Saint Frances of Rome:

Feast day : 09 March

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Frances of Rome who lived during the period 1384-1440. She was a wife, mother, a widow and a mystic who founded a religious order of oblates called the Oblates of Frances of Rome. With her husband’s consent, she practised a life of self restraint and greatly advanced in her contemplative prayer life. She was blessed with extraordinary graces and several mystical gifts. Yet she was always obedient to her husband and fulfilled all her marital duties with love and humility saying
“A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar to find him in her household affairs”. She is the patron saint of automobile drivers, widows and oblates.

Early life:

St. Frances was born into an aristocratic family in Rome in 1384. From her early days she was known to be pious and loved solitude and prayer. At the age of 11 she desired to enter a monastery but in obedience to her parents will, she married a rich young man named Lorenzo De’ Ponziani at the age of 13.

Married life::

Following her marriage she was struck by illnesses but she was healed after St. Alexis appeared to her in a vision. From then on, with her husband’s consent, she practised a life of self restraint and advanced in her contemplative prayer life. She avoided all festivities and celebrations. All her delight was in prayer, meditation and doing works of charity. She was greatly favoured by Almighty God who bestowed on her humility, extraordinary graces and supernatural favours such as frequent visions, raptures and the gift of prophesy and miracles. She often enjoyed the vision of her guardian angel. During Holy Mass she was often caught in ecstasies of love and devotion. She could read the secrets of consciences. She was known for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience.

During the invasion of Rome by Ladislas, King of Naples and the great schism under Pope John XXIII in 1413, her husband and his brother in law were banished from Rome. Their estate was confiscated. Chaos ruled the city in that period of neglect by the Pope and the ongoing warfare between him and the various forces competing for power on the Italian peninsula devastated the city. The city of Rome was largely in ruins, and wolves were known to enter the streets. St. Frances again opened her home as a hospital and drove her wagon through the countryside to collect wood for fire and herbs for medicine. She had the gift of healing, and over 60 cases were attested to during the canonization proceedings.

Her mortifications became intense a few years before her husband’s death when she abstained from wine, fish and any meat. She would procure secretly from beggars their dry crusts and exchange them for good bread. She would add only a few unsavoury herbs to her bread and drank nothing but water. She ate once a day and her garments were of coarse serge. She wore continually a hair shirt and a girdle of horse hair. If she inadvertently happened to offend God she would severely punish herself. Through her life she inspired many rich Roman women to renounce their life of pomp and join in her pious exercises. With the consent and support of her husband she founded a monastery of nuns called Oblates on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary in 1425. She gave them the rule of St. Benedict and put them under the direction of the congregation of the Olivetans. It was approved by Pope Eugenius IV in 1437 and the Order came to be known as the Oblates of Frances of Rome. She continued to live in her own home nursing her husband for the last seven years of his life from the wounds he had received in battle. When he died in 1436, she moved into the monastery and became the Superior.

Death and Sainthood:

She is believed to have foretold her death and after receiving the Sacraments, died on 9 March 1440 at the age of fifty six after a brief illness. A sweet scent of sanctity filled the room where her body was laid. Sr. Margaret of the Oblate sisters, who had a withered arm, was engaged in washing the body when her arm was suddenly cured!. This caused all the Oblates to fall on their knees at the sight of the miracle. It was also noticed that St. Frances’s face which had been worn out by age and sufferings had become beautiful again as in the days of her youth and bystanders were awed by her loveliness. Because of the many miracles that were taking place to those who visited the body, the burial was delayed by a few days.

She was canonized by Pope Paul V on May 9, 1608. Her remains are kept in the Church of Santa Maria Nova. In 1925, Pope Pius XI declared her the patron saint of automobile drivers because of a legend that an angel used to light the road before her with a lantern when she travelled, keeping her safe from hazards. Within the Benedictine Order, she is honored as a patron saint of all oblates. She is also a patron saint of widows. Her feast is celebrated on March 9.