Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 3089
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Peterson , Ingrid, O.S.F.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Angela of Foligno: The Active Life and the Following of Christ
  • Source: Studies in Spirituality 10, ( 2000): Pages 125 - 142.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Active Life, Religious Ideal Angela of Foligno, Mystic Francis of Assisi, Saint Franciscan Order- Tertiaries Jesus Christ- Imitation of Mystics Poverty Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 13
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: In her "Memorial" Angela of Foligno (1248-1309), Franciscan tertiary, prescribes a method of holiness for those who wish primarily to follow in the footprints of Christ's public life. While prayer was the avenue through which she came to know and experience God, Angela's formula for the spiritual journey is not a way of prayer as much as a way of life in imitation of Jesus. She claims that practicing poverty, enduring suffering, and accepting the contempt of others are the virtues that she experienced while "in God," the virtues that Jesus lived, and therefore, chose to embrace. Angela names qualitites (nouns) in contrast to Clare of Assisi (1193-1253), who sought to live the gospel message of Francis as a contemplative and who taught that activity (verbs) in prayer leads to union with God: to gaze, to consider, and to contemplate. Angela's description of following Christ outside the monasic tradition corresponds to the treatment of the contemporary spritual life given by Parker Palmer in the "Active Life: Wisdom for Work, Caring and Creativity." Both reach for images that touch the life energies of their time to bring wholeness to the active life. [Reproduced with permission of the Titus Brandsma Institute (The Netherlands). Copies of "Studies in Spirituality" can be ordered from the publisher: Peeters Publishers, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Louvain (www.peeters-leuven.be).]
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University; IngridP@centuryinter.net
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2000.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 09266453