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

Ps        3-9-20