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Mother Angelica born Rita Antoinette Rizzo (April 20, 1923 - ) is an American Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Eternal Word Television Network.
Early Childhood
The future Mother Angelica was born Rita Antoinette Rizzo on April 20, 1923 in Canton, Ohio. She was the only child of John and Mae Helen Rizzo (nee Gianfrancisco). Her father abandoned the family when Rita was very young, and her parents divorced in 1929. Her mother maintained full custody of Rita, but struggled with chronic depression and poverty.
Rita's childhood was marred by poverty and unhappiness as she grew up during the Great Depression. Looking back upon this time in her life, Mother Angelica described herself and her mother as being "like a pair of refugees. We were poor, hungry, and barely surviving on odd jobs before mother learned the dry-cleaning business as an apprentice to a Jewish tailor in our area. Even then, we pinched pennies just to keep food on the table."
Due to the many responsibilities at home which fell upon young Rita, her school work suffered greatly. Rita also suffered from prejudices because of her parents' divorce. During this difficult period, Rita found much consolation in reading the Scriptures, often repeating the words of the 23rd Psalm: "I will fear no evil." By the age of sixteen, Rita realized that her mother's dry-cleaning job was a dead end. And so she began searching for work on her mother's behalf. Through Rita's efforts, her mother got a better job which provided some relief from their dire poverty.
Reports of Miracles
By 1941, a stomach ailment that Rita suffered from since 1939 demanded medial attention. By November of that year, x-rays revealed serious abnormalities in her stomach and intestines. The pain continued to worsen, with no alleviation. The doctors were unable to do anything to relieve her suffering or remedy the ailment. Once again, Mae and Rita turned to their faith.
At this time, Mae heard of a woman by the name of Rhoda Wise. Wise was a convert to Catholicism who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She reported that Jesus appeared in her bedroom twice, and she had been miraculously healed of her condition. Saint Thérèse appeared with Jesus during one of the apparitions. Shortly afterwards, Rhoda received the stigmata. On January 8, 1943 Mae and Rita visited with Wise to ask her for her prayers. Rita promised the Lord that, if she were healed, she would share this devotion with others.
After praying the novena, Rita still suffered from severe abdominal pain. She went to bed the night of January 17, 1943, with doubts about the entire episode. During the middle of the night, she experienced the worst stomach pain ever, although it lasted only a moment. The next morning, Rita found that she was no pain whatsoever. She believed that God had performed a miracle. This experience profoundly touched Rita's life and led her to a very deep love for God. Mother Angelica traces her lifelong commitment to God to this healing.
Early Adulthood and Religious Vocation
After graduating from high school in 1941, Rita began working at Timkin Roller Bearing Company. Following work each day, she would stop at a local parish and pray the stations of the cross. She also attended Mass often.
One evening in the summer of 1944, Rita stopped at a church to pray. Kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, Rita felt God was calling her to be a nun. She sought guidance from a local parish priest who encouraged her to begin visiting convents. Her first visit was to the Josephite Sisters in Buffalo, New York. This active order felt, however, that Rita was better suited for a contemplative order. She also visited Saint Paul's Shrine of Perpetual Adoration an order of cloistered contemplative nuns located in Cleveland, Ohio. When visiting this Order, Rita felt as if she were at home. The Order accepted her as a postulant, asking her to enter on August 15, 1944.
The one heartache that Rita suffered was leaving her mother who was very much opposed to her daughter's pursuing the religious life. So Rita secretly planned her departure. On August 14, she wrote her mother a letter. When Mae found it on the morning of August 15, Rita had already arrived at her destination. In part the letter read: "When you receive this letter, I will be in Cleveland. I have entered the Adoration Monastery at 40th and Euclid. You know it better as St. Paul's Shrine ... Something happened to me after my cure. What it was, I don't know. I fell completely in love with Our Lord. To live in the world for these past nineteen months has been very difficult. I love you very much and I have not forgotten what you have done for me. Please trust Him ... I ask your blessing that I may reach the heights I desire. I love you very much."
Early Religious Life
On August 15, 1944, Rita Antoinette Rizzo became Sister Rita. When she arrived at Saint Paul's Shrine in Cleveland, Ohio and entered the Adoration Monastery of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration (a cloistered contemplative order), a new chapter was beginning for Rita at age 21.
As a postulant, Sister was introduced to the "ins and outs" of religious life. She joined the nuns in prayer, adoration, and manual labor. Among her early assignments were working in the laundry, baking altar breads, working in the kitchen, and cleaning floors. Before long, though, Rita's knees began to cause her many problems and so her work assignments had to be altered.
On November 8, 1945, Rita was invested as a Poor Clare Nun of Perpetual Adoration. She received the brown Franciscan habit and white novice veil. She also received a new name and title: Sister Mary Angelica of the Annunciation.
During her time as a novice, a wealthy couple offered their mansion to the nuns so that a new foundation could be established. Their mansion was located in Canton, Ohio, Sister Angelica's hometown. The community accepted this offer and began planning for the new foundation.
Final Vows and Leadership in the Convent
After the move to Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, her knee problem was alleviated. On January 2, 1947 Sister Mary Angelica made her first profession of vows. On January 2, 1953, Sister Angelica made her solemn profession of vows.
Amid her caring for the spiritual needs of the novices and her other duties, Sister continued to help with the household chores. One such chore was scrubbing the floor with an electric scrubbing machine. While performing this task one day, she had a serious accident. Losing her balance on the soapy floor, Sister Angelica fell to her knees and was flung against the wall back first. Her spine was seriously injured. In the following months the injury worsened and the pain was quite unbearable. Finally nearly two years after the accident, she was hospitalized and fitted with a body cast. Six weeks of traction proved to be no help and so surgery followed.
The night before the operation, fearing the worst, Sister Angelica made a deal with the Lord: "God! You didn't bring me this far just to lay me out on my back for life. Please, Lord Jesus, if You allow me to walk again I will build a monastery for Your glory. And I will build it in the South!" After four months of hospitalization, Mother Angelica was released able to walk again.
Founding of Our Lady of the Angels
Keeping the pledge she made prior to her surgery, Sister Angelica began making preparations to establish a new monastary. After seeking all necessary permissions and raising funds through making and selling fishing lures, Mother Angelica and four other sisters headed South. Our Lady of the Angels Monastery was officially established on May 20, 1962.
The first postulant to be received was Mae Francis (Sister Mary David), Mother Angelica's natural mother. A few months later Sister Mary Veronica, the former Abbess of the Sancta Clara Monastery, transferred to Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.
In 1973, Mother M. Angelica began writing booklets on the spiritual life. She has authored a total of fifty-three books. The Community took over the publishing of these books and distributed them all over the country.
Founder of EWTN
By 1976, Mother Angelica had written 50 booklets and recorded 150 audio cassette teaching tapes. When she was given the opportunity to make video tape programs for television, she realized the impact television could have in spreading the Faith. Converting a planned garage behind the monastery into a television studio, Mother Angelica founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). EWTN began airing programs on August 15, 1981 via satellite to cable companies and home satellite dishes. In 1992, Mother Angelica also founded WEWN to broadcast Catholic programs world-wide via short-wave radio.
EWTN has become a powerful voice for American Roman Catholics, despite its location in the not-particularly Catholic state of Alabama in the Bible Belt of the Deep South. She was frequently seen on the network teaching or taking questions from viewers via telephone.
Mother Angelica has had controversial feuds with members of the Catholic hierarchy. Most famous is the feud over a pastoral letter written by Roger Cardinal Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over teachings surrounding the eucharist and the liturgy. She is noted for her pudgy face, large eyeglasses and gruff style of preaching, and has frequently been parodied.
Mother Angelica has reportedly suffered some health setbacks now that she is 82 years old, but she has stabilized according to sources close to her. She is based at "Our Lady of the Angels Monastery" in Irondale, Alabama near Birmingham.
Trivia
- Time Magazine once described Mother Angelica as one of the most influential Roman Catholic women in America.
- Mother Angelica predicted that California would sink into the ocean if The Last Temptation of Christ was shown in theaters.
External links
- Updates from EWTN on Mother Angelica
- "MOTHER ANGELICA: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A NUN, HER NERVE AND A NETWORK OF MIRACLES," a biography and a New York Times bestseller by EWTN's "The World Over" host, Raymond Arroyo