Angela Salawa was born to a poor family in Krakow, Poland. At the age of sixteen, she found work as a maid and lived a carefree and worldly life. A turning point came as she was dancing during a wedding reception and suddenly perceived that Christ was standing in the room, seeming to hold her in a gaze of loving reproach. Immediately she went to a nearby church, where she prayed for the courage to amend her life. Rather than enter a religious order, she decided to pursue a life of prayer and service in the world. In 1912, she became a Third Order Franciscan.
With the outbreak of World War I, Krakow was evacuated, but Angela chose to remain, nursing soldiers and prisoners of war while offering comfort to all who suffered. In her diary, she wrote to Christ:
“I want you to be adored as much as you were destroyed.”
Her own health suffered, but no one noticed. In 1916, she was fired by her employer, who accused her of stealing. Penniless and without other resources, she lived out her last years in a basement room, where she died alone on March 12, 1922, at the age of forty.
Despite her obscurity, her reputation of holiness endured beyond her death. She was beatified in 1991 by Pope John Paul II.
St. Catherine was raised in luxury in a noble family in Bologna. Yet, at fourteen, she persuaded her family to let her join a community of Franciscan tertiary. From an early age she had experienced visions of Jesus, “who would enter into her soul like a radiant sunshine to establish there the profoundest peace.” But there were also demonic thoughts that sometimes plunged her into despair. Through constant prayer she vanquished such doubts, and one night during the Christmas Vigil she was rewarded by a vision of the Blessed Mother, who offered her the great privilege of holding her infant Son. “I leave you to picture the joy of this poor creature,” she wrote, “when she found herself holding the Son of the eternal Father in her arms. Trembling with respect, but still more overcome with joy, she took the liberty of caressing Him, of pressing Him against her heart and of bringing His face to her lips…”
After some years Catherine was directed to take charge of a convent of Poor Clares in Bologna. Her reputed gifts of healing and prophecy – as well as her deep kindness – attracted many novices. Whenever she had to correct a young sister, she would insist on sharing in her punishment. When on of the novices was tempted to leave, Catherine pledged to take her place in purgatory until the end of time if only she would remain. (The novice stayed.)
Among her last instructions: “If you would have all, you must give all.” She died on March 9, 1463, and was canonized in 1712. Apart from several devotional books, Catherine left behind a number of hymns and paintings. She is honored as a patron of artists.
Benedict Sinigardi was born to a wealthy and noble family in Arezzo. In 1211, he heard St. Francis preach in his town, and his heart was immediately won. Abandoning his life of luxury, he was welcomed into the Order of Friars Minor, receiving his habit from St. Francis himself. At twenty-seven, he was appointed provincial of the Marche region. Afterward, he was sent on a missionary journey that took him to Greece, Romania, and Turkey. He built the first Franciscan monastery in Constantinople and then went on to the Holy Land, where he served as provincial for sixteen years. In his old age, he returned to Arezzo, where he died in 1282.
There are no surviving writings by Blessed Benedict, but he is credited with estab- lishing the Angelus Prayer, a commemoration of the Incarnation, which became one of the most popular devotions in Christendom. Deriving its name from the first words, “The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,” the prayer consists of the recital of three verses from Scripture with an accompanying response, interspersed by a Hail Mary. It was traditionally recited three times a day, and in many towns in Europe it is still signaled by the ringing of church bells at noon.
It is very suggestive that we stop in the middle of the day for a moment of Marian prayer. It is now unique, because we are in the place where, according to tradition, it was the custom to recite the Angelus Domini.
Agnes was born in Prague, where her father was the king of Bohemia. Despite the privileges of her station, she enjoyed no freedom to decide her own destiny. She was simply a commodity to be invested wherever she might bring the highest return for her family and its dynastic interests. Starting at the age of three, she was shipped to various kingdoms and betrothed to strangers she had never met. Through chance or providence, all these arrangements came to naught. Finally, when she was to be paired with King Henry III of England, she wrote to the pope asking him to prevent the marriage on the grounds that she wished to consecrate herself to Christ. Surprisingly, Henry yielded, granting, “If she had left me a for a mortal man, I should have made my vengeance and left, but I cannot take offense if she prefers the King of Heaven to me.”
What inspired this bold intention? Agnes had been deeply affected by the arrival in Prague of the first Franciscan friars, followed shortly by five Poor Clare sisters. In 1236, her royal life behind her, she formally joined them. Agnes received a number of personal letters from St. Clare, a precious window on the early Franciscan movement. Clare addressed Agnes as “the half of her soul and the special shrine of her heart’s deepest love.” Speaking as a “mother” to “her favorite daughter,” she commended Agnes for the poverty she had chosen, thus securing a place on “the path of prudent happiness.” “Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!” she counseled her. “Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance! And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead itself through contemplation.”
Agnes spent forty-four years as a Poor Clare and inspired many other noble women in Europe to follow her example. She died in 1280 and was canonized in 1989.
Maria Josefa Carolina Brader was born in Switzerland in 1860. At the age of twenty, she joined the cloistered Franciscan convent of Maria Hilf and took the name Sister Caritas. When a new disposition made it possible for cloistered nuns to engaged in apostolic work, she volunteered for a mission to South America. Her superior happily endorsed this plan: “Sister Caritas,” she wrote, “is supremely generous, shows no reluctance to any sacrifice, and with her extraordinary practical sense and education will be able to render great services to the mission.”
In 1893, she arrived in Tuquerres, Colombia, along with six other sisters. They operated in a vast territory that encompassed tropical jungles, coastal areas, and Andean highlands. Eventually, Sr. Caritas saw the need for a larger missionary order and received permission to found the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate, with a mission focused on education for the poor. As Superior General of the community, Mother Caritas encouraged her sisters to pursue higher education. “Do not forget,” she told them, “that the better educated, the greater the skills the educator possesses, the more she will be able to do for our holy religion and the glory of God…The more intense and visible her external activity, the deeper and more fervent her interior life must be.”
She died on February 27, 1943, by which time her congregation had spread to many countries, including the United States. She was beatified in 2003.