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57 her prayers, she rescued her monastery from the Mamelukes, Ethiopians, and Saracens, and obtained rain by her intercessions. Afterwards, being warned that great troubles were coming on her own country, and that it stood in need of her prayers, she returned to Prague, where she is said to have died towards the end of the 12th century.

The first invasion of the Mamelukes was in 1250, and it was repeated from time to time till 1516, so that if it is true that she rescued her convent from these infidels, she must have lived at least 60 years later than she is said to have done. Pinius, however, the editor of this volume of the A.A.SS., does not appear to consider any part of the legend reliable. Probably it is a romance added to the life of the sainted Princess Angela of Bohemia.

B. Angela (2) of Foligno, Jan. 4, March 30. 1249-1309. Patron of Foligno. 3rd O.S.F. Represented (1) with a crown of thorns in her hands; (2) with all the instruments of the Passion in her arms, a crown of thorns on the ground at one side of her, and a crown of roses and thorns at the other. Of a distinguished family of Umbria, born at Foligno, a few miles from Assisi. Her mother, a good woman, gave her some religious instruction; but, according to the custom of the time, so much deplored by St. Angela de Merici, her education was a good deal neglected. Angela married young, and had several children. She was not a good wife or mother. She was self-indulgent and fond of pleasure, and had plenty of money, both from her own family and from her husband, to procure everything she wanted. She had occasional serious thoughts, and fears about her salvation. She was kind and generous, and retained from her mother's early teaching a great veneration for St Francis. While breaking the commandments she sometimes said to herself that if death overtook her so far from her duty to her husband, her children, and to God, she would be lost; but she shrank from changing all her habits, not liking to excite observation, and not having courage to break with her life of ease and pleasure. At last it happened that her mother, her husband, and all her children died in a very short time. Her grief for their loss, and her startling conviction of the suddenness with which souls may be called away from this life to the other, led her to withdraw at once from her former pursuits and companions, and give herself up entirely to devotion.

She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and tried to repent and amend; but at first did not confess fully and honestly, because the confessors were so strict, and she was so ashamed of the sins into which she had fallen. She received the Holy Sacrament without having made a full confession.

The devil kept tempting her at times to return to her old vices and pleasures, sometimes to commit sins even greater than any she had been guilty of, and sometimes to despair of forgiveness and even of repentance. This struggle lasted about two years. She declared she would rather be subject to all the diseases in the world, and all the tortures and wounds of the martyrs, than again undergo such temptations. Then came peace, for she began to love God, and to see that He was the proper object of her thoughts and aspirations. She cared no longer for any thing or person on earth, not even for the saints and angels, but for God alone. After this the devil again tempted her to sin, to despair, and to kill herself, but she came to trust in the love of God. She had a friend, a devout woman named Pasqualina, who assisted her in her charitable works, and went with her to visit the poor. After they had given all their property away, Angela said to Pasqualina, "Let us go and visit our Lord Christ in the hospital of San Feliciano." They wanted to give the patients something. All they could muster was a handkerchief and a cloth of little value. These they got the servant of the hospital to go and sell for them. In spite of her reluctance, she consented, and brought them back twice as much money as they expected. With this they sent her to buy comforts for some of the most suffering patients. Meantime the two friends washed the lepers