Bl. Angelina of Marsciano

Born to the Italian nobility, the daughter of the Duke of Marciano, and Anna, daughter of the Count of Corbara; her mother died when Angelina was 12. Given in an arranged marriage at age 15 to the Duke of Civitella, Giovanni da Terni, who agreed to honor the girl’s private vow of chastity. Widowed at age 17, she quickly moved to follow a call to religious life before another marriage could be arranged. She gave away her wealth and property to the poor, became a Franciscan tertiary, and travelled the countryside, preaching repentance and chastity.

Because of her emphasis on chastity, she was accused of preaching the Manichaean heresy, part of which opposes marriage; for good measure, there were charges of witchcraft, as well, and she was arrested. King Ladislas of Naples acquitted her of all charges, but because of the disruption to public order that she caused, he banned her from the kingdom.

Moving her base of operations to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi, Italy, Angelina had a vision in which she was told to found a monastery for women tertiaries in Foligno, Italy. With the bishop‘s approval, she founded the cloistered Santa Anna convent in 1397 to care for the sick, poor, widows and orphans. It was so successful that other, similar houses were soon opened in other Italian cities, and by the time of her death she was supervising 12 houses of tertiaries, and at one point there were 135 affiliated convents. Her memorial is kept on July 13.