Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 07-03-08
Angela of Foligno (c.1248-1309)
========================================================================
"OF WHAT USE ARE REVELATIONS, VISIONS, FEELINGS OF GOD'S
PRESENCE?"
========================================================================
Angela lived in Foligno, an Italian city about ten miles from Assisi. She married and had several sons. In her 30s, about 1285, she underwent some kind of moral crisis: she had committed some sin so shameful that she would not tell her confessor, and therefore she feared hell. She prayed to Francis of Assisi, who had died some 60 years before, and in a dream he promised to help her. Soon after, she met a relative who was a Franciscan friar (whom tradition calls Fra Arnaldo), and she was able to make a full confession to him.
This incident acted as a conversion point for Angela: she did penance for her sins and came to embrace the Franciscan ideal of poverty. When her husband, sons, and mother died within a year, although she mourned her loss, she also saw it as a stripping away of attachments. She tried to give away all of her property, but at first her family and even her Franciscan counselors stopped her.
About five years later, she made a pilgrimage to Rome; on her return she did give most of what she owned to the poor, and became a Franciscan tertiary (a lay person affiliated with the order). She made a pilgrimage to Assisi; there she had the first of many visionary experiences.
Then or in the following year, she told Fra Arnaldo of her visions; after considerable initial skepticism, he believed her and began to write Memoriale in Latin as she dictated it in her Umbrian dialect (sometimes with results that Angela felt misstated her intentions) and with his own narration as a frame (Arnaldo's asides on his difficulties with his superiors and with his own lack of self-confidence are amusing). By 1298, Memoriale was complete, and began to be circulated in the area.
After finishing Memoriale, Angela appears to have lived
quietly in Foligno, but her influence grew, especially among
those Franciscan friars who were working to reform the order
from what they saw as its decadence since the death of Francis.
For them, whom she called her "sons," she wrote or
dictated letters --- some brief encouragements, some lengthy
treatises --- on the spiritual life. After her death, these were
collected into what is now called her Instructiones.
The 9 chapters of Memoriale and the 36 sections of Instructiones
are usually published together under the title, Il Libro della
Beata Angela da Foligno. What is fascinating is the difference
in tone between the voices of the two works: in Memoriale,
Angela needs to constantly "feel" the presence of God
and is unsure of her ability to make everything clear to the
questioning Arnaldo; in Instructiones, Angela is sure
of herself and of her God and believes that she can help her
"sons."
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
========================================================================
1. A link to the text of The Book of Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno, Mary G. Steegmann's 1909 translation of a 1510 Italian translation from the Latin, which frequently joins parts of Memoriale and Instructiones without any signal and which sometimes alters the original; you can also download the work as a PDF file.
2. From other translations:
(a) Use your browser's search function to go to "Angela" for a group of brief passages that summarize Chaper 1 of Memoriale, on the early stages of her conversion, translated by Timothea Doyle.
(b) Go to "Angela" for a passage from Chapter 6 of Memoriale (which contains what has become Angela's most quoted line, "This world is pregnant with God!"), and another from Instructiones #5, on "the primary virtue"; the translation is by Paul Lachance.
(c) Go to "Angela" for an alternative version of the first excerpt just above, "The eyes of my soul were opened." translated by Evelyn Underhill.
(d) In this 1997 essay by Karma Lochrie, "Mystical Acts, Queer Tendencies," go to "Angela" for a passage from Chapter 7 of Memoriale, on the emotional effect of the experience of God. The translation is by Caroline Walker Bynum; the Latin original is given at footnote 14.
(e) Second in a group of quotations, other lines from Chapter 7, on the experience of God and the impossibility of describing it.
(f) Go to "Angela" for Lachance's translation of a passage from Chapter 9 of Memoriale, on the presence of God in both good and evil.
(g) Go to "Angela" for lines from Instructiones #1, describing herself before her "conversion": "Being the while full of greediness, gluttony and drunkenness"'; the translation is by Underhill.
(h) In this alphabetical list, go to "Angela" for links to two passages, in Lachance's translation, from Instructiones #3, on the purpose of prayer and on Jesus as the "Book of Life"; in the text the second passage immediately follows the first. (Instructiones #3, on prayer, was the most widely known of Angela's writing during her lifetime.)
(i) At the second use of "Angela," a later passage from Instructiones #3, on Jesus' teachings about prayer.
(j) After a brief biography and one of the passages found above in (h), two other excerpts from Instructiones: the end of #5, on self-examination; and part of the last instruction, #36, on judging no one (for more of this passage, see below, under "In print"). The translation is by Lachance.
(k) A section of Instructiones #22 (one of the earliest, known to have been written about 1298), on Jesus' permitting his own passion.
(l) From the opening of Instructiones #35, a letter written to her followers shortly before her death, "My God, make me worthy to know."
3. Links to the chapters of the Latin
originals of both Memoriale and Instructiones.
4. Essays, etc.:
(a) "The Shocking Mysticism of Angela of Foligno" (2006), by Tyler Simons, describes how Angela was viewed by her scribe (Fra Arnaldo) and how she might be viewed by modern readers; Quoted passages from Memoriale are translated by John Cirignano.
(b) "Angela da Foligno's Memoriale: The Male Scribe, the Female Voice, and the Other" (2005), by Dino S. Cervigni, discusses the changing relationships between Angela and God (the "other") and between Angela and her scribe.
(c) "Connecting with the God-Man: Angela of Foligno's Sensual Communion and Priestly Identity" (1998), by Molly G. Morrison, traces the development of Angela's interaction with Jesus and her own priestly role; quotations are given from Lachance's translation.
(d) "In Search of the Subject: Angela of Foligno and Her Mediator" (1994), by Daria Valentini, discusses Arnaldo's role as scribe/editor and on Angela's concept of love, with translations by Lachance.
(e) "The Mystical Journey of Angela of Foligno" (1987), by Paul Lachance, analyzes the stages described in Memoriale (and speaks briefly of Instructiones); this essay would become part of the introduction to Lachance's 1993 translation of Angela's complete works.
(f) A 2004 dissertation abstract by Diane V Tomkinson, "'In the midst of the Trinity': Angela of Foligno's Trinitarian Theology of Communion."
5. Reviews (for more on the books' treatment of Angela, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Cynthia D. Bertelsen on Cristina Mazzoni's 2005 study, The Women in God's Kitchen: Cooking, Eating, and Spiritual Writing.
(b) Robert Lerner on David Burr's 2001 study, The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis.
(c) Clarence Thomson on the 2000 essay collection, Lay Sanctity, Medieval and Modern: A Search for Models.
(d) James A. Wiseman on Bernard McGinn's 1998 history, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350).
(e) Catherine M. Mooney on Elizabeth Petroff's 1994 study, Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism.
6. After a brief biography and list of editions and translations, a multi-page bibliography of studies through 2006.
7. Angela shown in an early manuscript illumination.
8. The publisher's description of Angela of Foligno's Memorial, John Cirignano's 2000 translation of selections from that work (for more about the book, see under "In print").
9. For historical background on what led up to the reform in which Angela was involved, the first chapter (on two pages) of Burr's The Spiritual Franciscans.
========================================================================
[Paul Lachance's translation of Memoriale and Instructiones has a detailed introduction and extensive notes. Lachance recommends that Instructiones be read not in the order in which they are printed but rather chronologically; he gives his preferred order on p. 352:]
Complete works / Angela of Foligno; translated, with an introduction
by Paul Lachance; preface by Romana Guarnieri (The Classics of
Western spirituality). New York: Paulist Press, 1993. (xii, 424
p.)
LC#: BX4705.A59 A2 1993; ISBN: 0809104601, 0809133660
Includes bibliographical references (p. 417) and index.
Memoriale
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What I wanted was that God would make me actually feel...."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On Angela's need to feel assurance:]
I was being told that the Trinity was at once one, and a union of many. Then, as a further explanation, the example of the sun as well as other examples were presented to me, but I rejected these, for when I hear such great things I push them aside fearfully because I feel unworthy of them. What I wanted was that God would make me actually feel that on this point, the presence of the Holy Trinity in me, I could not be deceived. [p.145]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What took place is so different from what can be said about
it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On her inability to communicate her experience:]
The voice then told me, and I felt it, that God was embracing my soul. I truly did feel that this was happening. But now it seems that everything we are trying to say about this experience reduces it to a mere trifle, because what took place is so different from what can be said about it. I myself am very ashamed that I cannot find better words to describe it. [p.148]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...a special grace that he does not grant to others who
were virgins."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Angela needed to have explained to her why someone like her,
a married woman who had lived a sinful life, could be given visionary
experiences:]
He [Christ] offered still another example...: "Those of my little children who withdraw from my kingdom by their sinning and make themselves sons of the devil, when they return to the Father, because he rejoices over their return, he demonstrates to them how especially joyful he is. Such indeed is his joy that he grants them a special grace that he does not grant to others who were virgins and had never gone away from him." [pp.155-156]
-----------------------------------------------
"It is first told by God: 'Look at me.'"
-----------------------------------------------
[She describes her visionary experience:]
The soul is granted the gift to see God in the following fashion. It is first told by God: "Look at me." And then the soul sees him taking shape within itself and it sees him more clearly that a person can see another person, for the eyes of the soul, in this experience, see a fullness of God of which I am not able to speak. What they see is a spiritual and not a material reality which is inexpressible. The soul delights in this vision, and this is an evident sign for it that God is within it. [p.189]
Instructiones
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Go back to yourself, start from the beginning...."
--------------------------------------------------------------
[From a letter to a young man, one of her followers, written in 1297-98; here she instructs him on how to progress toward a visionary experience:]
Moreover, my son, I desire with all my heart that your soul be elevated to see this suffering God-man [Christ], for this pleases me very much.
But if your soul is not elevated, go back to yourself, start from the beginning and review from head to foot all the ways in which this suffering God-man was afflicted and crucified.
If you cannot regain and rediscover these ways in your heart, repeat them vocally, attentively and frequently; because what the lips say and repeat grants fervor and warmth to the heart. [#18, p. 272]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I do not want you to be like those who preach only with
words of learning."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[By 1298, Angela had become a "mother" to a group of Franciscans trying to reform the order that Francis had founded 90 years earlier; she was on the reformers' side, but always tried to keep them from going to extremes. Here she supports those who questioned whether their goal of absolute poverty should allow them to possess even books:]
When you come across flatterers, men or women, who tell you: "Brother, your words have converted me to penance," do not pay any attention to them but rather turn to the Creator and thank him for this blessing. There are many preachers of falsehoods whose preaching is full of greed, and out of greed they preach for honors, money, and fame.
My beloved sons, I wish with all my heart that you preach
the holy truth and that the book you rely on be the God-man.
I do not tell you to give up your books, but that you should
always be willing to do this, whether you keep them or abandon
them. I do not want you to be like those who preach only with
words of learning and dryly report the deeds of saints, but rather
speak about them with the same divine savor as they had who performed
these deeds. [#7, pp.261-262]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Your life may be, even when your tongue is silent, a clear
mirror."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From a letter, late 1298 or early 1299, to Angela's followers among the Franciscan reformers; she agrees with their goal, but hopes it can be achieved peacefully and without destroying the unity of the order:]
I desire that you have in your souls what leads from discord to unanimity, namely, becoming little. When you are little, you do not consider yourself self-sufficient because of your knowledge or natural abilities, but rather you are always inclined to acknowledge your defects....
To be little also means that you are not a threat or a burden to others; nor are your words contentious, even if your life strikes a powerful blow to all those who are opposed to littleness. This is what I desire from you, my dearest sons, that by following this way of littleness and poverty, disciplined zeal and compassion, your life may be, even when your tongue is silent, a clear mirror for those who wish to follow this way, and a sharp-edged sword against the enemies of truth.
O my beloved, forgive me my pride --- I who am the proudest of all and a daughter of pride --- if I dare to admonish you and lead you in the direction of humility, even though I am the very contrary of humility....
My dearest ones, my soul will be greatly put at ease if I hear from you that having become little has made you of one heart and soul, for without this unity, in truth, I do not see how you can please God. [#9, p.263]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I do not see that my letters or my words should or could
console you."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From a 1299 letter to her followers; a much different attitude to visions than that expressed in the Memorial:]
O my dearest sons, of what use are revelations, visions, feelings of God's presence, sweetnesses from him? Of what use are gifts of wisdom, elevations? Of what use even is contemplation? Indeed all these are useless unless one has a true knowledge of God and self.
That is why I am surprised that you expect letters from me, because I do not see that my letters or my words should or could console you... unless they bestow upon you the kind of knowledge I am referring to. I find delight in speaking about this truth and nothing else; and silence has been imposed on me for everything else. [#14, p.267]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"None of these amount to anything without humility of heart."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From a letter to her followers, 1305-06; perhaps the reformers had become a bit proud of their own virtue:]
For neither abstinence, severe fasting, outward poverty, shabby clothing, outward show of good works, the performance of miracles --- none of these amount to anything without humility of heart. Rather, abstinence will become blessed, austerity and shabby clothes will become blessed. good deeds will become blessed and full of life, when they are solidly founded in humility.
Humility of heart is the matrix in which all the other virtues and virtuous works are engendered and from which they spring, much as the trunk and branches spring from a root. [#5, p.252]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There is greater deception in spiritual advantages than
in temporal ones."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Finally, from an account by one of her followers of her words during her last illness in 1309:]
Judge no one, even when you see someone commit mortal sin. I do not tell you that sin should not displease you, or that you should not abhor sin, but I say that you should not judge sinners, because you do not know the judgments of God. For many seem to us to be saved and are actually damned before God, and there are many who seem to us to be damned and are saved by God.
I can tell you that there are some whom you have despised, who stray, that is, who are destroying the good things they have begun, but about whom I entertain a strong hope that God will lead him back to his way....
....Cursed be the advantages in life which inflate the soul: power, honor, and ecclesiastical office! My little children, strive to be small.... Truly a soul cannot have a better awareness in this world than to perceive its own nothingness and to stay in its own cell.
There is greater deception in spiritual advantages than in temporal ones --- that is, to know how to speak about God, to do great penances, to understand the Scriptures, and to have one's heart almost constantly preoccupied with spiritual matters. For those who are taken by them fall many times into errors and are more difficult to lead back to the right way than those who have temporal advantages. [#36, pp.314-316]
========================================================================
[This brief selection frrom Memoriale and Instructiones in no way replaces Lachance's 1993 translation (above); it lacks the detailed introduction and essential notes of that work (and omits the enjoyable sections in which Fra Arnaldo tries to put everything together). It can, however, act as an introduction to Angela's thought. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Angela of Foligno: the passionate mystic of the double abyss
/ Paul Lachance, (ed.). Hyde Park, N.Y.: New City Press, c2006.
(122p)
LC#: BV5082.3 .A54213 2006; ISBN: 1565482484
========================================================================
[A reprint of the version available online, Mary G. Steegmann's
frequently misleading 1909 translation of a 1510 Italian translation
from the Latin:]
The book of divine consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno.
Translated from the Italian by Mary G. Steegmann. Introd. by
Algar Thorold (The Medieval library). New York, Cooper Square
Publishers, 1966. (xliv, 265 p. illus., facsims. 17 cm.)
LC#: BV5080 .A52 1966
[First published: London, Chatto and Windus; New York, Duffield
& co., 1909]
========================================================================
[John Cirignano has translated selections from Memoriale; a little less than one-half of the work is included. Most of the excerpts reveal the role of the body in Angela's spirituality. The introduction and an interpretive essay, "The Spirit and the Flesh in Angela of Foligno," are by Cristina Mazzoni and look at the work in the light of modern feminist theology. Also included are brief excerpts by or about four other Italian women of the 1200s. The book's notes and an annotated bibliography are useful:]
Angela of Foligno's Memorial / [edited by] Cristina Mazzoni;
translation by John Cirignano (Library of medieval women, 1369-9652).
Cambridge; Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2000.
LC#: BX4705.A59 A3 2000; ISBN: 085991562X
"Translated from Latin with introduction, notes and interpretive
essay." Includes bibliographical references (p. [119]-127)
and index
========================================================================
[Paul LaChance provides a detailed review of the writing done on Memoriale and Instructiones since his 1993 publication of her complete works (above), a review especially valuable for the English-speaking reader because most of the work has been done in Italian. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
LaChance, Paul. Recent research on Angela of Foligno. Archivio
italiano per la storia della pieta, 18 (2005), 105-19.
LC#: BR117 .A67; ISSN: 0066-6688
--------------------
[This collection includes Catherine M. Mooney's essay,
"The Changing Fortunes of Angela of Foligno, Daughter, Mother,
and Wife," which describes how Memoriale's references to
Angela's relations with her family have been treated, from the
first manuscripts to current interpretations, and how those stories
have affected readers' attitudes to her writing. Quoted passages
are given in Mooney's translation and in the original. (The "comic
mode" of the book's title refers not to humor but to Caroline
Walker Bynum's suggestion that historians acknowledge that stories
are incomplete and can alway be told in other ways.) (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
History in the comic mode: medieval communities and the matter
of person / edited by Rachel Fulton, Bruce W. Holsinger. New
York: Columbia University Press, c2007. (x, 392 p.: ill.)
LC#: CB353 .H575 2007; ISBN: 9780231133685, 9780231508476
Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-372) and index
-------------------
[Available online, Dino S. Cervigni's article discusses the
changing relationships that are revealed in Memoriale,
between Angela and God (the "other") and between Angela
and her scribe. Quoted passages are not given in English, but
their meaning is usually made clear by the context:]
Cervigni, Dino S. Angela da Foligno's Memoriale: The
Male Scribe, the Female Voice, and the Other. Italica,
82:3-4 (2005), 339-55.
LC: PC1068.U6 I8; ISSN: 0021-3020
--------------------
[Volume 3 of Bernard McGinn's history of western Christian mysticism includes a discussion of Angela of Foligno's Memoriale and Instructiones (pp. 141-151). McGinn's notes give full bibliographic information on translations and studies; they also give the original of all translated passages. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
McGinn, Bernard.The flowering of mysticism: men and women
in the new mysticism (1200-1350) (The presence of God; vol. 3).New
York: Crossroad, c1998. (xiv, 526 p.)
LC#: BV5075 .M37 vol. 3; ISBN: 0824517423, 0824517431
Includes bibliographical references (p. [465]-505) and indexes
-------------------
[The essays in this collection include two on Angela: Mary
Ann Sagnella's "Carnal Metaphors and Mystical Discourse
in Angela da Foligno's Liber," which discusses the
bodily images used for the description of Christ; and Tiziana
Archageli's "Re-reading a Mis-known and Mis-read Mystic:
Angela da Foligno," which surveys Memoriale's creation
and reception and then focuses on Angela's view of the inexpressibility
of her own experience. Sagnella gives an English translation
of Latin quotations; Arcangeli does not, but the context usually
makes the meaning clear. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women mystic writers / edited by Dino S. Cervigni (Annali
d'italianistica; v.13) Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, c1995. (540 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ4001 .A6 v.13
Includes bibliographical references. English and Italian.
--------------------
[This collection contains an essay by Catherine M. Mooney, "The Authorial Role of Brother A. in the Composition of Angela of Foligno's Revelations." Mooney analyses the Memoriale and judges it a "collaboration" between Angela and Arnaldo:]
Creative women in medieval and early modern Italy: a religious
and artistic renaissance / edited by E. Ann Matter and John Coakley
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c1994 (xiv, 356
p.: ill., map)
LC#: BV639.W7 C69 1994; ISBN: 0812232364
Papers presented at a conference held at the University of Pennsylvania,
Sept. 1991
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
---------------------
[Mary Walsh Meany's essay in this collection "Angela of Foligno: A Eucharistic Model of Lay Sanctity," discusses the nature of Angela's spirituality and its effect on her roles as teacher and visionary. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Lay sanctity, medieval and modern: a search for models / Ann
W. Astell, editor. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame
Press, c2000. (x, 250 p.)
LC#: BX1920 .L39 2000; ISBN: 0268013306
----------------------
[Cristina Mazzoni's study of the images of food and food preparation
in the writing of visionary women over the centuries includes
a useful chapter, "Lessons from Angela of Foligno,"
on descriptions of food preparation and of eating in Memoriale.
(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Mazzoni, Cristina. The women in God's kitchen: Cooking, eating,
and spiritual writing. New York : Continuum, 2005. (x, 222 p.)
LC#: BV4527 .M36 2005; ISBN: 0826417604
Includes bibliographical references (p.195-213) and index
-----------------------
[In an earlier article, Mazzoni looks at Angela's writing in the light of the criticism of Simone de Beauvoir, Julia Kristeva, & Georges Bataille. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Mazzoni, Cristina M. Feminism, abjection, transgression: Angela
of Foligno and the twentieth century. Mystics Quarterly,
17:2 (June 1991), 61-70.
LC#: BV5077.G7 A13; ISSN: 0742-5503, 0737-5840
------------------------
[In her collection of essays, Elizabeth Petroff discusses Angela in her chapter, "Writing the Body." (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Petroff, Elizabeth. Body and soul: essays on medieval women
and mysticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. (xii,
235 p.)
LC#: BV5077.E85 P48 1994; ISBN: 0195084543, 0195084551
Includes bibliographical references and index.
------------------------
[All of David Burr's study is useful for an understanding of the world in which Angela lived and wrote, but note especially pp. 334-46 for Burr's evaluation of recent scholars' views on her relationship to the various factions within the Franciscan order. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Burr, David. The spiritual Franciscans: from protest to persecution
in the century after Saint Francis. University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, c2001. (xi, 427 p.)
LC#: BX3606.2 .B87 2001; ISBN: 0271021284
Includes bibliographical references (p. [395]-408) and index
========================================================================
Updated 07-03-08