As we do every year, we celebrated St. Angela’s feast day this week on January 27. Our celebrations this year were so very much colored by the realities we are experiencing in both our nation and our world, realities very similar to those St. Angela herself experienced. Sr. Martha Buser (d. 2023), an Ursuline from Louisville, Kentucky, reflected on St. Angela’s response to her times and her world: “Angela Merici was a woman of her times and she was a woman in dialogue with her times. By this I mean that she did not flee her world but rather stayed in her world and brought the gospel message of Jesus to bear upon it. Likewise, we her [followers] remain in our world and try to bring the gospel to fruition in it.”
Feast of St. Angela 2026
Angela has always been someone who lighted the way for me both as a person of faith and a professional in ministry. In a world where so few women are lifted up as role models, I am grateful to the Ursulines for bringing Angela to me. When obstacles presented themselves, I have tried to emulate Angela, staying firm and trying my best to respond to the needs that our times bring forth. The light of Angela leads me ever forward.