Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/77

63 B. ANGELINA 63 the Pope, Angelina, in obedience to her Tision, bnilt the monastery of St. Anna, lor twelve nun s. It was finished in 1 39 7. In addition to the ordinary vows of ter^ tiaries, they took one of perpetual cloister. It was the first convent of nuns of the Third Order, and Angelina was elected the first abbess. She would not have a larger number in her own convent, but 80 many holy women wished to adopt her new institution, that, in 1399, she had to build another house, the church of which was consecrated in the name of St. Agnes, Y. M. She appointed B. Margabet di DoBfENico of Foligno to be its first superior. Margaret would only accept this great responsibility and dignity on condition that Angelina should always pray for her and her charge. - The nuns of the first convent were popularly called Contessey and the convent Santa Anna ddle Contesse^ in honour of their founder. The nuns of the second convent were known as Margaritole, and the convent La Margaritura, Margaret died there, in the odour of sanctity, June 13, 1440. Angelina built 16 monasteries of her order. Their names are given in her LifCf by Jacobilli. Besides B. Maboabet, Angelma had two disciples numbered among the '^ Blessed," namely, B. Antonia OP Flobencb and B. Paula op Foligno. After edifying her order and her country by her great virtues and mortifications, and after 28 years of success, Angelina died happily, in her first convent of St. Anna, at Foligno, on July 14, 1435, in her 59th year. The people immediately began to worship her. The bishop ordered all the canons, priests, and monks to accompany her blessed body to the church of the Minors of St. Francis, where she had asked to be buried. The nuns of the Margaritura begged that the funeral might pass by their monastery. When it did so, B. Margaret threw her- self at the bishop's feet, and begged him to take the holy abbess's arm, and bless the nuns with it, which he did. The dead saint was exposed to public venera- tion in the church of the Franciscans for three days, during which, notwithstanding the extreme heat, the body remained firesh and lifelike. Immense crowds pressed round the bier. So great was the desire to possess a relic of the beloved saint, that a guard of soldiers had to be stationed on each side of her to prevent any pious theft. Many people went to pray in the chapel where her body was laid, and miracles were soon recorded. In 1453, 17 years after her death, the walls of her chapel sweated blood. There was universal consternation : some attributed the miracle to some fearful crime which was to be brought to light ; some to an impending calamity; and while all were in fear and distress, Angelina appeared to a devotee, and told him it was because the Christians had lost Constantinople. In 1492 Angelina appeared to Fra Giacomo Colombini, who had been praying to her to procure for him some alleviation of his great pain and infirmity. She promised to cure him, and ordered him to tell the father, guardian, and all the brothers, to move her body from under the arch, and put it on the altar in the same chapel. Accordingly, they opened the cypress- wood chest, found the sacred body fresh and flexible, took it in procession round the town and through the seven churches of Foligno, and translated it to the place she had named. A second translation was made in 1621. She was publicly venerated, particularly by the counts and countesses of Corbara, who considered her their advocate and protectress. The people of Foligno took her for one of their chief patrons, although without the authority of the Church until 1825, when they petitioned Leo XII. to sanction, by a solemn canonization, the worship they already paid to her. This the Pope did by declaring her " Blessed." A,B.M. Bomano-Serajphtc Mart, July 15* Jacobilli, Santi delV TJvnbria^ Santi di Foligno, and Vita delta Beata Angelina^ Helyot, Ordres Monastiques, B. Angelina (4) of Spoleto, June 29, V. t 1450. O.S.F. Of a noble family of Spoleto. She became a nun in 1440 in the Franciscan convent of St. Gregory, under her aunt, Francesca, who was abbess there. The purity of Angelina, and the fervour of her devotion, were so great that an angel brought her a ring, in