폴리뇨의 복녀 안젤라는 1248년 이탈리아 움브리아에서 태어났다.
회개 후 3회원이 되었고 가난한 이들에 대해 큰 사랑을 가졌었다.
영성생활에 관한 저술을 하였으므로 '신학자의 스승'이라고 불린다.
1309년 폴리뇨에서 선종했다.
안젤라는 1248년에 태어난 듯하고 이탈리아 중부 움브리아(Umbria) 지방 폴리뇨의 좋은 가문에서 출생했다는 정도 밖에 알려진 것이 없다. 처음에 그녀는 어느 부유한 사람과 결혼하여 여러 자녀를 두었다고 한다. 어릴 때에는 주의가 산만했고 또 세속적이었다. 이러한 그녀가 1285년경 참 빛의 환시를 보게 되었다. 이 환시는 고통이 가득한 통로를 통한 완전한 사랑과 세상의 그 무엇과도 비길 수 없는 평화와 기쁨을 알려 주었다. 그래서 그녀는 갑작스럽게 개심하였고, 회개 생활을 염원하다가 성 프란치스코의 작은 형제회 제3회에 가입하여 빛나는 신앙의 눈을 밝히게 되었다.
우리는 그녀의 역사적 사적에 대해서는 아는 것이 거의 없고, 다만 프란치스코회의 아놀드 수사의 기록에 의존할 뿐이다. 그녀는 '우나 베르지네 크리스티아나'란 단체를 이끌었고, 수많은 환시를 보았으며 명상가였다고 한다. 또한 그녀는 작은 형제회의 쇄신 운동에도 크게 기여하였으며 위대한 신비가로 알려져 있다. 사부 성 프란치스코를 열렬히 흠모하였으나, 성 프란치스코와는 아주 대조적인 성품이었다고 한다. 성 프란치스코는 활동적이나 안젤라는 사변적이고 환시를 자주 보았다. 성 프란치스코는 만물 속에서 하느님을 보았으나 안젤라는 하느님 안에서 만물을 보았다. 그러나 그 속에 흐르는 원리는 단 하나 '행복한 사랑'이었고, 이것은 두 분에게 동일하였다고 한다. 그녀에 대한 공경은 1693년 교황 인노켄티우스 12세(Innocentius XII)에 의해 승인되었다.
(가톨릭홈에서)
가톨릭 교회는 이천년의 긴 역사를 살아오면서 성령의 인도하심으로 수많은 영적 가족들을 탄생시켰고, 그 중에 아씨시의 성 프란치스코를 창설자로 모신 1, 2, 3회의 영적가족이 있으니 그 숫자가 오늘까지 8백년 동안 수천만에 이르렀고 현재의 가족수도 백만이 훨씬 넘는다. 8백년동안 수천만에 이르렀고 현재의 가족수도 백만이 훨씬 넘는다.
이 세가족은 활기에 찬 친교를 이루면서도 각기 다양하고 독특한 방법으로 성 프란치스코가 하느님께로부터 받아 실천한 빛나는 영성들을 스스로 배우고 익혀, 교회가 더욱 주님의 거룩하심으로 충만되도록 돕는다.
"선교활동"을 펴서 이 세상을 하루빨리 하느님 나라의 질서에로 돌아오는데에 그 공동목표두고 가톨릭 교회 안에서 전세계에 흩어져 있는 여러 계층의 형제회 즉. 지역, 지구, 전국, 국제형제회들을 묶은 하나의 조직체이다.
Beata Angela da Foligno Terziaria francescana
4 gennaio - Comune
Foligno, 1248 - 1309
Dopo essersi recata ad Assisi ed aver avuto esperienze mistiche avviò un'intensa attività apostolica per aiutare il prossimo e soprattutto i suoi concittadini affetti da lebbra. Una volta morti marito e figli diede tutti i suoi averi ai poveri ed entrò nel Terz'Ordine Francescano: da quel momento visse in modo cristocentrico, ovvero tramite l'amore giunge all'identica mistica con Cristo. Per i suoi scritti assai profondi è stata chiamata "maestra di teologia".
Etimologia: Angela = messaggero, nunzio, dal greco
La Chiesa le attribuisce il titolo di beata e la sua memoria viene celebrata oggi dall'Ordine francescano della città di Foligno, ma il popolo la invoca da secoli col titolo di santa. Angela da Foligno, una delle prime mistiche italiane, nacque nella medievale cittadina umbra nel 1248. In gioventù, come la coetanea Margherita da Cortona, indulse alle vanità femminili, vivendo in tranquilla agiatezza in una casa non fastosa ma decorosa, accanto al marito e ai figli. Non mancarono anche gravi colpe morali culminate in una serie di confessioni e di comunioni sacrileghe. All'età di 37 anni, però, mutò radicalmente le sue abitudini di vita. Provata dal dolore con la perdita del marito e dei figli, mostrò in queste tragiche circostanze una forza d'animo non comune. Era l'anno 1285: S. Francesco le apparve in sogno e la esortò a percorrere con coraggio la via della perfezione. Angela entrò nel Terz'ordine francescano e nel 1291 emise i voti religiosi, intraprendendo un pellegrinaggio ad Assisi che doveva segnare un'orma profonda nella sua anima. Fu durante questo viaggio che Angela fece sconcertanti ed esaltanti esperienze mistiche, di cui fu stupito testimone anche il suo parente e confessore, il B. Arnaldo da Foligno: questi, temendo si trattasse di fenomeni dovuti a suggestioni del maligno, le impose di dettargli le sue esperienze interiori. Il bisogno di far luce sulle profondità di quest'anima squassata dalla grazia diede così origine ad uno dei più preziosi libri sulle esperienze mistiche di un'anima particolarmente favorita da Dio. L'autobiografia che la beata dettava in dialetto umbro veniva immediatamente resa in un limpido latino scolastico. In "trenta passi" Angela dettò quanto avveniva nella sua anima, dal momento della conversione al 1296, quando tali manifestazioni mistiche si fecero più frammentarie e lasciarono campo a nuove manifestazioni spirituali, in particolare quella della " maternità spirituale " che raccolse intorno alla "Lella da Foligno" un vero cenacolo di anime desiderose di perfezione.
A loro la beata inviava numerose lettere e per loro redigeva anche le Istruzioni salutifere. La povertà, l'umiltà, la carità, la pace erano i suoi grandi temi: "Lo sommo bene dell'anima è pace verace e perfetta... Chi vuole dunque perfetto riposo, istùdisi d'amare Idio con tutto cuore, perciò che in tale cuore abita Idio, il quale solo dà e può la pace dare". La "magistra theologorum" morì a Foligno nel 1309.
Autore: Piero Bargellini
_______________________
Aggiunto il 1-Feb-2001
Letto da 3051 persone
Blessed Angela of Foligno
(1248-1309) Penitent and mystical writer, born Foligno, Italy; died there. She was a worldly and frail woman who, after her conversion, established a community at Foligno of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Her "Book of Visions and Instructions" record the history of her conversion. She is represented being invited by Our Lord to receive Holy Commumion; and chaining the devil. Relics in church of Saint Francis, Foligno. Feast, Franciscan Calendar, 4 January.
New Catholic Dictionary
Blessed Angela of Foligno, OSF (AC)
Born in Foligno (near Assisi), Italy, c. 1260-70; died January 4, 1309; cultus confirmed in 1693.
Blessed Angela was self-indulgent early in life, living a worldly life of riches. She was quite young when she married, and when she was widowed about 1290. Around that time she experienced a conversion and joined the Third Order of Saint Francis. Once her husband and all her children had died, she gave herself up completely to God. Consistent with a life dedicated to penance, she donated all her possessions to the poor and lived only on charity.
Angela is remembered as a mystic, a form of spirituality that gained prominence in the Western Church around the mid-11th century. Mysticism is an attempt to reach a knowledge of and union with God directly and experientially. The mystic renounces his senses and the images they offer of God, called the via negativa, in order to allow God to replace them.
Mysticism is characterized by an abnormal psychic state which may culminate in ecstasy. Such states are sanctified when the individual is perfectly united with God and the whole personality is fully free; otherwise, it may simply be a sign of psychosis. True mystical experience leads the individual to an ever more passionate love of God. As a rule, mystics exhibit extraordinary self-knowledge.
At the request of her confessor, Friar Arnold, Angela dictated to him an account of her visions and ecstasies in which she reveals herself as one of the greatest mystics. Authentic transcriptions of the visions and messages of Blessed Angela are now housed in Assisi, Subiaco, and Rome. These originals are much more vivid than the logical arrangements made from them in the 15th century and reproduced by the Bollandists. They make it possible to sense the overwhelming religious ecstasy of Blessed Angela.
In them it is especially the Passion that we relive with her: a vision of absolute torture in which even the words of Christ seem to be heard:
"Then, as He was showing me all that He had endured for me, He said to me: 'What can you do which suffices you?' . . . He showed me His torn beard, His eyebrows and His head; He enumerated the entire list of His sufferings of the scourging . . . and He said: 'I suffered all that for you . . .' and He said: 'What can you do for me which suffices you?' And then I wept and moaned so ardently that the tears burnt my flesh. Then I had to pour cold water on myself to cool off (1)."
". . . When I had arisen for the prayer, Christ appeared to me on the Cross . . . And He called me and told me to put my mouth on the wound on His side. And it seemed to me that I saw and drank His blood flowing from His side . . . and He purified me. And then I experienced a great joy, although contemplating the Passion I felt very sorrowful. And I prayed to God to have me, as He Himself had done, shed all my blood (2)."
"And He began by saying to me: 'My daughter, sweet to me, my daughter, my delight, my temple, my daughter, love me, for you are greatly loved by me, more than you love me.' (3)."
"And I swooned and lost the use of my speech. And it seemed to me that my soul entered into the side of Christ; and it was not sadness, but a kind of indescribable joy (4)."
"On Thursday of Holy Week I went to meditate upon the incarnate Son of God . . . and a divine voice spoke to my soul, saying: 'I did not love you as a joke.' These words caused me mortal pain for immediately the eyes of my soul were opened and I saw all that He suffered in life and death . . . and that it was not as a joke but because of perfect and tender love that He loved me. And I say that it was just the opposite with me; for I only loved Him as a joke and not really. And it caused me mortal pain and such unbearable suffering that I thought I would die.
"And after He had said: 'I did not love you as a joke' . . . He said: 'I did not serve you by pretending. . . .' My soul then exclaimed: 'Oh master, what you say is not in your heart fills mine completely. For I never wished to approach You in truth so as to feel the pains you bore for me. And I served You only through simulation and falsehood.' . . . And on seeing just the opposite in me such pain and suffering filled my heart that I thought I would die; and I felt as if the sides of my chest were being disjoined and that my heart would burst . . . And He continued, saying: 'I am closer and more intimate with your soul than your soul is with itself!' And this increases my suffering."
This is just a small sampling of Blessed Angela's writing about her mystical experiences.
The collection of the Rotuli is enriched by a large number of letters or notes that Angela wrote to her disciples and in which she develops her spiritual doctrine. Through poverty and detachment, she lead them to the contemplation of the Passion. In the midst of the doctrines of the so-called Spirituals, among whom she lived, Angela defended orthodoxy. She and her group trace out a road on which all the ardor of human love as well as contemplation aspire to be united to divine wisdom. She died surrounded by many of these male and female disciples whom she loved as children. Considered by her contemporaries as a saint, Angela became the subject of a faithful cultus immediately after her death--a cultus that has been approved by the Church (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Harrison, Martindale).
Bl. Angela of Foligno
Umbrian penitent and mystical writer. She was born at Foligno in Umbria, in 1248, of a rich family; died 4 January, 1309. Married at an early age, she loved the world and its pleasures and, worse still, forgetful of her dignity and duties as wife and mother, fell into sin and led a disorderly life. But God, having in His mercy inspired her with a deep sorrow for her sins, led her little by little to the height of perfection and to the understanding of the deepest mysteries. Angela has herself recorded the history of her conversion in her admirable "Book of Visions and Instructions", which contains seventy chapters, and which was written from Angela's dictation by her Franciscan confessor, Father Arnold of Foligno. Some time after her conversion Angela had placed herself under the direction of Father Arnold and taken the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis. In the course of time the fame of her sanctity gathered around her a number of Tertiaries, men and women, who strove under her direction to advance in holiness. Later she established at Foligno a community of sisters, who to the Rule of the Third Order added the three vows of religion, without, however, binding themselves to enclosure, so that they might devote their time to works of charity. Angela at last passed away, surrounded by her spiritual children. Her remains repose in the church of St. Francis at Foligno. Numerous miracles were worked at her tomb, and Innocent XII approved the immemorial veneration paid to her. Her feast is kept in the Order on the 30th of March. Bl. Angela's high authority as a spiritual teacher may be gathered from the fact that Bollandus, among other testimonials, quotes Maximilian Sandaeus, of the Society of Jesus, who calls her the "Mistress of Theologians", whose whole doctrine has been drawn out of the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, Our Lord.
Bl. Angela of Foligno
Feastday: January 4
1309
Franciscan tertiary and mystic. Born in Foligno, Italy, in 1248, Angela married and had several children. Wealthy, she took part in the social events of the city until 1285, when she had a vision. Following that mystical experience, Angela became a member of the Franciscan Third Order. When her husband died, she gave away her possessions and started a community of tertiaries devoted to the care of the needy. Her visions, which were recorded by her confessor, demonstrated a mature mystical union with Christ and the gift of revelation. She is sometimes called "the Mistress of Theologians." Her tomb is in the church of St. Francis in Foligno. Many miracles have been recorded there.
ANGELA of Foligno
Also known as
Mistress of Theologians
Memorial
4 January
Profile
Born a wealthy non-Christian. Married young, and had several children. Lived wild, adulterously, and sacrilegiously for a while. Following a vision in 1285, she had a conversion. After the death of her mother, husband, and children, she turned to God and penance. Franciscan tertiary, and led a group of other tertiaries. Noted for her charity, patience and humility. Visionary, mystic, and mystical writer.
Born
1248 at Foligno, Umbria, Italy
Died
4 January 1309 at Foligno, Italy of natural causes; buried in the Church of Saint Francis in Foligno, Italy
Beatified
1693 by Pope Innocent XII (cult confirmed)
Name Meaning
angel; messenger
Patronage
death of children; people ridiculed for their piety; sexual temptation; temptations; widows
Representation
being invited by Our Lord to receive Holy Commumion; chaining the devil.
Writings
Book of Divine Consolations of the Blessed Angela of Foligno
Book of Visions and Instructions
Print References
Lives of the Saints II, by Father Thomas J Donaghy
New Catholic Dictionary
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Readings
God presents himself in the inmost depths of my soul. I understand not only that he is present, but also how he is present in every creature and in everything that has being, in a devil and a good angel, in heaven and hell, in good deeds and in adultery or homicide, in all things, finally, which exist or have some degree of being, whether beautiful or ugly. I also understand that he is no less present in a devil than a good angel. Therefore, while I am in this truth, I take no less delight in seeing or understanding his presence in a devil or in an act of adultery than I do in a good angel or in a good deed. This mode of divine presence in my soul has become almost habitual. Moreover, this mode of God's presence illuminates my soul with such great truth and bestows on it such divine graces that when my soul is in this mode it cannot commit any offense, and it receives an abundance of divine gifts. Because of this understanding of God's presence my soul is greatly humiliated and ashamed of its sins. It is also granted deep wisdom, great divine consolation, and joy.
- Blessed Angela
