Daily Saint

St. Angela of the Cross received visions that guided her call to serve God. During prayer in 1873, she saw Jesus on the Cross and an empty cross next to it. She understood that God wanted her to “hang from the empty cross, to be poor with the poor to bring them to Christ.” Her spiritual director told her to keep a spiritual diary to document her calling. In doing so, she discerned her call was to live among the poor, caring for them, loving them, and teaching them the Faith. This mission led to the founding of her order, the Sisters of the Company of the Cross, in 1875. The sisters were dedicated to living in radical poverty and service to ease the suffering of the most vulnerable and marginalized.

St. Angela was born into an impoverished but devout Christian family. Her father was a cook and her mother a laundress for a Trinitarian Friary in Seville. She was one of 14 children, but only six of her siblings survived into adulthood. St. Angela also had fragile health all her life, which prevented her from being accepted into a religious congregation. Her parents instilled strong faith, and the family regularly prayed the Rosary together. Drawn to the Virgin Mary and the crucified Christ, St. Angela was often found praying in church as a child while her mother worked. With little formal education, she began working in a shoe shop at age twelve to help the family financially, a job she kept for years. Her boss, a devout woman named Antonia Maldonado, encouraged her to pray and read saints’ lives. Fr. José Torres Padilla recognized a calling in St. Angela when she was 16, and he became her spiritual director. This unique set of circumstances shaped her lifelong dedication to following in Christ’s footsteps, serving the abandoned poor and later founding the Sisters of the Company of the Cross.