Saint Angela Merici (1470-1540)

As a young woman, Saint Angela Merici felt called to life in a religious order and became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. In the order, she lived a very simple life, owning nothing. It greatly troubled her how uneducated poor children were. She began giving lessons to the poor girls in her neighborhood, and others soon joined her in her ministry. Angela established the first teaching order of women in the Church, called the Ursulines. The order was created with the goal of more prominently bringing Christianity into family life, beginning with a good Christian education for girls who would one day become wives and mothers. Saint Angela Merici was canonized in 1807, and she is the patron saint of disabled people, sick people, and against illness.