St. Angela of the Cross, was a gentle and kindly girl, an austere young woman, an industrious and humble nun, persistent in her desire always to be “in front of and very close” to the Crucified One.
Newsdesk ( Gaudium Press) A humble soul, who made herself great through her littleness, the generosity of her heart and her love for Christ Crucified: Saint Angela of the Cross, foundress of the Company of the Cross and known as the “Mother of Seville”.
Maria de los Angeles Guerrero González was born on the outskirts of Seville on January 30th, 1846 and was baptised three days later.
Her pious parents, Francisco Guerrero and Josefa González, worked as servants in the Holy Trinity friary, cooking, sewing and washing the friars’ clothes. The Guerrero family was also responsible for the care of one of the altars in the parish church, which their children considered an extension of their own home.
Childhood
From the age of 3 or 4, Angelita – as our little saint was called – used to spend hours kneeling before the image of the Our Lady of Health, talking to the Blessed Virgin and calling her Mother. She also liked to walk around the side altars, throwing kisses to the images of the saints.
She hardly went to school. She learned to read, wrote with shaky handwriting and many spelling mistakes, but she knew the Catechism perfectly. One day she heard her father ask his wife for some of the quarto [“one fourth”] coins, which were in circulation at the time. In her candid innocence, Angelita confidently told her father
– The quarto? To honour father and mother! – referring to the fourth Commandment of the Law of God.
Her parents smiled, finding it amusing that this girl took religious matters so seriously. Because of all this, she made her First Communion at the age of eight, an uncommon occurence in those days.
Later she would comment, in her writings, that she received Jesus in the Eucharist with great compenetration and recollection. Always very clean, she learned from her mother the maxim: “Where there is cleanliness, poverty never degenerates into misery”. And she insisted on maintaining this principle in the Company of the Cross, which she founded years later.
The craft of shoemaker
When she was 12 years old, she began to help towards the household budget, learning the trade of shoemaker in the workshop of Mrs. Antonia Maldonado. She was a master in making delicate shoes, and the ladies of the society ordered from there high and tight boots, satin gaiters with brooches and other fashionable shoes of that time.
Always carrying out her duties with promptness and joy, Angelita soon learned her trade. Antonia Maldonado was very religious and cared for her employees as an older sister or even as a mother.
The workshop had a serious atmosphere, of silence and steady work. In the late afternoon, they all gathered in a room which served as a chapel, where they prayed the Rosary together.
In a few months Angelita became the centre of attention in the studio, because of her competence, sympathy and kindness. Dona Antonia used to say that there was a future for the girl, as her hands were made to execute exquisite handicrafts.
As time went by, the girl’s religious spirit deepened. Already a teenager, without any pretensions of success or rising in society, Angelita led an intense life of prayer and did impressive penances. She slept on a board, having a stone for a pillow. On Fridays, she fasted in honour of the pains of Christ, and on Saturdays in honour of Our Lady.
In this way God was preparing that simple and chosen soul for the rigours of the Company that she was to found later on.
Led by a virtuous confessor
Antonia Maldonado always went to confession to Father Torres Padilla, who had a reputation for holiness in Seville, in whom she had complete trust.
One morning, at dawn, the good lady ran to tell him something extraordinary that had happened in her studio the previous afternoon.
They were all praying the Rosary, as usual, after work. Suddenly, they all noticed that Angelita, kneeling, was suspended in the air, in ecstasy, and a ray of light was coming out of her. Astonished, they interrupted their prayer and observed the girl, who had her eyes closed and a smile on her lips.
Without saying anything, they left, leaving Angelita in her supernatural raptures. Everything lasted exactly one hour. When Antonia returned to the studio, Angelita only complained that she had been left sleeping.
The priest wanted to get to know this young girl of 16, God’s chosen soul, and became her confessor and spiritual guide, leading her along the paths of her singular vocation.
A nun without a convent
Under the guidance of her confessor, Angelita decided to become a nun. No one was surprised by this decision, seeing in it only the blossoming of a vocation that was taking shape in plain sight.
Already at the age of 19 she went to the Discalced Carmelites of Seville, on the recommendation of Fr. Torres, because she felt attracted by the contemplative life. But the superior, seeing her small size and poor health, judged that she would not be able to bear the rigours of the rule and did not want to receive her as a postulant.
Four years later she tried another congregation, this time for the active life, the Daughters of Charity. She entered as a postulant in the Central Hospital, where the nuns were dedicated to caring for the sick.
She began to have serious health problems, but the nuns, recognizing the virtue of this postulant, wanted to give her the habit of a novice. After only a few weeks in the novitiate, her condition worsened.
She went to Cuenca and then to Valencia, hoping to be helped by the change of climate. But, nothing made her better, there was no way out but to return home. She returned to work in the studio.
But she led an austere religious life. Her vocation was genuine.
In 1873, she made vows in private, becoming a nun without a convent. Divine Providence was reserving a new foundation for her, like a new star in the firmament of the religious orders of the Holy Church.
A new institution is born
Under the guidance of Father Torres, Angelita wrote down her innermost thoughts, her desires and what she carried in her soul as the foundation of the institution to which she wanted to belong.
In this way she began to draw up the rules and make explicit the charism she carried in her spirit. The Company of the Cross was being born, of which she would be the foundress.
Her love for Jesus Crucified made her desire to live crucified with Him, on a cross that was “in front of and very close” to her Beloved.
In her first letter, she expressed this desire: “Our Lord raised on a cross, on Calvary. Another cross of the same height. But not to the right or to the left, but in front of and very close. Seeing my Lord crucified, I desired with all the truth of my heart to imitate Him. I knew that I had to crucify myself on that cross in front of my Lord, with all the equality that is possible for a creature“.
The virtues she loved most were poverty, detachment from earthly things and humility. She made herself poor with the poor. To help those most in need, she detached herself from all things material.
She put into practice a rule that was almost more rigorous than the Carmelite rule itself, and she was of an exquisite humility, recognizing her littleness in everything. She took the name of Angela of the Cross, to remind herself that she was nailed along with Christ on Calvary, “in front of and very close”…
She wanted to build a Calvary. Instead of beds, there were boards to serve as mattresses and pillows. Little food. Much prayer and complete self-giving to the sick and needy. An extreme devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Most Holy were the pillars of the supernatural life of each Sister who wanted to crucify herself there. They had to live with complete trust in Divine Providence.
Company of the Cross
Gathering three courageous young women, she began her Company in a small rented room. Little by little, others joined them and a house had to be found.
Always in an atmosphere of cleanliness and healthy joy, these new religious took in orphan girls and supported them by begging for alms. With one hand they received and with the other they distributed.
They always went about in pairs, as was the rule, and, like a silent patrol, they went through the poorest neighbourhoods, entering the houses of the sick, cleaning, cooking, washing and dressing those unfortunate people in clean and decent clothes, and, above all, giving them spiritual assistance.
The Company of the Cross grew. Father Torres died and other priests helped Mother Angela, as she came to be known throughout Seville. She had to face many struggles. She almost gave up the Foundation. Finally, the decree of approval of the Society was signed by Pope St. Pius X in 1904.
The glory of the altars
Leaving a host of spiritual daughters spread throughout Europe and America, brave like her, Mother Angela died on March 2nd, 1932, after nine months of a painful illness.
For three days the whole of Seville passed in front of her corpse, venerating the one they considered their mother. The City Council decided to honour her by naming a street in the city after her.
Saint Angela’s body is kept and remains incorrupt in the chapel of the Mother House. And to this day one can still see the silent patrol of her daughters walking in pairs through Seville, wearing the original habit, designed by her, searching for the sick to be helped, crucifying themselves with Jesus, “in front of and very close“.
Text taken, with adaptations, from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel n.21, September 2003. By Sr. Juliane Campos, EP.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan