>>19466753>St Angela of FolignoSt Angela of Foligno was recently declared a saint through the procedure of equivocal canonisation by Pope Francis in 2013, but while some saints show signs of holiness from an early age, Angela was somewhat different.
Born in around 1248 to a leading Italian family, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position, even though she was a wife of high social standing and mother to several children. More interested in this life of distraction than caring for her family, around aged 40 she experienced a conversion and realised the apparent emptiness of her existence. In 1285 she called upon St Francis, who appeared to her in a vision, and asked his advice on making a competent general Confession (a confessing of all sins of one’s past life, or of an extended period, instead of just those sins committed since a previous confession).
Seeking God’s help in the sacrament of penance, her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek His pardon for her previous actions and suggested dedicating herself to prayer and the works of charity. Sadly, just three years later, her mother, husband and children all perished in quick succession (some suggest this was at Angela’s cruel hand – so that she would be free of homemaking to follow God’s path). She therefore sold all her worldly possessions and, in 1291, enrolled in the Third Order of St Francis, a secular Franciscan order, and founded a women’s religious group to serve the poor.
