Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/78

64 64 ST. ANGELINA token that Christ had married her in paradise. She died at the age of 25, having been a nnn of extraordinary sanctity for 10 years. While she lay dead on the bier, a wicked woman tried to kiss her hand. Angelina would not submit to such contamination, but drew her hand away. Jacobilli, Santi delV Umhria. Mas Latrie, Trisor, Papebroch, AA,SS.y relates that he went to Spoleto, to satisfy himself that she was not a duplicate of one of the other Angelas or Angelinas of Umbria. He was told that innumerable miracles were wrought through her intercession, and he was shown her tomb and pictures in the church, representing some of her many cures. St Angelina (5), July 30. •fcAolG. Queen of Servia, or dcspotess of Eascia. Wife of St. Stephen the Blind. Mother of SS. George (Jan. 18) and John (Dec. 10), called despots of Eascia, now mvi- Bazar or Yeni-Bazar, the capital of Servia. Saverstia Angelina was descended from the imperial family of the Comneni, and was the daughter of George Arianita Topia Golem, lord of Durazzo and Yalona, and one of the greatest nobles of Southern Albania. He was a Eoman Catholic, and to him Pope Engenius lY. committed the banner of the Church, to carry it against the Turks. Angelina grew up in very troublous times. She was a child when, in 1448, the Christians were defeated in the second great battle of Eossowa. Under the tyranny and cruelty of the Turks, many of the Albanians became Mohammedans; many emigrated to Hungary ; and some of the chief families, holding obstinately to the Greek or to the Eoman Church, wore exterminated by the conquerors. Stephen, a great- gi*andson of St. Lazar and of the elder ^T. Angelina of Sebvia, was now despot of Eascia. He had been blinded in his youth by the Turks, and driven from his poor remnant of a kingdom by his brother, but had succeeded, for the second time, to the throne, and been hailed by the Serbs as their prince. He was living on his own estates in Albania when, about 1400, he married Angelina. They continued to live in Albania for some time, until, the Tarks becoming more and more of a scourge, they withdrew to Kupinik, now Sirmisch, on the Save, where, according to Martinov, they and their sons died and were buried; the date of Stephen's death is given by this account as 1477. Schafarik, Serhischen Literatur^ however, says they went to Italy in 1407, apparently, among the 30,000 Albanians who — on the death in that year of Angelina's brother-in-law, George Castriota (Scander Beg), their champion against the Turks — migrated to the kingdom of Naples, and founded a colony at San Dcmetrio. Here Stephen died about 1481. Angelina then went with her sons to Transylvania, and after- wards returned to Kupinik. Both her sons bore the title of despot, and she was called despotissa. In 1490 the two brothers used the formula: ^^Nos Georfjiun regni Bascise despotus et Johannes f rater ejusdein carnalis" In 1490 George be- came a monk, taking the name of Maxim, and afterwards bishop and archbishop. He resigned these dignities, and retired to the monastery of Erusedol, which he had built; and there he died, Jan. IH, 1510. His mother survived him only a few days. At Erusedol the bodies of the four saints, Stephen, Angelina, George, and John, were preserved as fresh as iu their lives until 1710, when the Turks plundered the monastery, and destroyed the holy relics. Angelina was so good and charitable that the Servians to this day speak of her with affection as "Mother Angelina." Several MSS., now in the cloisters of Sirmia, belonged to her collection, and some contain notes made by her own hand. She was a nun during the last years of her life, and was called Theodora. The life of her sou, George Maxim, is said to bo preserved in a book of legends at Krnsedol. Be- sides her two sons, she had a daughter, Mary, who married at Innspruck, in 148v>, Boniface lY. Paleologus, Marquis of Montferrat. Martinov, Annus Eccles., July 30, Oct. 9, Dec. 10, Jan. is. Hammer, Osmanischen Beich, Lcbeau, XX., xxi. Meyer, Conversations Lexi' kon, Schafarick, Serhischen Literatur, C. J. Jirecek, Geschichte der IJuhjaren. Lenormant, La Grande Grecc,