Tag: Angela da Foligno

Analysis of Angela Da Foligno Memorial: Devotion

CELEBRAZIONE EUCARISTICA 4 gennaio Sant'Angela da Foligno
Portrait of St. Angela Da Foligno

While reading Angela Da Foligno’s Memorial, it was easy to feel and vividly experience the devotion that she felt towards God. Particularly in Step Six, she uses terms such as “illuminating grace” to describe what she faced during this step. Here, she was presented with all of her sins, begging the “creatures” to not “accuse” her. Throughout Steps Eight and Nine, you can also envision this. Not only did she feel guilt and remorse for the way that Jesus died on the cross, but she also took it upon herself to offer herself to him, including the removal of her clothing. She wanted to “give my [her] heart to christ” because of all the good that he accomplished for her, something that only one with true devotion to God and Jesus would bear to do.

Angela da Foligno

Angela of Foligno - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia
Saint Angela of Foligno

Reading Angela da Foligno’s steps of penance was very interesting to me. It was very different to our previous readings, as this one felt the closest to god. It was very spiritual, and felt “separated” from being human, if that’s the right way to put it. The language felt different. An example of this would be the sixth step where she talks about acknowledging her sins. She uses very spiritual language when describing her experiences. She called her knowledge of her sins as an “illuminating grace”. Another small detail that was interesting to me was when she described her love as fire, which reminds me of Dante’s inferno, full of fire representative of life, full of strong emotion.

Angela da Foligno: Step Fourteen

Angela Da Foligno’s story has amazing imagery that came through very strongly. In her story, she talks about the steps it took that made her closer to God. In my opinion, the step that had the best imagery was step number fourteen. Angela talks about how Jesus spoke to her and gave her a greater knowledge of himself. Angela states, “He summoned me and told me to place my mouth at the wound in his side; and it seemed to me that I was seeing and drinking his blood as it was freshly flowing from his side.” This particular quote from Memorial of Angela da Foligno was very significant to me because of how integrated the details were. After she drunk his blood, he told her that it was cleansing her, which is also another detail that was very notable because of how squirmy it made me. I also enjoyed how she told this as a story and explained the step by step process of how this gruesome event happened. It helps me as the reader create a scene and setting for the words on the paper, like a movie in my head.

Angela da Foligno Analysis:

One part of Angela da Foligno’s Memorial that interested me was on page 29, where Angela states that she wishes to die a “vile death”. This took place during the 14th step, where begins to wish that she could be “rightfully killed for faith in Him or love of Him”, as she wants to die for Jesus as he died for humanity. She then elaborates, stating that she wished to be crucified like Jesus was, but to be put in a ditch by her killer since she’s “not worthy to die as saints die”. She closes off this step by repeatedly saying how she wants her death to be horrid and long, and how it pains her that she “could not find a vile death”. 

This part in particular interested me because over the course of this text, we see Angela’s self-worth completely diminish as she continues to devote herself to God. It starts off with wanting to give her things to the poor, then escalates to her not eating or drinking, then finally ending with her wishing to die and (literally) give her life to God. It seems as though over the course of cleansing her soul, Angela’s become desensitized to death. We first see this perspective in the beginning of page 27, as she informs the scribe about the deaths of her mother, husband, and children. While this would be tragic to most, she seems unphased by this as she believes “God accomplished these things for me”, which makes it clear that she puts her utmost trust in God and believes that he does everything for a reason. Her apathy towards death progresses and this is where we see Angela wish for a “vile death”, which shows that not even death cannot waver her sense of trust in God or her desire to cleanse her soul.