Angela Merici

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Angela Merici, portrait by Bartolomeo Altomonte in the Ursuline Church, Linz

Angela Merici (born March 21, 1474 in Desenzano del Garda on Lake Garda , † January 27, 1540 in Brescia ) was the founder of the Compagnia di Sant'Orsola , from which the Order of the Ursulines developed. Angela Merici is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church . Her feast day in the liturgy is January 27th .

Life

youth

Angela's father Giovanni Merici was a farmer with Brescian citizenship, probably aristocratic. The mother Caterina came from the prestigious Biancosi de Bianchi family from Salò . Angela had two or three brothers and a sister. She grew up in the farmhouse "Le Grezze" near the city. Rural life shaped her childhood, helping with household chores and the natural piety of the family. She learned to read without any actual lessons. Later she also enjoyed reading the Bible and the Latin writings of the Church Fathers .

When Angela was about 10 years old, her parents died and she and her sister grew up with her uncle. Here she got to know the luxurious life of high society. Their own lifestyle remained simple and pious. Then, when her older sister suddenly died without being able to receive the sacraments , she was grieved. During this time Angela asked to join the Third Order of St. Francis , where she devoted herself to raising children and, as Sr. Angela Tertiaria , wore the gray habit and white veil of the Sisters of the Third Order.

Act

At the age of about twenty, Angela Merici realized how uneducated the children in her home country grew up as there were no schools. So she went back to Le Grezze in the hereditary parental home, where she and some friends organized a toddler school. This was so well received that the Franciscans invited them to Brescia in 1516 to found a school there. In Brescia she lived ascetic and withdrawn. She earned her living by helping out at home. Her meals were meager, she ate fruits, vegetables, and fish, meat only when she was sick, and never drank wine. She slept on a straw mat with a piece of wood for a pillow and spent much of the night in prayer.

Tradition reports that during this time during the lunch break in the field, she had an inner vision in which she saw her beloved sister descend from heaven amid angels. The procession had stopped in front of her and the sister had told her that God would use her to found a spiritual community for young women.

In the city that was destroyed by the war, she got to know poverty and need, especially the need due to moral decline. Here she also met the new lay movement of the time. Religious brotherhoods emerged whose members combined prayer, Christian life and apostolate.

Such a brotherhood founded a Luogo pio in 1520 , a hospice for incurable men and women suffering from syphilis . Women of the Brescian upper class looked after orphan girls, young women at risk and former prostitutes. Angela did not participate in this. Around her, however, a group of young men and women gathered, whose spiritual center she was. Many people went to her for advice. She advised graciously and intelligently, so that her room was never empty. Her special gift was to reconcile quarreling.

Pilgrimages

In 1524 she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land . On the way she got an eye disease that almost made her blind. However, she did not break off the journey, but let herself be guided to all the holy places. The return journey by ship was dangerous. Fellow travelers and crew attributed it to Angela's prayer that they finally reached their destination. Back in Venice, she could see again. The city's nobles valued Angela so much that they asked her to stay and work in the local luoghi pii . She refused resolutely and ran away.

Probably in the holy year 1525 Angela joined a group of pilgrims to Rome. At a private audience, Pope Clement VII asked her to help out with the city's charitable institutions. But she refused, too, and returned to Brescia with the blessing of the Pope, believing that she was called there.

In 1529 Angela fled to Cremona at the urging of friends who feared a siege of Brescia by Charles V's troops . Here, too, she was visited by people of all levels and asked for spiritual help. Angela became critically ill in Cremona , but to everyone's surprise she recovered. In 1530 Angela was back in Brescia. Angela was physically frail, but mentally she was still full of energy.

Founding of the order

Rule of the Compagnia

From 1531 Angela Merici gathered around her young women who, although they lead a life according to the evangelical counsels and devote themselves entirely to the service of others, should not live in the enclosure of a monastery. From 1533 on they met regularly for prayer, exchange and spiritual instruction. On November 25, 1535, Angela and 28 young women founded the Compagnia di Sant 'Orsola , the community of St. Ursula , which was founded in 1535 by Pope Paul III. was recognized.

Angela Merici and her fellow sisters wrote a rule for this community , which the Bishop of Brescia confirmed in 1536. In 1537 she was elected Superior General. When she became seriously ill in 1539, she dictated to her secretary and friend Gabriele Cozzano her “will” (“Legati”) and the “memorial words” (“Arricordi”) for those who would lead the community after her death.

On the afternoon of January 27, 1540, Angela died in her room near the church of Sant'Afra. The next day she was laid out in the church, dressed in the habit of the Terziarinnen. She was venerated as a saint by the people of Brescia shortly after her death. 1768 Angela Merici was by the Catholic Church beatified , 1807 took place the canonization . Her relics are in a crystal sarcophagus in the upper church of the former church of Sant'Afra, which was later consecrated to Angela Merici .

A few years after Angela Merici's death, the Ursuline community changed into a monastic way of life. The Ursulines are the largest order of women dedicated to education.

Patronage

The Roman church of Sant'Angela Merici is St. Angela is consecrated, the Angela-Merici-Gymnasium in Trier , the St.-Angela-Gymnasium (Wipperfürth) , St.-Angela-Gymnasium (Bad Münstereifel) and the Angelaschule (Osnabrück) are subordinate to their patronage .

literature

swell
  • I Ricordi lasciati alle Madri Avvisatrici, il Testamento e la Regola della Compagnia di Sant'Orsola. Editi da A. Cistellini. In: Figure della Riforma pretridentina. Brescia 1948. pp. 198 ff (contains only the prologue of the rules of the order).

Web links

Commons : Angela Merici  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, other information: between 1470 and 1475, cf. Karl Suso Frank : Angela Merici . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1993, Sp. 647 .
personal data
SURNAME Merici, Angela
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Religious, founder of the Ursulines
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1474
PLACE OF BIRTH Desenzano on Lake Garda
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1540
Place of death Brescia