Saint of the Day – 6 December – Blessed Angelica Leonti of Milazzo TOM (1519-1559) Virgin

Saint of the Day – 6 December – Blessed Angelica Leonti of Milazzo TOM (1519-1559) Virgin, Lay Tertiary of the Order of the Minim. Also known as – Angela.

Blessed Angelica was born in 1519 in Milazzo in the Province of Messina on the western tip of Sicily in southern Italy. Her parents were Domenico Leonti and Bernarda Maiolino. She had two sisters, Blasia and the Blessed Pelagia (Died 1591).

Milazzo was an ancient City that was important in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a port for trade and a manufacturing centre but also, as a well-equipped military base. There the cult of Saint Francis of Paola (1416-1507) was particularly lively.

Angelica lived in constant struggle against the attractions of the world. Not its temptations per se but, the legitimate and human concerns of those, who wished her to live a normal and happy life, where she was respected and satisfied. She was beautiful, sensitive and virtuous and against her family’s wishes, she followed the fate of so many other girls of her age, by forgoing a spouse. It was not easy because she was exposed to constant pressure but she stubbornly resisted both flattery and threats.

In moments of most serious tension, she resorted to the Crucifix, imploring His help. She was granted, by the Cross a cross, that is, a very serious illness which put her very life in danger. It was then that she, by vow, wore the Habit of the Third Order of San Francesco di Paola. In that dress, as if inside a mystical armour, she felt sure that she could remain in the desired state forever.

When she recovered, she, like her two sisters, became a Tertiary in the Third Order of the Mimins, (Tertius Ordo Minimorum – TOM), a branch of the Saint Francis of Paola Order of the Friars Minor (OM or Ordo Minim), open to laypeople of both sexes. It was said of the three sisters that “fasting was their sustenance, prayer their recreation and assistance to the poor and sick their favourite activity”. “The City hailed Angela as holy and it was often said that when she was seen in the street with her sister, they were accompanied by two angels in human form, their faces shining with heavenly splendour.”

But Angelica was eaten up from within by a malignant tumour and her beauty was transformed into hideousness and, as the suffering became more and more unbearable, she honed the spirit that filled her body like a consuming fire. Angelica died in Milazzo, according to Piazza in Memorie della Città di Milazzo, on 1 November 1559, aged only forty. From this day Angelica Leonti was called Beata Angelica by the people of Milazzo. Her memorial day is 6 December. Her sister, Pelagia died in 1591.