Wednesday, May 05, 2021

St Angelus feast today


St Angelus was one of the hermits who spent time with the founding community of hermits on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Miracles are attributed to him, such as curing sick, calling down fire, making an axe head float and raising of the dead. These images evoke the echoes of the deeds of Elijah and Elisha, the inspirational figures of the original Carmelite hermits.....Angelus did not remain at Mount Carmel, but travelled to Sicily in 1219...He would have been one of the first Carmelites to arrive in Europe and living as an itinerant preacher, as no Carmelite communities had yet been established in Europe. Another account describes Angelus' travels to Rome, where we are told he met with both St Francis and St Dominic. This meeting of three representatives from the mendicant orders became so popular subject for artists in later times, with each one identified by his distinctive habit. We can see above this kind of picture with St Angelus on the right meditating on Scriptures passages with St Francis and St Dominic. Reports tell of St Angelus receiving a martyr's death in Sicily in the year 1220, where today he continues to be revered as a great saint.....The memory of St Angelus embodies the historical movement of the Carmelites from their hermiit home on Mt Carmel to their mendicant beginnings in Europe. After Universalis and the British Province of Carmelites. St Angelus major shrine is Santa Maria del Carmine Church in Messina, Italy. He is also patron Saint of Licata in Sicily.