Saint FRANCES OF ROME

SAINT FRANCES OF ROME Saint Frances of Rome Was a MUCH LOVED Wonder working ROMAN Saint She was A person of means With a keen sense Of social responsibility And mystic And an INSPIRATIONAL leader Who founded A Benedictine order Of women-OBLATES Without vows DEDICATED to the SERVICE of the poor She was married To Lorenzo Ponziano At the age of 13 Although she really Desired to be a nun In the same household Lived her husband's brother And his wife These two Shared Frances' ideas And together the two young wives DEVOTED themselves To relieving The distress of Rome's poor ESPECIALLY in hospitals In 1400 She bore the first Of her six children To whom She was constantly devoted And the next year Took over charge Of the whole household She was NEVER known To have a quarrel In her forty years of married life To Lorenzo Ponziano She LOVE AND SERVED Christ In a special was And her advice To the ladies she inspired Was that a married woman MUST not forget She is a home maker And that “She must SOMETIMES Leave God At the altar To find him IN her housework” In 1408 THEY were singled out For their prominent support Of the popes But Frances Continued under DIFFICULT circumstances And much suffering To minister to the poor AMONG her sorrows Was the death Of a nine-year-old son And a teenage daughter Her husband's banishment And the plunder Of family estates In 1425 AFTER the death of her two children SHE FOUNDED A society of DEVOUT women Under the rule Of Saint Benedict And after her husband's death In 1436 Frances entered the community And became its superior For the remaining four years Of her life Various revelations-visions And STRANGE illness Are recorded of this PARTICULARLY GENTLE Saint Including her CONTINUOUS vision Of several years Of her GUARDIAN ANGEL For this reason She was NAMED THE PATRON SAINT OF MOTORISTS And she is also Patroness of Benedictine OBLATES She was canonized in 1608 And her feast day is MARCH 9th Robert P. Wallman 4-7-14