Saint Angela Merici - January 27

UrsulineSisters MSJ St. Angela Merici VIRGIN (C. 1470-1540)

Feast Day: January 27 SAINT ANGELA MERICI VIRGIN (C. 1470-1540)
St. Angela Merici was born at Desenzano, near Brescia, about 1470. Her parents had died when she was ten and she had gone to live with an uncle. When her uncle died, she returned to her hometown and began to notice how little education the girls had; so Angela saw her task as the formation of Christian women.
In 1535 she founded the institute of the Ursulines, who were devoted to the education of poor girls as Christians, and to the missions. It was the first group of women religious to work outside the cloister and the first teaching order of women.
She died in 1540.