Saint Frances of Rome. Widow. Feast Day 9 March.

Text is taken from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Gueranger. O.S.B.
Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Originally published in 1949.
Republished by St. Bonaventure Publications, July 2000.
Internet site: www.libers.com

St Frances of Rome, wife, mother, mystic, foundress.  

She founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, based at Tor de Specchi in Rome.

Ilustration and Caption taken from the Blog, EX UMBRIS ET IMAGINIBUS,

at http://fatherdirector.blogspot.co.uk

The period intervening between The Purification of Our Blessed Lady and Ash Wednesday (when it occurs at its latest date), gives us thirty-six days, and these offer us Feasts of every Order of Saint:

The Apostles have given us Saint Mathias, and Saint Peter's Chair at Antioch;

The Martyrs have sent us, from their countless Choir, Simeon, Lucius, Blase, Valentine, Faustinus and Jovita, Perpetua and Felicitas, and the Forty Soldiers of Sebaste, whose feast is kept on 10 March;

The Holy Pontiffs have been represented by Titus, Andrew Corsini, and also by Cyril of Alexandria and Peter Damian, who, like Thomas of Aquin, are Doctors of the Church;

The Confessors have produced Romuald of Camaldoli, John of Matha, John of God, the Seven Founders of the Servites, and the angelic Prince Casimir;

Saint Frances of Rome with her Guardian Angel, 

whom she could see as she did her rounds of Charity for the poor of the city.

Photo: November 2006.

User: Skier Dude.

Artist: Unknown.

(Wikipedia)

The Virgins have gladdened us with the presence of Agatha, Dorothy, Apollonia, and Scholastica, three wreathed with the red roses of Martyrdom, and the fourth with the fair lilies of the enclosed garden [Cant. iv. 12.] of her Spouse;

And, lastly, we have had a penitent Saint, Margaret of Cortona.

The State of Christian Marriage is the only one that has not yet deputed a Saint during this Season, which is less rich in Feasts than most of the year. The deficiency is supplied on 9 March by the admirable Frances of Rome (born in 1384).

Having, for forty years, led a most Saintly life in the Married State, upon which she entered when but twelve years of age, Frances retired from the world, where she had endured every sort of tribulation. But she had given her heart to her God long before she withdrew to the Cloister.

Saint Frances of Rome, Obl.S.B.

Patroness of Benedictine Oblates.

Part of a series: The Life of St. Frances of Rome.

Tor de' Specchi Monastery, Rome, Italy.

by Antoniazzo Romano (1468).

Originally uploaded on sv: Wikipedia 26 december 2005 kl.07.13 by sv:User: Torvindus

Fresco by Antoniazzo Romano from 1468.

fresk från 1468.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Her whole life had been spent in the exercise of the highest Christian perfection, and she had ever received from Our Lord the sublimest spiritual favours. Her amiable disposition had won for her the love and admiration of her husband and children. The rich venerated her as their model. The poor respected her as their devoted benefactress and mother.

God recompensed her angelic virtues by these two special graces: The almost uninterrupted sight of her Guardian Angel, and the most sublime revelations.

But there is one trait of her life, which is particularly striking, and reminds us forcibly of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, and of Saint Jane Frances Chantal: Her austere practices of Penance. Such an innocent life, and yet such a mortified life, is full of instruction for us.

How can we think of murmuring against the obligation of mortification, when we find a Saint like this practising it during her whole life ? True, we are not bound to imitate her in the manner of her Penance; but Penance we must do, if we would confidently approach that God, Who readily pardons the sinner when he repents, but Whose justice requires atonement and satisfaction.