March 2 - Saint Angela of the Cross
Born: January 30, 1846
Died: March 2, 1932
Nationality: Spanish
Vocation: Religious
Canonization: May 4, 2003, by Pope John Paul II
St. Angela was born in Seville, Spain, in 1846. Her parents were very devout, both working as a cook and a laundress at a Trinitarian convent to support their 14 children. Angela, as a young girl, was inspired by her parents’ example and developed a strong love for the Blessed Mother.
Angela received little formal education and began working in a shoe repair shop. There, the shop owner took the time to educate her workers not only in their craft, but also in religious instruction. At 16-years-old, she met her employer’s spiritual director, noted Canon José Torres Padilla of Seville, who also took her under his spiritual care.
When she was 19, Angela felt the call to religious life and attempted to enter the Discalced Carmelites in Santa Cruz, but was denied because of her poor health. Angela then entered the Daughters of Charity, but despite the sisters’ attempts to help her, her health did not improve, and she left the novitiate to return to working in the shoe shop.
Fr. Torres encouraged Angela that God still had a mission for her. She received an image of an empty cross during prayer, and felt the Lord asking her to hang herself on that cross in service to Him and the poor. She began to keep a spiritual diary of how she desired to live this life, and in 1875, three other women joined her to live in community serving the poor, forming the Sisters of the Company of the Cross.
The sisters led a life of charity, poverty, and humility, living like the poor to be able to better serve them. Mother Angela became known as "Mother of the Poor" and went on to found 23 convents during her lifetime. She died in Seville on March 2, 1932.
St. Angela of the Cross, pray for us.