Angelina da Marsciano, Blessed

ANGELINA DA MARSCIANO, Blessed. - Born in the castle of Montegiove, near Orvieto, around 1377, to Giacomo count of Marsciano and Anna of the counts della Corbara, died in Foligno on 14 July 1435. In 1393 she was married to Giovanni count of Civitella d'Abruzzo, with whom she is said to have lived in continence. She was widowed in 1395 and devoted herself to an austere life of piety, becoming a Franciscan tertiary and giving away a large part of her possessions. Accused of sorcery before Ladislaus, king of Naples, of whom she was a feudatory, she cleared herself in his presence; but some time later she was nonetheless banished from the kingdom by him. In the company of other young women, drawn by her example, she made a pilgrimage to Assisi for the feast of the Pardon in 1395. From there she went to Foligno, where she founded a monastery of enclosed Franciscan Tertiaries, called that of S. Anna (1397). Owing to the number of those flocking to it from Umbria and from various regions of Italy, a second was added at Foligno and others at Assisi (S. Quirico), at Florence (S. Onofrio), at Viterbo (S. Agnese), and in eleven other places during the blessed one's lifetime, and she governed them all as minister general. She was buried in the church of S. Francesco in Foligno. Leo XII, in 1825, confirmed her cult. She is commemorated on 15 July.

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