St. Anglea de Merici

Angela was born March 21, 1474 in Desenzano, Italy. Her paretns, Mr. & Mrs. Giovanni de Merici, would read the lives of the saints to the children every evening. Angela wanted to imitate them. Angela’s parents dies when she was ten, leaving Anglea with one sister and one brohter to care for a wealthy uncle.

Angela was thirteen when she lost her elder sister, who dies without recieving the last sacraments. Anglea experienced her first vision at the time, comforting her to be at peace concerning her sister’s salvation. It was at this time that Angela made her first Holy Communion.

In gratitude for this grace, she consecrated herself more completely to God, and Angela was soon afterwards admitted as a Franciscan Tertiary. She wanted to emulate St. Francis totally, living almost entirely on bread, water and a few vegetables, denying herself even having a bed. She would go a whole week taking no food except the Blessed Sacrament.

Angela was 22 years old when her uncle died, and she returned to her home, appalled at the ignorance among the poorer children whose parents were unable to teach them about their religion. She began working with other tertiaries and together they organized instructions for the girls. Her efforts became well known and she was invited to go Brescia to begin a similar school.

Angela was near 40 years old when she was favored with a vision in which she was told, “Before your death, you will found a society of virgins at Brescia.”

Later, when she was near 50, aAngela went to Rome during the Holy Year of 1525 for the jubilee indulgence. On the way, she was suddenly and strangely struck blind and remianed do for four months. Her sight was eventually restored on the return voyage.

In Rome, she has a private audience with Pope Clement VII who suggested that she remain in Rome to take charge of a congregation of nursing sisters. She wanted to shrink from publicity, however and with a sense of her true vocation, Angela politely refused the invitation.

She sensed the power of the vision that called her to Brescia. She tried to returnt o Brescia but another war broke out, so she went to Cremona until peace was restored. She was finally able to return to Brescia, and the poeple greetes her with joy and began to venerate her as a prophetess and a saint.

About the year 1533 she began to train a select few of her companions in a kind of informal novitiate. Some came to live with her but many remained in the own homes. Two years later, Anglea will consecrate herself and 28 young women for the service of God under the protection of St. Ursula, the patroness of medieval universities, who was venerated as a leader among women. The name of the Ursulines would eventually become their community name, the official date of founding being November 25, 1535.

Angela was aware of the need for reform both within the Church and society, and so she founded this religious order for the teaching of young girls. Her goal was to reform both Church and society by directing her energy to the family through the solid Christian education of future mothers.

This was the first teaching order to be established within the Church. Angela had some progressive ideas ideas of her own, one being that she did not want her sisters to wear any distinctive habit, though a black dress was recommended. Her basic counsel was that “..if according to times and needs you should be obliged to make fresh rules and change certain things, do it with prudence and good advice.”

No formal vows were taken, nor where the members to be enclosed, nor were they to live a community life. The simple rule designed by Angela did, however, include the practice of virginity, poverty, and obedience. Thus, this original company was, in reality a “secular institute” and it was only after her death that the order was changed by the Bishop of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo.

They would meet for classes and worship and carry out their duties, giving examples of holiness by living within their families and communities. The idea of a teaching order of women was so novel that more time would be required for the new concept to mature and develop. Later, the members of the new order would be required to develop a formal habit, take religious vows, and live in community.

Angela was unanimously elected superior a the first election, and she continued to fill that office during the last five years of her life. She took ill early in January of 1540 and died on January 27th. In 1544 Pope Paul III issued a papal bull confirming the Comapny of St. Ursula and declaring it to be a recognized congregation.

Immediatley after her death Angela was honored as a saint by the people of Brescia; but it was not until 1768 that the actual decree of beatification was approved by Pope Clement XIII. St. Angela de Merici was canonozed on May 24, 1807. Since 1950, Angela has rested in the Oratory of the Angelines in Brescia.

No name was given to the new parish when Fr. Francis J. Stanton received his letter on April 3, 1923 authorizing him to organize a new parish west of the Rocky River. He wrote to Bishop Schrembs on May 8th asking for the patronage of Saint Angela de Merici, and permission was given in a letter date May 15th.

The name came from a recommendation of a Mother Genevieve, OSU, a good friends of Fr. Stanton;s mother, who had a special devotion to St. Angela. As it turned out, Mother Genevieve was a cousin to Mrs. Mary Hinkle, regarded by many as the woman whose zeal generated the petition drive that eventually led to the new parish.

Saint Angela is always imaged with a child, to signify her singular devotion to the education of children. The Saint Angela window is a gift from the school children of the parish.