By Corazon Damo-Santiago
FRANCES died 56, spent 40 years as a dutiful wife and four years as a Benedictine religious. An obedient daughter, she was married to Lorenzo Ponziani at 13.
She reminded mothers: “It is most praiseworthy for a married woman to be prayerful, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping.”
An exemplar of a Christian who merged secular and religious life so well, Vatican II weekday Missal refers to her as “Rome’s first great woman in a thousand years.”
Reluctant bride
SAINT Frances was born in Rome in 1384 to noble and wealthy parents. From her mother, Jacobeila, she inherited her quiet ways and devotion to God. From Paul Busso, her father, she got her strong will.
At 11, she expressed her desire to be a religious. Busso opined, “Too young to know her own mind, but not too young to be married.”
She prayed and went to her confessor who asked, “Are you crying because you want to do God’s will or you want God to do your will?”
At 13, she became the bride of Lorenzo Ponziani, a wealthy and virtuous nobleman of Rome. He mother-in-law, Cecilia, likes hosting parties in their palatial home and attending them with friends. She found it difficult to adapt to her mother-in-law’s social life.
She joined the Third Order of Saint Francis in San Francisco Ripa Church near the Ponziani Palace. Fr. Bartholomew Bondi became her spiritual director.
Stressed and miserable coping with changes in her life, she became ill. So sick she could not speak and move for months.
Close to death, Saint Alexis appeared to her in a vision. Like her, he was being forced to marriage. He left home and lived by begging. He returned unrecognized by his family, but was allowed to sleep under the stairs.
Saint Alexis told her that God is giving Frances a choice—get well, or die.
Frances answered: “God’s will is mine.”
Saint Alexis answered, “Then, live to glorify His name.” Her recovery was unbelievably fast.
After she regained her health, she was still expected to join social functions. She discovered that her sister-in-law Vannozza, who exuded a joyful disposition, also nurtured a desire to be a nun.
Together they decided that obligation to the family was their first concern. Together they involved themselves in corporal works of mercy—visiting prisoners and the sick in the hospitals, and helping needy people in the city.
They prayed and talked about their concerns in a secret chapel they set-up at the attic of a cottage in the garden.
The people saw the spiritual inconsistencies among the members of the Ponziani household which embarrassed Cecilia. She requested Lorenzo to stop her daughters-in-law in their spiritual activities, but he refused.
The Ponziani couple had their first child, John Baptist, who brought joy to the family.
When Cecilia died, Frances was tasked to manage the Ponziani household. She was a fair and excellent administrator.
Epitome of generosity
IN the 15th century Rome suffered from invasion and famine. To ensure that the Ponziani clan would have enough food, her father-in-law kept the keys to the granary.
Once, trying to gather leftover, her husband came and was surprised to see it filled with “40 measures of wheat—so shining and so full that it seemed as though it had been raised in Paradise and reaped there by angels.”
How God provides to the generous was experienced, too, by his father-in-law. So annoyed when the last cask of wine was empty, Frances reminded the family to have faith and led them to the wine stock.
Everyone attested that they drank “the best wine ever tasted.”
They changed their attitude and became generous, too, narrated Fr. Marion Habig, OFM, in The Franciscan Book of Saints.
Lorenzo was taken prisoner, her son John was kidnapped. And her second son and daughter died. The wrecked palace served as a hospital.
After the civil war, father and son returned and the task of restoring Lorenzo’s spirit and health was a task she did well.
John married a woman who disliked Frances. Stricken by a strange illness, Frances healed her. It was the beginning of a very good relationship, and Frances gave her daughter-in-law the task of managing the household.
On August 15, 1425, the Feast of the Assumption, Saint Frances founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, under the authority of Olivetan Monks of the Abbey Ma. Nova in Rome.
This fraternity of pious ladies was neither cloistered nor bound by formal vows so they can combine prayer life and help answer the needs of society.
On July 4, 1433, it was approved by Pope Eugene IV as a religious community of Oblates with private religious vows known as Oblates of Saint Frances of Rome.
After the death of her husband, Frances joined the congregation on March 21, 1436. A year after, she was elected superior, a post she held until her death.
The angel beckons
AN exemplar of a married woman and love for God, she lived a life of humility, patience and detachment to worldly things.
An article in the Catholic Encyclopedia by Francesco Paoli said she was gifted by miracles, revelations about purgatory and hell, ecstasies, ability to detect diabolical plans and read secrets of conscience.
Father John Matteorri, her confessor for the last 10 years of her life who wrote her biography, attested that she sees her guardian angel as a child about 8 years old constantly. Her last words: “the angel has finished his task—he beckons me to follow him.”
She died on March 9, 1440. She was canonized by Pope Paul V on May 29, 1608.
Her Bull of Canonization stated: “Her prayers and sufferings helped bring to end Western Schism (1378-1449), as well as the residence of popes in Avignon France.”
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons