Angela of Foligno

On September 15th, Pope Benedict gave his weekly catechesis on St. Clare of Assisi. On October 20th, it was on St. Elizabeth of Hungary. On October 13th he spoke on Blessed Angela of Foligno. We have often heard of St. Clare and also of St. Elizabeth, Patroness of the Secular Franciscan Order. I would like to mention a few things on Blessed Angela.

Blessed Angela was born in 1248, married at age 20, and had children. A violent earthquake in 1279, a hurricane, and an endless war with Perugia affected her life and made her aware of death. In 1285 she called upon St. Francis in prayer, made a general confession, sold her possessions and ‘enrolled in’ (the Pope’s words) the Third Order of St. Francis in 1291. She died in Foligno on January 4th, 1309. This year her feast is celebrated for the entire Third Order on January 7th.

Our Holy Father, in his catechesis, began by saying something that we ourselves often find true. He said, “People are usually fascinated by the consummate experience of union with God that she reached, but perhaps give too little consideration to her first steps, her conversion and the long journey that led from her starting point, the ‘great fear of hell,’ to her goal, total union with the Trinity.” How true it is that we find the stories of St. Francis and the birds, or Francis as the composer of prayers and songs, as interesting, rather than Francis as a man of penance and continuous conversion. Penance and conversion are not attractive or pleasant topics. In our own lives, how true it is that we are willing to abstain from sugars or fats on a doctor’s orders, or are willing to diet in order to look better, but we shun from the idea of fasting. Or we sell things at a garage sale, or trade or lend items, or auction them off on Ebay, but are reluctant to just give the stuff away. Or, as I had mentioned during Advent, we put great effort into preparing for Christmas, but not in preparing for Christ.

Angela was a penitent. Our Holy Father speaks of a few of the steps Angela took on her journey. “The first, ‘It was the knowledge of sin,’ she explained, ‘after which my soul was deeply afraid of damnation; in this stage I shed bitter tears’.” The Pope went on, “This dread of hell corresponds to the type of faith that Angela had at the time of her conversion; it was a faith still poor in charity, that is, the love of God. Repentance, the fear of hell and penance unfolded to Angela the prospect of the Sorrowful Way of the Cross, which was to lead her to the way of love.”

Eventually, what would save her from her ‘unworthiness’ and from ‘deserving hell’ was Jesus Crucified, ‘his crucifixion for me’, his love. For this reason she preferred to contemplate Christ Crucified. Here she found the perfect balance: the precarious balance between love and suffering, God in the supreme act of suffering, which was a supreme act of love. She said, “No one can make excuses because anyone can love God and he does not ask the soul for more than to love him, because he loves the soul and it is his love.”

The Holy Father went on to say; “From conversion to mystic union with Christ Crucified, to the inexpressible. A very lofty journey, whose secret is constant prayer.”

The Holy Father concluded by saying, “Blessed Angela’s life began with a worldly existence, rather remote from God. Yet her meeting with the figure of St. Francis and, finally her meeting with Christ Crucified reawakened her soul to the presence of God. And this is how Blessed Angela speaks to us. Today we all risk living as though God did not exist; he seems so distant from daily life. However, God has thousands of ways of his own for each one, to make himself present to the soul, to show that he exists and knows and loves me. And Blessed Angela wishes to make us attentive to these signs with which the Lord touches our soul.” 

(‘Angela of Foligno, Complete Works’ is available through the Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press)

December 2010