Saint Frances of Rome, Religious

Frances was born in Rome in 1384 into a noble family. She wished to become a nun, but at twelve was married to Lorenzo Ponziani; the marriage was a happy one, lasting forty years. With her sister-in-law Vannozza she visited the poor and the hospitals. In years of war, plague and famine she lost two of her children, saw the family’s estates plundered and her house turned into a hospital.

In 1425 she gathered a group of women who lived in the world and served the poor, and in 1433 they began to live together at Tor de’ Specchi, as the Oblates of Mary. After her husband’s death she joined them herself. She told of being accompanied by her guardian angel, whom she could see. She died on 9 March 1440.