The Nun Who Said No

Imagine standing before the pope and telling him you a better plan!  That is what today's saint did to Pope Clement VII in 1525.

Angela Merici

Feast day: January 27
Born: 1474
Death: 1540
Patron of disabled people; handicapped people; illness; loss of parents
Lombardy, Italy

Born into a loving family that included an older sister and brothers, Angela dedicated herself to Christ as His bride.  However, when she was 15 years old she and her siblings were orphaned.  She and her sister were sent to live with their uncle.  The following year, her sister also succumbed to an illness.  Angela was most distressed that her sister had not received the Last Rites.  It is said that in a vision she received a response that her sister was in heaven in the company of the saints.

A few years later, her uncle died and she returned to live on a small part of the the family property.  It was here that she had a vision of maidens ascending to heaven on a ladder of light.  Angela saw this as a calling to found an association of virgins who were to devote their lives to the religious training of young girls.  This group became very successful and she was asked to begin other schools in the area.

In 1524, she chose to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  As she entered a church along the way, she knelt before a crucifix and she suddenly became blind.  Instead of returning, she chose to continue her journey as a fully spiritual experience beyond what sight could allow.  Upon her return journey, she again stopped at the same church and her sight was recovered.

In 1525 she journeyed to Rome in order to gain the indulgences of the Jubilee Year. Pope Clement VII, who had heard of her virtue and success with her schools, invited her to remain in Rome.  She refused his offer and returned home.

Then in 1535, Angela gathered a group of 12 other women together to officially begin a new order of nuns, the Company of St Ursula.  This was to be the first group of women religious to work outside the cloister and the first teaching order of women.  Her goal was to elevate family life through the Christian education of future wives and mothers. Four years later the group had grown to 28.

Angela taught her companions to be consecrated to God and dedicated to the service of their neighbor, 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. she 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.  It would not be until after her death that the Rule she had written was approved in 1544 by Pope Paul III.