Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted Eucharistic Devotion
Saint Angela of Foligno
Religious († 1309) Feast: January 4
Born around 1248, Angela had been living a worldly life when a sequence of natural disasters and war forced her to contemplate the Last Things. “I realized my sinfulness,” she recalled; “I was seized with a great fear of being damned…. I went to confession to be relieved of my sins, but through shame I concealed the most grievous ones, but still I went to Communion. Now my conscience tortured me day and night. I called upon Saint Francis for help, and, moved by an inner impulse, I went into a church where a Franciscan Father was then preaching.”
She was then able to make a good confession, which proved a turning point in her life. Soon she gave away her possessions and became a Franciscan tertiary. In time she became a mystic of such great renown that she was known, during her life, as Magistra Theologorum (Teacher of Theologians).
Angela received many mystical experiences of our Lord in the Sacred Host. Once, it is said, she saw two loving eyes gazing upon her; another time she saw the Child Jesus seated in glory. “O Jesus,” she wrote, “you instituted this Sacrament…solely moved by a love which has no other measure than to be without measure. You instituted this sacrament because your love exceeds all words.” She died in 1309 and, though long revered as a saint, was formally canonized in 2013.
God of love unbounded, through the prayers of Saint Angela of Foligno, may no shame keep us from confessing our sins and receiving Holy Communion worthily.
