Our Lady Queen of the Angels

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady Queen of Angels dating back to before the days of Saint Francis. There was a chapel in Assisi, Italy called “Our Lady of the Angels” because of the belief angels had appeared there. By the time Saint Francis arrived in 1207, the church had fallen into disrepair. Jesus appeared to Francis there and asked him to repair his church. Francis thought the Lord meant the physical building which he immediately began to do. Only later did Francis realize the Lord meant that he was to repair the Church as a Community of believers. In this little chapel known as the Portiuncula or little portion, Francis received his vocation to follow Christ and it was here in 1208 that he founded his order of Franciscans and then later the Poor Clares and here he held several chapters or meetings of the community. In 1226 he died in an adjoining room to the chapel.

Excerpt from the Major Life of St. Francis by Saint Bonaventure
"The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned. Francis had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ.

He loved this spot more than any other in the world. It was here he began his religious life in a very small way; it is here he came to a happy end. When he was dying, he commended this spot above all others to the friars, because it was most dear to the Blessed Virgin.

This was the place where Saint Francis founded his Order by divine inspiration and it was divine providence which led him to repair three churches before he founded the Order and began to preach the Gospel.

This meant that he progressed from material things to more spiritual achievements, from lesser to greater, in due order, and it gave a prophetic indication of what he would accomplish later.

As he was living there by the church of Our Lady, Francis prayed to her who had conceived the Word, full of grace and truth, begging her insistently and with tears to become his advocate. Then he was granted the true spirit of the Gospel by the intercession of the Mother of mercy and he brought it to fruition.

He embraced the Mother of Our Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he put all his trust in her and took her as his patroness for himself and his friars."

Our Lady Queen of the Angels, pray for us.