News Item: : St. Frances of Rome
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
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Thursday 09 March 2017 - 12:11:32

Collect Prayer from the Traditional Latin Missal for the feast of St. Frances of Rome: O God, Who amongst other gifts of Thy grace didst honour blessed Frances Thy handmaid with the familiar companionship of an Angel: grant, we beseech Thee, that by the help of her intercession we may merit to be admitted to fellowship with the Angels.

Whilst Mum's family have always called her Doreen, and although she converted to the Catholic Faith from Protestantism as an adult in 1990, she had actually been baptized as an infant in her local Catholic parish with the names Frances Doreen.

That makes today's celebration of St. Frances of Rome particularly special for her.

St. Frances of Rome was born into a wealthy aristocratic family and lived from 1384 to 1440. As a child, she wanted to be a nun, but her parents pushed for her to marry Lorenzo Ponziani, the commander of the papal troops of Rome.

Although he was a good man who cared deeply for her, St. Frances was distressed and prayed for God to prevent the marriage. However, when her Confessor asked her to reflect on whether she was crying because she wanted to do God's Will, or because she wanted God to do her will, she gave in to the marriage.

The young St. Frances preferred fasting and prayer to the banquets and society life that her new mother-in-law expected of her. She collapsed under the strain and fell very ill. For months she lay close to death.

At her lowest ebb, St. Alexis appeared to her and asked whether she wanted to live or die. She answered, ''God's Will is mine.'' St. Alexis proclaimed that she would live to glorify God's Holy Name. At that moment, she received the grace of a complete and miraculous healing. After this, St. Frances' guardian angel frequently appeared to her and gave her a little nudge if she fell into any fault.

With the eventual help of her sister-in-law, St. Frances managed to maintain the societal obligations of her state, whilst also attending Holy Mass, praying, doing penance and helping the poor and the sick.

When her mother-in-law died, St. Frances had to take over the running of the household. She carried out her duties both efficiently and in an inspiringly Christian manner.

During a grave famine she gave away so much corn from the family cellar that her husband objected. However, he had a change of heart when he discovered that it had been miraculously replenished by forty measures of shining and full wheat! A similar event happened when her father-in-law discovered that his wine supply had been emptied by the saint's generosity to strangers. When he shouted at her for bringing privation on the family, St. Frances asked the family to have faith and prayed. When they returned to the cellar, they discovered the cask flowing with the tastiest wine. When he witnessed this, her father-in-law told her to multiply without end the alms that she had already given away.

St. Frances and Lorenzo had much to suffer during their married lives. They were blessed with three children, but only one survived into adulthood. When civil war caused Lorenzo to be badly wounded, St. Frances nursed him back to health. Her oldest son was taken hostage until the end of the hostilities. Then a plague swept the land and claimed the lives of two of her young children.

St. Frances organized a group of Roman ladies to assist in caring for the sick, starving and dying. She helped many society women to convert from lives of frivolity to seriously Christian lifestyles. At one point the plague struck St. Frances down also. However, she received another miraculous healing and continued on with her much needed charitable works.

After the troubles of the civil war and plague, St. Frances had to endure the insults of her son's wife, when he married an arrogant and frivolous woman, who took a dislike to the holy Frances. One day, in the midst of one of her tantrums, this woman was struck by a strange illness. With patience and humility, St. Frances calmed and cured her daughter-in-law with her hand. From that day, the young woman was a changed person. St. Frances eventually entrusted her with the running of the household and she continued the charitable outreach begun by the saint.

After the death of her husband Lorenzo, St. Frances founded a female order of Oblates of St. Benedict to pray for the Holy Father and to work and pray for the peace of Rome, which had been disturbed by renewed disturbances. Prior to this, she and some companions had already become Third Order Franciscans. Indeed, they even received a vision of St. Francis during a pilgrimage to Assisi.

St. Frances of Rome practiced great austerities until her death on this day, 9th March, in 1440. Several months after her death, her tomb was opened and her incorrupt body was found to give off a delightful fragrance. Canonized in 1608, St. Frances' relics are venerated in a tomb beneath the High Altar crypt in the church of Santa Francesca Romana in Rome.

St. Frances of Rome provides a good role model, patron and intercessor for all wives, mothers, widows, parents who lose a child, and all who are mocked for their piety. The accounts of her guardian angel lighting the way for her at night with a lantern have also caused her to be invoked by taxi drivers.

Deo Gratias!

When we think of Mum's own faith, gentleness, humility, kindness and forbearance in suffering, we can't help but reflect that her parents gave her an excellent patron in St. Frances of Rome.

Many years ago, Mum told me that she had wanted to be a nun when she was a youngster too.

Thank God that she found her way home to the Catholic Church; which happy outcome came largely through Dad's own sincere search for the full truth of Jesus Christ. As regular readers know, he converted from Protestantism just before Christmas in 1989; almost one year to the day before Mum did. I followed them both home into the Church at Easter 1993. Who is to say that St. Frances of Rome was not also interceding for her all along? Deo Gratias!

St. Frances of Rome - Pray for us!

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1573 )