Saint Angela of the Cross
Religious Sister, Foundress
“Poor with the Poor”
(1846 – 1932)

Saint’s Life Story

Her Early Life

María de los Ángeles (“Mary of the Angels”) Guerrero González was born on January 30, 1846, in Seville, Spain. Her parents, José Guerrero and María González. She was the fourth of fourteen children in a poor but deeply humble and religious family. Unfortunately, only five of her siblings survived into adulthood (José, Antonio, Francisco, Joaquina, and Dolores). She was affectionately known as “Angelita”. Angela’s father worked as a cook, while her mother was a laundress in a Trinitarian Fathers convent.

Ángelita was baptized on February 2, 1846, three days after her birth, in the church of Santa Lucía. Angelita was greatly influenced by the teaching and example of her pious parents. From an early age, she was taught how to pray the Rosary. In their own home, a simple altar was erected in honor of the Virgin Mary during the month of May, where the family would recite the Rosary and give special honor to Our Lady. In 1854, Angelita made her First Communion and a year later her Confirmation.

Shoemaking Apprentice

Angelita had little formal education. To earn some money and help her family, at the age of 12 or 13, Angelita became an apprentice in Doña Antonia Maldonado’s shoemaking workshop Her boss and teacher of shoe repair, Antonia Maldonado, was a holy woman. Every day, Angelita and all the employees prayed the Rosary together and read the lives of the saints.

One afternoon, in the workshop, in the room where they were praying the rosary, they found her kneeling in prayer, ecstatic, miraculously suspended above the floor. Doña Antonia asked the other workers not to interrupt this moment and to continue their work. The next day, she reported this extraordinary event to her confessor, Father José Torres Padilla, who expressed his desire to meet Angelita.

Rejected for Convent

When Angelita was 19, she asked to enter the Discalced Carmelites in Santa Cruz as a lay sister. However, she was denied because the state of her health seemed inadequate for the heavy physical work demanded of those members of the monastic community. Instead, following the advice of Father Torres, her spiritual advisor, Angelita began caring for destitute cholera patients, because a cholera epidemic was quickly spreading among the poor.

Entered Convent But Went Home

In 1868, Angelita tried once again to enter the convent. This time, the Daughters of Charity of Seville, even though, her health was still frail, allowed her to be admitted. The sisters tried to improve her health and sent her to Cuenca and Valencia. But, they were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, Angelita soon fell ill. She was forced to leave the Daughters of Charity during the novitiate and return home to continue working in the shoeshop. Angelita returned to Seville, discouraged by her inability to fulfill her religious vocation.

Empty Cross

On November 1, 1871, at the foot of the Cross, Angelita made a private vow to live the evangelical counsels. Then, in 1873, she received a vision that was her the call from God that would mark the beginning of her “new mission”. During prayer, Angelita saw an empty cross standing directly in front of the one upon which Jesus was hanging. Immediately, Angelita understood that God was asking her to hang from the empty cross, to be “poor with the poor in order to bring them to Christ”.

Her Spiritual Diary

Angelita continued to work in the shoeshop. However, under obedience to Father Torres, she dedicated her free time to writing a detailed spiritual diary that revealed the style and ideal of life she was being called to live.

Some of her writings describe her intentions for the project about to be created. Angelita would like the sisters to be “detached from everything, even from themselves, having no land or clothing other than what they wear and that of alms… so that the heart may be attached to nothing. Hidden and unknown, and without any appearance that makes them more unique than the others, they may form a community of an extraordinary life for their penitence, their obedience, and their mortification in all things.”

Sisters of the Company of the Cross

Then, on August 2, 1875, three other women, Josefa de la Peña, Juana María Castro and Juana Magadán, joined Angelita. So, they established themselves as a religious community, renting a small room in Seville. From that day on, Angelita and the other women began their visits and gave assistance to the poor, day and night.

Angelita took the religious name “Angela of the Cross,” signifying her desire to live a life of complete sacrifice in imitation of Christ. Her order followed a strict rule of poverty, simplicity, and charity. The sisters not only tended to the physical needs of the sick but did so in the humblest ways—often walking barefoot, refusing wages, and praying ceaselessly for the souls they served.

These Sisters of the Company of the Cross, “Mother Angela of the Cross” guidance, lived an authentically recluse contemplative life when they were not among the poor. They relied solely on alms to sustain their mission, using only what was necessary to continue their crucial work. Once they returned to their home, they dedicated themselves to prayer and silence. But Angelita and the other women were always ready when needed to go out and serve the poor and dying. Mother Angela saw the sisters as “angels”, called to help and love the poor and sick in their homes who otherwise would have been abandoned.

At Christmas in 1875, by order of Cardinal Lastra, Mother Angela of the Cross and her sisters began to wear the simple habit she devised that would be a sign of their dedication to the cause of the poor: a brown baize, with a scapular, Franciscan cord, white headdress, and serge sandals.

A Permanent House

In 1877, a second community was founded in Utrera, in the province of Seville. Then, a year later, another one was founded in Ayamonte, Spain. That same year, Father Torres died. So, Father José Álvarez Delgado, a spiritual son and disciple of Father Torres, succeeded him as director of the Society. That same year, Angela of the Cross took her perpetual religious vows under him.

In 1887, after some temporary moves, In 1887, Mother Angela of the Cross and her sisters moved to their permanent home on Alcázares Street (now Santa Ángela de la Cruz). It was a former palatial home owned by the Marquis of San Gil. It was secured thanks to thousands of donations, including one from Doña Emilia Riquelme, founder of the Missionaries of the Most Holy Sacrament and Mary Immaculate. When her family criticized her for such a large donation to the Sisters, she replied: “Don’t worry. I haven’t lost anything. I’ve deposited it in a bank that won’t go bankrupt.”

New Order Approved by the Pope

In June 1904, Pope Pius X ratified he Institute of the Sisters of the Cross.Later, new houses were opened in Villafranca (Badajoz), Arjones, Zalamea de la Serena, and Fuentes de Andalucía. Throughout her life, this number of convent houses had grown to 23 convents where continue their good works today.

Her Death

In 1928, Sister Angela stepped down as Mother General due to age, as stipulated in the new Constitutions. On June 7, 1931, he suffered a severe cerebral embolism after saying his prayers and attending Mass, on his way to the refectory for breakfast. His last words were: “Not to be, not to want to be; trample on the self, bury it if possible.” Humility, humility always. After uttering them, he was unable to speak for nine months.

At the age of 86, Angela died on March 2, 1932, in Seville, Spain. On May 7, 2003, her incorrupt body was transferred from the Mother House to the Seville Cathedral.

Born:                   January 30, 1846, in Seville, Spain

Died:                   March 2, 1932 at age 86 in Seville, Spain

Beatified:           November 5, 1982 by Pope John Paul II

Canonized:        May 4, 2003 by Pope John Paul II

Feast Day:          March 2

Patron Saint:    None

Source:

• • CatholicSaints.Info » Saint Angela of the Cross Guerrero
  • Hermanas de la Cruz: Biografías – Saint Angela of the Cross (translated from Spanish)
  • Saint Angela of The Cross Guerrero – Saint for a Minute: Saints & Blesseds
  • Ángela de la Cruz Guerrero González (1846-1932), 4 May 2003, Biography – Vatican
  • Angela of the Cross – Wikipedia

Prayers

Video Link

Saint Angela of the Cross | Voice of Saints | March 02 – YouTube (Saints Fans Association)