Angela of Foligno

Angela of Foligno (1248 – 4 January 1309) was an Italian Franciscan tertiary who became known as a mystic from her extensive writings about her mystical revelations. Due to the respect those writings engendered in the Catholic Church she became known as Theologorum Magistra ("Teacher of Theologians"), as first used by Maximilian Sandaeus, later cited by Bollandus in the Acta Sanctorum.

Angela was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to become an enclosed order so that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need.

The Catholic Church declared Angela to be a saint in 2013. Her canonization was an “equivalent canonization” (without executing the ordinary judicial process of canonization).

Angela's birth date, which is not known with certainty, is often listed as 1248. She was born into a wealthy family at Foligno, in Umbria. Married, perhaps at an early age, she had several children. Angela reports that she loved the world and its pleasures. Around the age of 40, she reportedly had a vision of Francis of Assisi and recognized the emptiness of her life. From that time, she began to lead a life devoted to higher perfection.

Three years later, Angela's mother died, followed, a few months later, by her husband and children. With one serving woman, Masazuola, as her companion, she began to divest herself of her possessions and to live as a penitent. Angela joined the Third Order of St. Francis, probably in 1291. She placed herself under the direction of a Franciscan friar named Arnoldo, who would serve as her confessor.

Angela is said to have received mystical revelations, which she dictated to a scribe in the late 13th century. These accounts are contained in a compilation of two works, usually published under the title Il Libro della Beata Angela da Foligno.

Angela recorded the history of her conversion in her Book of Visions and Instructions. She dictated, in her Umbrian dialect, an account of her spiritual progress, known as the Memoriale, which was transcribed in Latin by a Franciscan friar indicated only as "Bro A." This work was probably begun in 1292. The Memorial is the first part of two sections of Angela of Foligno's Liber. The second text is known as Instructions and is composed of thirty-six instructional texts, a note about her death, and an epilogue. These texts appear in different orders in different manuscripts, and there is not known to be one correct order.

Brother A. remained with her until 1296 while she completed the higher and more difficult final ten stages, but since it proved impossible for him to understand these fully, he condensed them into seven ‘supplementary stages’ whose description takes up the larger portion of the Memorial. The text was finished by 1298, and submitted to Cardinal James of Colonna and eight Friars Minor, who gave it their approval. It seems that Brother A. revised it shortly after, in 1299–1300.