Saint Angela Merici

Angela was born on March 21, 1474, at Desenzano on Lake Garda in northern Italy. She lost her parents and her beloved older sister while still young and went to live with an uncle in Salò. She became a Franciscan tertiary, lived simply and devoted herself to prayer, to the poor and especially to teaching girls the faith, convinced that strong Christian families depended on well-formed women.

In 1516 she moved to Brescia, where her wisdom drew many people to her for advice. In 1524 she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in 1525 to Rome for the Jubilee. On November 25, 1535, she founded the Company of Saint Ursula with twenty-eight young women who consecrated their lives to God while living in their own homes, a new form of religious life. She died in Brescia on January 27, 1540, and was canonized in 1807.

The Ursulines later became a teaching order that opened schools across Europe and, in 1639, in Quebec, and in 1727 in New Orleans, the oldest continuously operating Catholic school for girls in the United States. Her body rests in the Sanctuary of Saint Angela Merici in Brescia.