Angela Merici

Timeline

1. 1474–1516Desenzano · LombardyMerici was orphaned around age ten and moved with her sister to her uncle's house in Salò, later joining the Third Order of St. Francis. After her uncle died when she was about twenty, she returned to Desenzano and converted her home into a school for girls' catechesis, regularly gathering neighborhood girls to teach basic Christian doctrine—the embryo of the later Ursuline educational mission.
2. 1516–1535Brescia · LombardyAround 1516 Merici was invited to Brescia to assist bereaved families and open a similar school. In 1524 she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, going blind while passing through Crete yet completing the pilgrimage and regaining her sight there. She went to Rome for the 1525 jubilee; Clement VII invited her to stay, but she refused and returned to Brescia, continuing to gather companions among laywomen.
3. 1535–1540Brescia · LombardyOn 25 November 1535, Merici founded the Company of St. Ursula in Brescia near the church of St. Afra with twelve companions; members wore no habit, took no lifelong vows, and did not live in convents, keeping chastity in their own homes and teaching neighborhood girls. She wrote the rule, was elected 'Mother and Teacher' in 1537, and died in Brescia on 27 January 1540. Formal papal approval came posthumously in 1544.