Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/73

ST. ANGELA 59 that Angela, to avoid admiration and ▼anity, washed her splendid golden hair with sooty water to dim its Instro. 'When the girls were nearly grown up, the elder one died suddenly without the sacraments. Angela feared she might have departed with some unforgiven sin on her soul, and might be eternally lost. She prayed and longed intensely to be iissaz^ of her sister's salvation. She grieved and fretted so distressingly that licr uncle tried to divert her thoughts from the subject. One day he sent her to his farm to look after the haymakers. On the way thither her agonized prayers were answered : she saw a luminous cloud before her, and as she drew nearer and gazed intently, she discerned in it a countless multitude of angels and saints, in the midst of whom was her lost sister. Angela had not yet received her first communion, though she had kmg passed the age at which it has gene- rally been customary among Catholics to observe that sacred rite. She now begged to be allowed to perform this duty, and from that time she became more devout and ascetic than ever. She enrolled herself in the Third or secular Order of St. Francis, fasted to excess, would have nothing of her own, and, in apite of her uncle's objections, turned all the furniture out of her room, and slept on a mat with a stone for a pillow. Aifter the death of Biancosi, she re- turned to Desenzano, with some like- minded companions; she thought they should try to be of use to their fellow- creatures. She said that the scandals and abuses in society arose from the want of order in families ; the faults of fiamilies were generally traceable to the mothers, and the reason there were so few really Christian mothers was that girls were so badly brought up. This subject being much in her thoughts, one day, as she was in the fields with her friends, she stayed a little apart from them to pray, and^ looking up, saw in the vault of heaven a brilliant ladder, on which an infinite number of girls were ascending two and two, wearing .beautiful crowns, and led by angels. While she watched and wondered, she heard a voice say, '* Courage, Angela I before you die you shall establish in Brescia a company of virgins like those you have seen hero." The very next day she and her companions began to collect little girls and teach them ; at the same time, they visited and ministered to the sick, and sought out sinners. The devil, in the form of an angel, tempted her to vain-glory, but she came safely through this trial. She joined a band of pilgrims going to the Holy Land. In the island of Candia, one of their resting-places, An- gola became blind. Nevertheless, she continued her journey, desiring to tread the ground her Lord had trod, and to visit the scenes of His life and death, although it pleased God to deny her the happiness of seeing thorn. Not until she arrived again at Candia, on her return journey, did she recover her sight. Passing through Venice, she was invited by the Senate to take the direction of all the hosj>itals there, but she departed quietly, and returned to Brescia. Next year she went to Eome for the jubilee of 1525, and was presented to the Pope, Clement VII., by his chamberlain, Paul de la Pouille (di Apuglia), who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in her company. The Pope, having heard much of her sanctity and miracles, re- ceived her very graciously, and proposed to place her at the head of a house of hospital sisters, or that she should remain in Borne and take charge of various houses devoted to works of mercy. Bo- membering her vision, she felt bound to decline the flattering offer, and explained to his Holiness the reason she must return to Brescia. She did so, but about 10 years more elapsed before she founded her celebrated ordor. Meantime her fame was growing. In 1529 the Duke of Milan, of the house of Sforza, came to Brescia, to beg her to adopt him as her spiritual son, and to take his do- minions under hor protection. The King of France, the Pope, and the Emperor, were fighting for his as well as other possessions, and the duke probably thought nothing but the intervention of a saint could restore his fortunes. The people fled from Brescia, and Angela sought an asylum in Cremona. While