Saint Angela Merici, Virgin

Angela Merici was born in 1474 at Desenzano on Lake Garda and was orphaned young. She became a Franciscan tertiary and began teaching girls of poor families the faith. In 1516 she moved to Brescia. On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524 she lost her sight on the way, and regained it on the way back.

In 1535 she gathered twenty-eight young women into the Company of Saint Ursula. They did not live in a convent or wear a habit: they stayed in their families, and devoted themselves to prayer and the teaching of girls. It was the first group of its kind, and the Ursulines later became one of the great teaching orders. Angela died in Brescia on 27 January 1540 and was canonized in 1807.