy young men and based primarily in monastic schools. This reality shaped Angela’s insightful conviction that society’s disorder was caused by disorder in the home, and a lack of model Christian mothers the result of neglecting the education of young women. Transform the Christian family by placing an educated wife and mother at its heart, Angela believed, and the whole world would be renewed in Christ! So she gathered a small group of unmarried women, many of them Franciscan Tertiaries (lay affiliates) like herself, and set out to educate poor girls, free of charge, in their homes. She and her band of teachers called themselves companions, pioneering a new form of non-cloistered religious life for women, bearing witness to evangelical simplicity in the midst of the world, not as a formal “order” but as the Company (compagnia) of Saint Ursula. Known today as the Ursulines, Angela Merici’s spiritual daughters continue serving the Church and society in a rich diversity of ministries.

—Peter Scagnelli, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.