Tag: Devotion

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’s Memorial Analysis

St. Angela of Foligno by mephetti

In Angela da Foligno’s Memorial, she writes about her devoted journey to becoming closer to God and repenting her sins. She writes out her journey into steps. When describing her experience during the fourteenth step, Angela writes graphic details about what God told her to do. In the first paragraph on page 29, Angela says that God is telling her to drink the blood from his side wound. She says that his blood is cleansing her. This is very bloody and graphic imagery. Angela enhances this imagery by describing the blood from his wound as “freshly flowing”. In reality, the image she portrays in her writing is difficult to visualize based on the human experience. In the second paragraph, she tells us about asking God to pour out the blood in her body so that she can “ suffer a death more vile than his”.  This demonstrates Angela’s level of devotion to God.

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.