BL. MARIA ANGELA ASTORCH - 2 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

 Saints celebrated on the 2nd of December 

WELCOME!

BL. MARIA ANGELA ASTORCH, VIRGIN

Blessed Maria Angela was born Jeronima Astorch on September 1, 1592 in Barcelona, ​​Catalonia, Spain. Both her parents died in when she was an infant, and Jeronima lived from the age of five to nine in the house of her governess. 

As a seven-year-old, she became severely ill and was cared for by Mother Angela Margarita Serafina Prat, who had founded the Capuchin Monastery in Barcelona in 1591. 

In this monastery already lived Jeronima's older sister Isabel, and she herself entered at the age of eleven on September 16, 1603, when the bishop personally handed her over to Mother Angela.

THE BISHOP PERSONALLY HANDED ISABEL OVER

On September 7, 1608, she started the novitiate and was given the name Maria Angela. Her novice master was her sister Isabel. On December 15, 1508, the sisters were gathered for a chapter and gave their assent that Sr Maria Angela became involved in the community. 

On the same day, Mother Angela became bedridden, and on December 24, 1608, she died to the great sorrow of all the sisters. In 1609, the sisters adopted the rules of the Clarisses and became Capuchin Clarissas (Ordo Sanctae Clarae Capuccinarum - OSCCap). On September 8, 1609, Angela made her three vows. 

BLESSED ANGELA MADE HER THREE VOWS

The monastery in Barcelona experienced an influx of candidates, and soon new monasteries could be opened. In 1609 monasteries were founded in Gerona and Valencia, and in 1614 the trip came to Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon. 

On May 24, 1614, six sisters, including 21-year-old Maria Angela, arrived at what was to become the convent of Nuestra Senora de los Angeles in Zaragoza. Maria Angela became novice master and secretary to the abbess. Her sister Isabel was now the abbess of Barcelona, ​​but she died two years later in the odor of sanctity.

THE NEW COMMUNITY

Maria Angela had served as novice master for three periods, from 1614 to 1623, when she took over responsibility for the formation of the young sisters who had made the vows. In 1626 she was elected abbess, an office she held for three consecutive terms. She was only 33 years old and had to have a dispensation, since the canonical minimum age was 40 years. 

On June 9, 1645, she was sent with four nuns to found a new community in Murcia, where she spent her last twenty years as an abbess. For sixteen years she was also a novice master, at the request of the community.

HER SPIRITUALITY WAS EXEMPLARY

Both as a novice master and abbess, her spirituality was exemplary, and she showed great respect for everyone's uniqueness. She was extremely wise and learned and had a deep love for the liturgy. She became famous through numerous mysterious writings, and there are still unpublished works in the monastery archives in Murcia. She was a mystic and received visions, and she could see and communicate with her guardian angel.

"PANGE LINGUA"

From 1654 Maria Angela suffered from diseases that worried the nuns. In 1661 she quickly lost her intellectual abilities. On November 21, 1665, she suffered a stroke, and at the same time she regained her spiritual abilities so that she could confess and receive the last sacraments. She died peacefully on December 2, 1665 in Murcia, aged 73, after intonating Pange Lingua. Her tomb is in the Monasterio de la Exaltacion del SS. Sacramento and Murcia.

More information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Angela_Astorch

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Maria Angela may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.