Wood Plaque - St. Angela Merici by B. Nippert

Angela Merici lived in a time when most girls were not educated unless they were in a convent. Angela's goal was to strengthen Christian families by educating the girls who would later be wives and mothers. She founded the Company of Saint Ursula. The women who joined her were instructed to practice a rule of life which included celibacy, poverty and obedience from their own homes while teaching the girls in their own neighborhoods. The Ursulines, as they were called, were a huge success, numbering 24 communities in the region by the time Angela died in 1540.