Don’t confuse St. Francis of Assisi with St. Frances of Rome! One is the namesake of Pope Francis and the founder of the Franciscan movement. The other was an inspiring laywoman known for her holiness and love of the poor.
St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440) was an Italian wife and mother who also founded a community of laywomen, known as the Oblati di Tor de Specchi (Oblates of St. Frances of Rome), a community that, with the Olivetan Benedictines, works for the sick and the poor. Hearing a call to the religious life as a young girl, she nevertheless obeyed her parents and married Lorenzo dei Ponziani in a happy marriage for 40 years although not without many sorrows. The couple lost two children to the plague — sadness which sensitized them to the needs of the poor. Thus, as a wife and mother, St. Frances of Rome led a life of intense prayer combined with service to the marginalized.
An incredibly generous woman, she would give away food to the hungry during times of famine. (But her granary and wine cellar were miraculously replenished when they were empty.) During combat in Rome with one of the antipopes, her husband Lorenzo was injured in battle and one of her sons held hostage. Yet, undaunted, St. Frances of Rome turned the family palazzo into a hospital and shelter for the homeless.
Living in the world, not of the world
With her husband Lorenzo’s approval, she founded the Oblates of Mary in 1425 known since 1433 as the Oblate Congregation of Tor de’ Specchi, a lay order of women attached to the Benedictines. While living in the world, its members offered themselves to God and served the poor. The widowed members lived in community in a single house, while Frances nursed her husband until he died with his last words to her: “I feel as if my whole life has been one beautiful dream of purest happiness. God has given me so much in your love.” After his death, St. Frances of Rome moved into the house with the other Oblates and was their superior for the last four years of her life, now living the life she had dreamed of as a young girl.
Throughout her life, St. Frances of Rome had visions from heaven, possessed the gift of miracles and ecstasy, and had the bodily vision of her guardian angel. She had revelations concerning purgatory and hell and foretold the ending of the Western Schism. Moreover, she could read the secrets of consciences and detect plots of diabolical origin. As a contemplative living in the world, St. Frances of Rome portrayed the heroic virtues of humility, detachment, obedience and patience exemplified particularly in several family situations to include the loss of all her property.
Prayer inspired by St. Frances of Rome:
Dear God, help me to give my life to you without reservation by having an awareness that you have a plan for me in a much larger picture. May I make the most of the vocation you have called me to live and turn every adversity into an advantage for those suffering the most.
