Saint Frances of Rome

Francesca Bussa de' Leoni was born in Rome in 1384. She longed to be a nun, but at about twelve her family married her to Lorenzo Ponziani, a wealthy nobleman. She became a devoted wife and mother, and with her sister-in-law Vannozza she visited hospitals and cared for the poor. During years of war, famine and plague in Rome she emptied the family granaries for the hungry, and she lost two of her children to the plague.

In 1425 she gathered a group of women who lived as Benedictine oblates, the Oblates of Mary, later known as the Oblates of Tor de' Specchi; they served the poor without taking vows of enclosure. After forty years of happy marriage Lorenzo died, and Frances joined the community. Tradition says she often saw her guardian angel, whose light guided her at night. She died on March 9, 1440, and was canonized in 1608.

Because her angel lit her way, Pope Pius XI named her patroness of motorists in 1925. On her feast, cars are blessed outside her church, Santa Francesca Romana, in the Roman Forum, and the convent of Tor de' Specchi opens its frescoed rooms to visitors.