Her Bright Merits: Essays Honoring Ingrid J. Peterson, O.S.F.

Angela of Foligno, Magistra Theologorum outside the Universities: An Example of Medieval Somatic Theology

ANGELA OF FOLIGNO, MAGISTRA THEOLOGORUM OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITIES: AN EXAMPLE OF MEDIEVAL SOMATIC THEOLOGY DARLEEN PRYDS One of the lasting legacies Ingrid Peterson has brought to Franciscan studies is the insistence to break away from patriarchal assumptions and interpretations that have marred Franciscan studies (and I would add Franciscan spirituality ). In her compelling biography of Clare of Assisi, Ingrid Peterson argued that Clare initiated her spiritual path independently of Francis and that they came to follow the same path inspired as they were by the Gospel. Clare did not trail after a saint who had been canonized … When Clare was influenced by Francis’s preaching it wasn’t because his personal life was a model for her. It was not because she finally found her knight in shining armor, the man of her dreams; it was because Clare had a hunch that what Francis said about the Gospel and the poorness of Jesus is what she could put into action in her own soul.1 The starting point for both Francis and Clare was God, and the two individually shared a desire to live out the Gospel . Yet, Peterson muses that because of the patriarchal primacy not only in the Church, but also in scholarly culture, Clare has been evaluated and assessed only in relationship 1 Ingrid J. Peterson, Clare of Assisi. A Biographical Study (Quincy: Franciscan Press, 1993), 9. DARLEEN PRYDS 144 to Francis for 800 years.2 One could even say that this supposed dependence of spirituality and sanctity has been superimposed onto Clare because of the institutional and cultural structures of public relations or promotion. Peterson affirms that while Clare’s sanctity was earned in her own right, “without the popularity of Saint Francis, who provided the masculine approval that seems essential to validate a woman’s life, the story of Clare as a saint might have remained hidden.”3 While Clare’s spirituality originated in her relationship to the Divine, her story and the diffusion of this story, that is, the history of Clare was dependent on Francis. The history and contribution of many women in the Franciscan tradition have remained hidden or distorted because of the assumption that men’s ways of knowing and men’s ways of faith are the model for all faithful. This article uses Peterson’s call for reevaluating the role of patriarchal assumptions and looks at a very different Franciscan woman whose contributions have been overlooked and even seen with embarrassment: Angela of Foligno. While Clare remains the most popular and well known woman in the Franciscan tradition to many people today, and is often presumed to be the model of the feminine form of Franciscan spirituality,4 Angela’s spiritual journey and career as a spiritual advisor and theologian warrant inclusion in any volume honoring Ingrid Peterson because of her call to readdress the patriarchal presumptions that have skewed our understanding of Franciscan history and tradition since Angela’s story and her place in Franciscan history have been so distorted and overlooked. Among her contemporaries Angela of Foligno (d. 1309) was famous and influential. While she remains relatively unknown today except for those with keen interest in Franciscan spirituality and history, Angela became famous to her contemporaries for her passionate spirituality, her widely circulating letters of spiritual advice, and her theological 2 Peterson, 6. 3 Peterson, Clare of Assisi, 2. 4 Beth Lynn, O.S.C., says as much in her preface to Peterson’s book, xix. ANGELA OF FOLIGNO, MAGISTRA THEOLOGORUM 145 learning. Her theological wisdom and learning were especially highlighted by her promoters: … [A] strong woman brought to light what was buried under by blind men and their worldly speculations ... Learn from Angela the great counsel, the wisdom of the way of the cross and its riches, namely the poverty , suffering, contempt, and the true obedience of the good Jesus and his most sweet mother. Teach it to men and women and all creatures through the language of efficacious deeds. So that you may be proud in being called to such a school, know, dear ones, that she herself is the teacher in the discipline of God and the one chosen for this work.5 To be called “the teacher in the discipline of God” is a mighty tribute. When the lay Franciscan woman, Angela of Foligno, received this accolade in the epilogue to the compilation of her theological and spiritual teachings, she had already...