Mother Angelica passed away on Easter Sunday on March 27, 2016, at the age of 92.
On this ninth anniversary of her death, let us also praise the Lord for what he accomplished through her! She was an incredible woman of God who helped lead many people closer to Jesus, particularly through her work founding EWTN.
Yet, even though she was a public figure, so much about her life isn’t well known.
Here are 13 things you probably didn’t know about the amazing life of Mother Angelica:
1) Mother Angelica’s birth name was Rita Antoinette Rizzo.
She was born on April 20, 1923, in Canton, Ohio, and was an only child.
2) Mother Angelica miraculously healed when she was 19 years old. She turned 20 on April 20, 1943.
When she was 16 years old, she suffered from terrible stomach pain. By the time she was 18, it had gotten bad enough that she sought medical help. X-rays showed there was something wrong with her stomach and intestines. Doctors tried various treatments, but nothing helped the pain.
In January of 1943, she prayed a novena to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, asking for relief from the pain. Then, on Jan. 17, 1943, when she woke up, the pain was completely gone! She believed it was a miracle, which deepened her relationship with God.
3) Mother Angelica secretly joined the convent.
Her mother was against her pursuing the religious life, but she felt so strongly that God was calling her to it, she entered the convent anyway. To avoid more resistance from her mother, she secretly left one day and went straight to the convent, leaving only a note for her mother. It read, in part:
“When you receive this letter, I will be in Cleveland. I have entered the Adoration Monastery… Something happened to me after my cure. What it was, I don’t know. I fell completely in love with Our Lord. To live in the world for these past nineteen months has been very difficult. I love you very much and I have not forgotten what you have done for me. Please trust Him… I ask your blessing that I may reach the heights I desire. I love you very much.”
4) Mother Angelica belonged to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, a religious community founded in France on December 8, 1854 – the very day of the Proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration’s charism is “reparative thanksgiving”, i.e., to give thanks to God for those who do not thank Him, especially for the Gift of the Holy Eucharist through their life of adoration. The Community’s foundress, Mother Marie Claire Bouillevaux, was inspired by the Gospel of the ten lepers, of which, only one returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11-19).
5) Her full religious name is Mary Angelica of the Annunciation.
“Mother Angelica” is just a shorter version.
6) She was nearly paralyzed in an accident in her 30s.
After making her final solemn vows, she was scrubbing the floor with an electric scrubbing machine. She slipped on the soapy floor and was flung hard against the wall. The accident severely injured her back. Over the next few months, her condition worsened, and the pain became unbearable. She was eventually fitted with a body cast. Finally, doctors resorted to surgery to try to fix the problem.
The night before the surgery, worried she may never walk again or even die, she prayed: “God! You didn’t bring me this far just to lay me out on my back for life. Please, Lord Jesus, if You allow me to walk again, I will build a monastery for Your glory. And I will build it in the South!”
And the surgery worked! Four months later, she walked out of the hospital.
7) Mother Angelica founded a monastery in Alabama with money from selling handmade fishing lures.
True to her pre-surgery pledge, she worked to establish what would become Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, AL. And she uniquely raised the needed money: she and a few other nuns made and sold fishing lures.
8) Mother Angelica was 58 years old when she launched EWTN’s cable network.
She first started filming a Catholic teaching series in the mid-1970s for a local CBS affiliate but stopped after the channel aired an inappropriate movie. But that didn’t stop her from making TV shows: she simply started her own network.
Mother Angelica founded EWTN as an entity on Dec. 12, 1980, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whom Pope Saint John Paul II called “the Star of the New Evangelization.”
Mother Angelica converted a garage at the monastery into a TV studio and officially launched Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) as a cable channel on Aug. 15, 1981, just a few months after her 58th birthday.
9) Mother Angelica had mystical visions of the child Jesus.
In 1995, when she was on a missionary trip to Colombia, Mother Angelica had an encounter with the child Jesus. She said a life-sized statue of the Infant of Prague came alive, smiled, and spoke to her, asking her to build him a temple.
Which she did: the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, AL. Apparently, the child Jesus continued to appear to her regularly, even in the hallway of her monastery.
10) Mother Angelica received the highest papal award given to laypeople and religious.
On October 4, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI honored her with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award. Started in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII, it’s the highest papal award given to lay people and religious.
11) Pope Saint John Paul II gifted Mother Angelica with a monstrance given to him during one of his papal visits to Poland.
You can see the monstrance on the Litany of the Sacred Heart with the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word.
12) Mother Angelica gave Marian names to the guest houses on the EWTN campus.
The guest houses are used for people making programs at EWTN. Some of the names include the Madonna House, Immaculata House, and Regina Caeli.
13) She participated in Eucharistic adoration every day until her death.
Despite her great worldly success, Mother Angelica remained committed to her vows as a nun and to her faith in Jesus Christ. However, Mother Angelica adored the Most Blessed Sacrament for 37 years before EWTN was launched on the air: from August 15, 1944 – August 15, 1981.
Adoration continues on the EWTN campus every day and remains the Living Heart of the Network. Adoration is live-streamed daily.
She stopped hosting TV programs in 2001 at the age of 78 due to health problems. And yet she continued with spiritual devotions as much as she could, including participating in Eucharistic adoration at the shrine she established.