Voting Station

St. Angela Merici

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (March 21, 1474-January 27, 1540)
    Born in Desenzano del Garda, Italy
    Founded the Ursuline Order (1535)
    Canonized by Pope Pius VII (1807)

Why she might be annoying:

    She named the Ursulines after a saint who almost certainly never actually existed.
    She is the subject of a dubious (and unsubstantiated) legend that during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she was struck blind, but continued on, 'seeing' the holy sites with her heart and soul; on the return trip her sight was miraculously restored at the exact same spot where she went blind.
    Her feast day was originally May 31, got bumped to June 1 when May 31 was assigned to a feast day for the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven (1955), then finally was moved to her death date of January 27 (1969).
    Despite founding the first order of teaching nuns, she is not the patron saint of Catholic education, instead St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was orphaned when she was ten.
    Even before founding the Ursulines, she had converted her home into a school to provide education for young girls.
    During a trip to Rome (1525), her virtue and industry so impressed Pope Clement VII that he asked her to take charge of an order of nursing nuns. (She declined on the grounds that God had called her to teaching, not nursing.)
    She told her fellow nuns, 'Reflect that in reality you have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 133 Votes: 48.12% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 110 Votes: 49.09% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 116 Votes: 46.55% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 26 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 24 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 20 Votes: 35.00% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 95 Votes: 46.32% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 11 Votes: 36.36% Annoying