Blessed Angela of Foligno
Blessed Angela of Foligno pleads for forgiveness Contemplating the sorrowful suffering of Our Savior during His Passion, she began her road as a penitent. She turned to St. Francis, pleading with him to find her a confessor. He appeared to her in a dream and said if she would have only asked him, he would have gladly obliged her, that much sooner. The next morning, she awakened and went to the nearby church of San Francesco. But she did not find her confessor there. Not to be disheartened, she went on to the Cathedral of San Feliciano, also near her home. There she heard a Franciscan preaching, who just happened to be a relative of hers. She was so moved by his homily, feeling the presence of God at that moment, she went to him and confessed, only now fully, leaving nothing out. He dispelled the fear she had that her sins were so grievous and sacrilegious that only a Bishop could absolve her of her offenses. He assured her that he could absolve her and she could, at last, know peace. This confessor, it is believed, was her cousin Friar Arnaldo, who would become her ongoing confessor and the one to whom she would dictate her visions. She began to shed her fine clothes and jewels and begin a life of penitence. No sooner did her conversion commence, than in around 1288, three years after her conversion, she was to know the deep sorrow of losing her husband, her mother and all her sons to the Angel of Death. Now, she would dedicate every waking hour to adoring her Lord, especially in His Passion. But it was not to be a grand leap, but tiny steps, one little one at a time, for almost five and a half years, before Angela would achieve the spirituality she sought, that intimacy of knowing she was loved by Her One and Only Love - her Lord Jesus Christ. She couldn't do enough to show the Lord how very much she loved Him. She shed all her belongings, even her country estate and gave all her worldly assets to the poor. She later wrote it was the finest piece of property she owned. Her relatives were furious and wanted to have her put away. Even her spiritual advisors were against her, admonishing her about her extreme behavior. Warning her that the life she was seeking was ill-advised, they told her they feared she was losing her mind, at the least, or at the worst she was possessed by the devil. They even had her doubting herself. We write one liners: It would be almost five and a half years before she would be close to her Lord, to show Him her love, her never-ending love only for Him and Him alone. It would be five and a half years before she would be able to shed all the lures of the world, dying inch by inch to old desires, especially that of human respect. But what sustained her those five and a half years, when she obviously was going through the dark night of the soul - feeling nothing - no word from the Lord? She had desired to love Him and Him alone. Now, she had no husband, no mother, no children, only Him. And where was He? She was finally accepted as a Tertiary by the Franciscans, allowed to wear the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and make her profession. She left for Assisi to ask St. Francis' intercession to give her the strength and determination to follow the Rule of St. Francis and to truly live the life of poverty. We have to remember, we write these one liners; but as zealous as she was, giving up everything and living a life of poverty, dependent on the alms of others could not be easy for someone who had had everything material.
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