Saint Angela of the Cross Guerrero

Also known as

Angela de la Cruz
Angela Guerrero Gonzalez
Angela of the Cross Guerrero y González
Angelita (family nickname)
Maria of the Angels
Mother Angela of the Cross
Mother of the Poor

Memorial

2 March

Profile

One of fourteen children born to a poor but pious family; only five of her siblings survived to adulthood. Her father worked as a cook and her mother a laundress in a Trinitarian Fathers convent, and Angela had to quit school at age twelve to work in a shoe factory to help support her family. She made her First Communion at age eight, Confirmation at nine; she prayed the rosary daily, and had a great devotion as a youth to Christ Crucified. Her piety was so obvious that her employer, Antonia Maldonado, brought her to the attention of Father José Torres Padilla. He became her spiritual director when she was 16, and helped discern if Angela had a call to religious life.

She first tried to join the Carmelites, was refused, and when she was finally accepted at age 19, became so sick that she was forced to return to her family. When she recovered, she began caring for cholera victims, and those even poorer than herself. In 1868 she entered the convent of the Daughters of Charity of Seville, Spain, but again her health failed, and she was forced to return to her parents and the shoeshop. In 1871, with Father Padilla's blessing, she started a plan whereby she lived at home under a particular Rule, yearly renewing her vows.

While in prayer in 1873 she received a vision that she understood was calling her to a mission to the poor, and she began keeping a spiritual diary to record what she understood of the life God was calling her to. Others were attracted to her life, and on 2 August 1875 the Congregation of the Cross was born. The Congregation works with the sick, the poor, orphans, the homeless, finding them food, medicine, housing, and other needs, living solely on alms, and keeping only enough for themselves to continue their work. Though they started with only Mother Angela and three sisters, they had grown to 23 convents during her life, and continue their good works today.

Born

30 January 1846 at Seville, Spain as Maria of the Angels Guerrero Gonzalez

Died

2 March 1932 in Seville, Spain of natural causes

Beatified

5 November 1982 by Pope John Paul II at Seville, Spain

Canonized

4 May 2003 by Pope John Paul II at Plaza de Colón, Madrid, Spain

Additional Information

Kirken i Norge norwegian
L'Osservatore Romano
The Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Brunson

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Readings

The nothing keeps silent, the nothing does not want to be, the nothing suffers all. The nothing does not impose itself, the nothing does not command with authority, and finally, the nothing in the creature is practical humility.

Saint Angela

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Love and sensitivity to the poor...prompted Saint Angela of the Cross to found her "Company of the Cross" for the most deprived with a charitable and social dimension that made an enormous impact on the Church and society of Seville in her day. Her distinctive traits were naturalness and simplicity, seeking holiness with a spirit of mortification and at the service of God in her brothers and sisters.

Pope John Paul II in his homily at the canonization of Saint Angela

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