| |
When Angela Merici founded the Company, she did not dedicated it to any specific work or to any common activity. The places and the forms of her daughters’ work (today as then) varied in relation to their own social situation, to their own commitments - occupational, familial, and apostolic.
Whatever might be the sphere of their occupations or of their activities, there they are called to “do honour to Jesus Christ”as they have become his “true and virginal spouses”.
Therefore, the Company of St. Ursula was born without any work, and thus there is no purpose of charitable assistance that belongs to its specific charism.
However, in the course of the centuries, this spiritual family has become involved in very many charitable and social works, drawn by the mature awareness of a Daughter of St. Angela so that, in each of these ways, they have given life to an undertaking that makes charity concrete, in response to particular historic situations burdened with moral and material poverty.
Obviously, the activities have also evolved according to the passage of time and the changing social, economic, and religious context. The characteristic element that accompanies all these experiences - and this appears particularly Merician - is attention to the situation of women and to the problems linked to woman’s full human, spiritual and social integration.
We offer here only a few brief sketches relative to the history and the present significance of some works that the Company continues to support today.
We offer here only a few brief sketches relative to the history and the present significance of some works that the Company continues to support today.
|
|
|
|
|
In 1889 the members inscribed in the Company amounted to about 3000, of whom about 200 were divided among the nine parishes in the city of Brescia and the other 2800 were within the diocese.
Such a large family needed its own centre for formation activities, for meetings and for gatherings of the daughters living in the city. The Company had always relied upon religious institutes, but this situation caused discomfort for the Daughters and for the institutes that extended their hospitality.
The opportunity to realise their plan was presented when the sisters Maddalena and Elisabetta Girelli inherited a property from their uncles Giulio Moro and Luigi Moro, who had died at Borgo Poncarale on April 3, 1897, and July 29, 1897, respectively. The sisters received a large building in Brescia, on the Via Martinengo da Bargo, a building that they restored and designated as a house of formation and prayer for all the daughters of St. Angela in the Diocese of Brescia.
Its current functions are the following:
- A house of formation and prayer for the Company of St. Angela of Brescia (spiritual exercises, retreats, meetings, etc.)
- A house of occasional hospitality for the Daughters of the Company of Brescia who are in a situation of need.
- A house of welcome for all the institutes that are inspired by Merician spirituality and that come on pilgrimage to venerate our holy Mother.
- A house of welcome for the activities of church groups and of educational, cultural and social movements with a Christian spirit.
 go up
|
|
The "Baldini" Family House |
|
|
|
The work begun in 1882 by Domenico Baldini, superior of the Company (1890-1910), with the collaboration of the teacher Giuseppina Bosio, a Daughter of St. Angela, has developed over fifty years into a valuable social service of developing and forming young women, with the founding and operation of an elementary school and of weekday and weekend classes in home economics, tailoring and sewing, and secretarial skills, accompanied by moral and spiritual formation.
During World War II (1940-1945) the Baldini School took in refugees and people persecuted at that time, thirty young people in difficulty who were assisted and instructed. A residence was also opened for working women and female students who were coming into the city from the province.
Since 1960 the Company of St. Angela has assumed the direction of the house, continuing various activities and updating them according to the needs of the time, always in the cause of promoting women.
Currently the house welcomes working women and female students from 18 to 40 years old. Its hospitality has the familial quality that requires the involvement and collaboration of each one so that harmony and serenity may reign.
The house also offers opportunities for human and spiritual growth. Residents must demonstrate responsible moral conduct and follow the regulations. Advance reservations are necessary.
The house has 55 accommodations, in single or double rooms, with individual or shared services, and areas for cooking, laundry, study and watching television.
go up |
|
The "Girelli Sisters" Rest Home |
|
|
|
The building, brought into being by Maddalena Girelli in 1877 amid much difficulty, has for many years received young people from the area who have come to Marone to work.
Successively adapting to the different needs of the times, it was transformed into an orphanage for little girls (there were many orphans here on account of the war). They were taught knitting, weaving, sewing, tailoring, embroidery and home economics. The life of the house was organised by Mass, times of prayer, school, work, recreation and theater.
The house was partially destroyed during a furious tempest that struck Marone on July 9, 1953. The lake entirely swallowed the building, the chapel, the office, the rooms in which Maddalena and Elisabetta Girelli had stayed. However, the disaster did not take the life of a single lodger.
Since 1975 the building receives elderly Daughters of St. Angela. Recently, after a radical restoration, the House continues to guarantee adequate assistance to the elderly consorelle and also receives other elderly women, capable of caring for themselves, who have requested accommodations.
go up |
|
|
Fulvia e Lucia - c/o Paroquial do San Geraldo do Araguaia - 6857.0 - 000 Parà (Brasile) - Tel. 0055.913311142 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fulvia e Lucia with fr. Giovanni Magoni |
Fulvia teaching prayer |
|
|
A project cultivated over time by two Daughters of St. Angela (Fulvia Tonoli of Salò and Lucia Pagani of Pontoglio) came into being on December 2, 1998, with their departure for the state of Parà in Brazil.
The Company, in accord with the bishop of that diocese, has launched them to collaborate with Father Giovanni Magoni, a Brescian priest, as a “gift of faith” to St. Geraldo do Araguaia Parish in the diocese of Conceicao.
Fulvia and Lucia have been fully inserted into this mission land, with a daily commitment that extends from dawn to dusk. They work actively for the Christian and human promotion of the impoverished population. In particular, their attention is directed to the condition of women who, as always, pay a very heavy price in terms of exploitation and marginalisation.
With the witness of their consecrated life, they have begun several activities in their short time there.
The Pastoral Centre of St. Angela Merici - launched by their initiative and with the financial contributions of the Company and of the parishes of Saò and of Pontoglio - is a gathering place and the site for their initiatives.
Among these we point out :
- Accompaniment and formation for animators of base communities,
- Evangelisation and promotion of women (they have started a course in tailoring and sewing for the mothers of the central city and the poorest outlying areas),
- An after-school tutoring program for children in academic difficulty,
- Concrete help in meeting daily needs for families, single persons, etc., in any kind of difficulty.
|
|
home
