
Are you a woman who received an education? Do you know anyone who's been a beneficiary of all-girls schools? Meet St Angela Merici, who bequeathed these great gifts to the world.
Angela lived in 15th century Italy. The daughter of farmers, Angela became orphaned at age 10. She and her older sister went into the custody of their uncle and were separated from their brothers. Angela's sister died soon after, leaving Angela alone in an unfamiliar household in an unknown town. Imagine the loneliness of being a young girl on the cusp of adolescence, with all its turbulence and trickery,. No one to guide you through your most intimate questions, no one to brush your hair at bedtime while you spill your heart, no one to hug you warmly and softly when you come inside from the world. Angela understood profoundly how much young girls need attentive love and the suffering that follows in its absence—not only immediately, but also long into the future.
At age 20, Angela's adult life had hardly begun when one day she had a startling vision: she should devote herself to educating girls. In the 15th century, this was a revolutionary idea. Weren't girls meant to be just wives and mothers? What need had they of education? But as Angela pondered and prayed with her vision, she realized something: the better formed and educated the girls became, the more enriched their future vocations and families would be. Angela certainly knew the pangs of longing for real family life. Maybe educating the girls could change families, and maybe changing families could actually change the world.
She began gathering a small band of women to help train local girls in religious formation. They called themselves the Company of St Ursula—known today as the Ursulines. Think of how many teaching orders of women religious exist today. The Ursulines were the very first.
Angela gave her order a unique rule: they did not wear habits or live in a communal convent. Angela wrote that instead, they should live out poverty, chastity, and obedience in their own homes, neighborhoods, and jobs. The Ursulines gained such renown that they soon began receiving requests to open new schools for girls in other cities. By the time Angela died in 1540, her Ursulines had grown to 24 communities spread across the region.
Through the centuries that followed, the Ursulines continued to grow as they carried on Angela's mission: elevate the family and society by educating and forming future wives and mothers. Eventually the Ursulines received an request to serve the girls of the New World. In 1727, twelve French Ursulines sailed to a young New Orleans. They were the first Catholic nuns to set foot into the United States.
The convent and school they established in New Orleans still exist and operate today. My mom and her cousins attended Ursuline Academy, which remains the country's oldest continually operating Catholic school, and my parents married in the convent chapel. And the deeply-rooted Ursulines are also responsible for New Orleans' deep devotion to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. (You can read that story here.)
St Angela Merici, like many other very practical and very holy women, saw needs, prayed for direction, and got busy because she knew this to be true: "Reflect that in reality you have a greater need to serve than anyone has of your service."
Her feast is January 27.
Make an Ursuline pilgrimage in New Orleans
Attached to the Ursuline convent uptown is the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor consecrated in 1928. It is open daily for prayer and Mass. Snack tip: Is there a good reason you wouldn't take a 15-minute stroll over to Humble Bagel? No. There is not.
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