Angela of Foligno

Saint Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F.
(18th-century print)
Widow and Religious
Born	1248 Foligno, Holy Roman Empire
Died	January 3, 1309(1309-01-03) Foligno, Papal States
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism (Third Order of St. Francis)
Beatified	11 July 1701 by Pope Clement XI
Canonized	9 October 2013, (equivalent canonization) by Pope Francis
Major shrine	Chiesa di San Francesco Foligno, Perugia, Italy
Feast	4 January (7 January in the United States)
Patronage	those afflicted by sexual temptation, widows

Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F., (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 they engendered in the Catholic Church, she is known as "Mistress of Theologians".

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

The Catholic Church declared Angela to be a saint in 2013.

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 St. Francis 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.

Considered a "great medieval mystic," 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 man known as "Brother 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.