For help in our fight against the materialistic lures of this world.

Angela was recently canonized by Pope Francis but she spent most of her life seeking wealth, material possessions and pleasure.

She was born in 1248 into a wealthy Italian family and married a man of high social standing. She had several children but was more interested in acquiring wealth and status than caring for her family. At around the age of 40, she began having visions which included Francis of Assisi. She experienced conversion and realized how empty and shallow her life had become.

Her visions were recorded by her confessor, demonstrated a mature mystical union with Christ and the gift of revelation. Those writings engendered respect in the Catholic Church and she became known as “Mistress of Theologians”

Sadly, just 3 years later, her mother, husband and children died. She sold all of her worldly possessions, joined a secular Franciscan order and later founded a women’s religious group to serve the poor. It refused to become an enclosed order so that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need. It is still active.

At Christmas 1308, Angela told her companions that she would die shortly. A few days later, she had a vision of Christ appearing to her and promising to come personally to take her to heaven. She died in her sleep on January 3rd, 1309.

“Humility exists only in those who are poor enough to see that they possess nothing of their own.”

She is the patron saint of those afflicted by sexual temptation, and widows.

Her feast day is January 4.

For God’s Glory.