Mother Angelica
Mother Angelica (born Rita Antoinette Rizzo on April 20, 1923 in Canton, Ohio) is a Roman Catholic nun, founder and abbess of the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, and founder of the Eternal Word Television Network.
Early Childhood
Rita Antoinette was born the only child of John and Mae Helen Gianfrancisco Rizzo in Canton, Ohio. 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. Mae apprenticed at a dry cleaners along with other odd jobs. Rita struggled in school while helping keep house. She found much consolation in reading scripture, often repeating the words of the 23rd Psalm: "I will fear no evil." At the age of 16, Rita helped her mother find a better-paying job. She also began to suffer pain in her stomach, which worsened for two years.
In 1941 she finally sought medical help. X-rays taken that November revealed serious abnormalities in her stomach and intestines, but did not present a means of effecting relief. Rita and her mother turned to their faith. In 1943 they visited Rhoda Wise, a woman from Canton who had converted to Catholocism while in the hospital with stomach cancer. Wise reported seeing visions of Christ and St Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th century nun. Wise claimed to have received the stigmata and was cured of her cancer by an apparent miracle.
Rita prayed with Wise for her health and promised God to share her devotion if He granted her prayers. Her prayers were not immediately answered, but about a week after visiting with Wise, Rita awoke in intense pain, but felt it wash away. She awoke refreshed and free of her ailment. Crediting God with another miracle, she began a lifelong commitment to serve Him.
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 where she often attended Mass to pray the stations of the cross.
In the summer of 1944, Rita felt God 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 then visited Saint Paul's Shrine of Perpetual Adoration an order of cloistered contemplative nuns in Cleveland. When visiting this Order, Rita felt as if she were at home. The Order accepted her as a postulant, asking her to enter in August.
Her mother did not want Rita to join a convent, but she was determined. She left secretly, leaving a letter for her mother: "When you receive this letter, I will be in Cleveland. I have entered the Adoration Monastery [...] 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, at the age of 21, Rita Antoinette Rizzo entered the Adoration Monastery of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at the Saint Paul Shrine in Cleveland.
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 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.
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.
Foundress 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.
She hosted the highly successful "Mother Angelica Live" television program which aired on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and is currently hosted each Wednesday night by noted Scripture scholar and long time EWTN personality, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. The show is simply titled
EWTN LIVE. Mother Angelica Live Classics can be seen at 8:00pm EST on Tuesday night.
Mother Angelica has had controversial feuds with some members of the Roman 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 (due to Cushings disease), large eyeglasses and upbeat yet stern style of preaching.
Mother Angelica has reportedly suffered some health setbacks (especially a severe stroke) now that she is an octogenarian, but she has stabilized according to sources close to her. She was based at "Our Lady of the Angels Monastery" in Irondale, Alabama near Birmingham but moved to a more secluded monastery which she built just recently located in Hanceville, Alabama. The beautiful monastery can often be seen on EWTN during a live airing of Benediction and Devotions. Reports of miracles later in her life have often been witnessed and reported by Catholics and non-Catholics. The most famous miracle took place in the midst of the Cardinal Mahony controversy in 1998 when her legs were miraculously healed. It was widely reported by secular and religious news sources such as Catholic World News (see Miracle cure for Mother Angelica?). Some people who witnessed this miracle were said to have had an on-the-spot conversion experience.
Trivia
- Time Magazine once described Mother Angelica as one of the most influential Roman Catholic women in the United States.
- Mother Angelica predicted that California would sink into the ocean if The Last Temptation of Christ was shown in theaters.
- For a period in the early 2000s she wore a black eyepatch due to eye problems, gaining her the nickname of "the Pirate Nun".