Angela Merici

Angela Merici better known as Angela of Brescia, founder of the order of the Ursulines, was born in 1511, at Dezenzano. She entered a Franciscan convent, and made a journey to the Holy Land. On her return, in 1537, she assembled at Brescia a company of women, to whom she gave the name of St. Ursula, whom she made the patron of the order. During her lifetime they lived each in the house of her parents; but after her death, which happened Mar. 21,1540, the Ursulines began to live together. Paul III approved the institution in 1544. So rapid was the growth of the order, that within a century there were 350 convents in France alone. — Landon, Eccl. Dict. 1, 318; Helyot, Ord. Monastiques, 4, 150. SEE URSULINES.