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Female Companionship in angela oF Foligno’s LIBER: The Role oF angela’s SOCIA (“masazuola”) Joy a. sChRoedeR One day, probably in the early 1290s, a woman living in Foligno heard a voice say to her three times: “The Holy Spirit is in Lella.”1 “Lella” was Angela of Foligno (c. 1248-1309), who had just joined the Franciscan third order. This unnamed woman went to Angela and said: “Tell me what’s happening,” or literally, “Tell me what you have, because this was said to me three times.” Angela responded, “If this was said to you, it is pleasing to me.” Thenceforth Angela “communicated many divine secrets to her companion.”2 Who was this woman who heard a divine voice and became Angela’s follower? As we explore the story of the story of Angela’s companion, we learn not only about this important yet elusive character in the account, but also more about the patterns of relationships 1 Memoriale 3.167, in Il Libro della beata Angela da Foligno, ed. Ludger Thier and Abele Calufetti (Grottaferrata: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1985), 188. Chapter and line numbers in this essay refer to this edition. This essay was presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in May 2008 at a session honoring Sister Ingrid Peterson, O.S.F. It is offered in gratitude for the many ways Sister Ingrid has worked to promote and nurture scholarly work on the history of Franciscan women. For many years she has been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me in my studies of Angela of Foligno 2 Et ex tunc ivit ad eam et coepit inquirere dicens: Dicas mihi istud quod habes, quia mihi sic ter dictum est. Et illa fidelis Christi respondit: Si tibi dictum est, placet mihi. Et affirmavit. Et ex tunc illa fidelis Christi communicavit sociae suae plura de divinis secretis. Memoriale 3.165-70. JOY SCHROEDER 128 among female tertiaries and other devout women in duecento and trecento Italy. The idenTiTy oF “m.” If all references to Angela’s companion, or socia, refer to the same woman, she is mentioned in twenty-one separate instances in the text of Angela of Foligno’s Liber: sixteen times in the Memorial and five times in the Instructions.3 Three of the five occurrences in the Instructions are found in the Assisi codex (Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale 342), the oldest and most reliable manuscript of the Liber, where the companion is once identified by the initial M.4 Two more occurrences are in the Subiaco manuscript (Biblioteca Monastero S. Scolastica 112), from the late fifteenth century, which uses the abbreviations Ma. and Mas.5 Introductory material in the Italian translation of the Liber, the Milano codex from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century (Biblioteca Trivulziana 150), refers to her as Angela’s “virtuous companion Masa3 One possible reference to the companion that I do not include in that count is found in Instructio 3.47 and 3.72. Here the scribe interrupts the text to address “M.”: Hic enim dixisti tu M. mihi scribenti. There is disagreement about whether this refers to M. the companion or “Mater” Angela. M.-J. Ferré believed that “M.” referred to the companion, whom he calls “Marie.” M.-J. Ferré, ed., Le livre de l’expérience des vrais fidèles: Texte latin publié d’après le manuscript d’Assise (Paris: Éditions E. Droz, 1927), 254 n. 1. However, from the context and content, the individual (presumably Angela) who is dictating the entire instruction seems to be the person who is addressed here. 4 Et ora pro me vilissima creatura et pro socia mea M. quae est multum infirma. Instructio 18.89-90. For the priority of the Assisi codex, see Dominic Poirel, “Le Liber d’Angèle de Foligno: Enquête sur un Exemplar disparu,” Revue d’Histoire des Textes 32 (2002): 225-63; E. Paoli, “Le due redazioni del Liber: Il perché di un riscrittura,” in Angèle de Foligno: Le Dossier, ed. Giulia Barone and Jacques Dalarun (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1999), 29-70; Attilio Bartoli Langeli, “Il codice di Assisi, ovvero il Liber sororis Lelle,” in Barone and Dalarun, Le Dossier, 7-27. 5 Instructio 13.37-38 reads: Et orate pro socia mea Ma., quae plus solito est infirma. Instructio 17.19-20 reads: Cogitavi autem quod ista est invidia quam aliquando habui Mas., quando credo quod est magis coniuncta cum Deo quam ego...

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