Women of the Streets : Early Franciscan Women and their Mendicant Vocation

Chapter Three. Angela of Foligno (d. 1309) Master of Theologians

Darleen pryDs 34 ChaPTer Three anGela of foliGno (d. 1309) masTer of TheoloGians When you’re seeking advice on a problem, chances are you ask someone you think has had adequate experience to help: someone who knows firsthand the nature of the problem and can identify with your dilemma. Medieval people were no different. And when it came to religious questions and spiritual problems some people in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century turned to Angela of Foligno in the same way twentieth century Americans turned to Abigail Van Buren in the twentieth century: they wrote letters. For this reason, Angela of Foligno could be called the “Dear Abby” of late medieval Italy.42 42 Abigail Van Buren, the pen name for Pauline Phillips, began a popular advice column that became syndicated in the American press in 1956. Her importance in American social history and the importance of advice columnists in general have been rigorously studied in recent years. For a discussion on the role of advice columnists in early American intellectual history, see Catherine Kerrison, Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006). Although medieval equivalents are rare, Angela stands out as an important example of how a woman could claim religious and social authority through letters of advice and support. ANGELA OF FOLIGNO 35 The comparison of Angela to a modern American advice columnist is especially appropriate because of the way in which women participated (and how they were allowed to participate) in the intellectual tradition of the Franciscan movement in particular, and in intellectual pursuits at all throughout much of Church history. While unable to attend classes formally at institutions of higher learning and therefore unable to study and take on the pursuits traditionally associated with theological learning, medieval women studied informally with confessors or by listening to sermons, and found outlets other than formal theological treatises in which to share their learning. Receiving letters from the faithful who sought spiritual direction and advice and responding in kind with letters is one important way in which Angela established her place in the Franciscan intellectual tradition. A second way in which Angela participated in the intellectual tradition of the Franciscan movement was through her autobiography or spiritual memoir. This text, called the Memorial, reveals how Angela took in fundamental Franciscan teachings such as reflection on the Crucifixion and Passion of Christ, but then expressed this learning through the grief, suffering, and pain that she experienced through reflection . Far from being an academic text on the Passion, her rendition of it and of all Franciscan theology was expressed through a physical understanding of theology. Passionate and embodied, Angela’s theological understanding was a visceral one, and she wrote about it in her Memorial. Angela’s exuberant expression of faith and theology can jar the unassuming reader today, which is all the more reason to remember that among her contemporaries, Angela became known as the Magistra Theologorum, or “Master of Theologians.” Her passionate experience of spiritual beliefs and her willingness to express the challenges these experiences brought to her life made her stand out among both men and women in her day as a spiritual and intellectual master. Darleen pryDs 36 bioGraPhiCal overvieW Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) emerged as an important religious teacher and spiritual director in large part because of the complicated inner journey she herself endured. Having been married with children when she suffered a mid-life crisis that evolved into an intense religious conversion lasting several years, Angela was seen by her contemporaries as someone who had “been there,” and could therefore be trusted. Her reputation was also legitimized and promoted by her close working relationship with Franciscan friars. Her voice as a spiritual director resonated uniquely among her contemporaries. As the author of her own spiritual memoir and of letters of spiritual instruction that remain extant, her voice continues to resonate uniquely today. Angela was probably born around 1248 in Foligno, a city not far from Assisi.43 “Lella,” as she was known, was reared in a rather affluent family and married around the age of twenty. Angela was a woman from what we would call the upper-middle class. She carried out a significant number of domestic responsibilities, as a wife, mother, and caregiver for her aging mother. Then suddenly during the course of this busy life, she experienced a mid...