Today March 9

Today is the feast day of the great St. Frances of Rome, patron of motorists. Since she died in 1440, it couldn't be because she actually WAS one! As near as I can figure it, she was given the drivers' patronage because she was blessed with being able to (constantly) see her guardian angel (an archangel, actually), who was her luminous guide up and down the streets of Rome. I am enchanted with this revelation, being rather devoted to my guardian angel and to angels in general. My mom thinks I am a little too carried away with my theory that they are "higher than we" are, but I guess there is more than a little of the professor in me and I don't lose my pet theories easily. :)

This wonderful saint was a layman, married, the mother of three children: two boys and a girl, in that order, in fact! They were Battista, Evangelist and Agnes. She suffered the early death of Evangelist and Agnes, and the abduction of her son Battista -- twice! She was cursed to live in very interesting times, you know. She and her (difficult) husband Lorenzo were supporters of the true pope and being somewhat prominent, at least comfortable and respected, members of the community, were targets of the troops of Ladislaus, supporter of the antipope. While Battista was released from his first abduction under circumstances that were considered to be miraculous, he suffered being taken hostage yet again at the same time as Lorenzo during a veritable revolution in Rome. The Ponzianos, for that was their last name, lost their fancy home and all their possessions, and farms and villages all around pillaged and burnt. Poor Frances huddled in a corner of her home that was still standing and sheltered her remaining child (Agnes was still alive then) and her devoted sister-in-law Vannozza and her children. When Lorenzo and Battista were finally released, Frances nursed them back to health.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Frances, since she suffered a critical mother-in-law and an indifferent father-in-law, both of whom lived with them! She ought to be canonized just for that! Far from killing them, she served them cheerfully and quietly. She is also truly a patron of housewives, because she ran that whole household (all the people, servants, animals, etc.), buying and preparing food, entertaining, cleaning, and refusing the use of nannies for her children. She raised those kids herself. More power to her! She was ahead of her time, was Frances.

And there is another progressive thing in her life. It's a delicate one. In the last years of her husband's life, she and he lived a continent marriage. I'm always amazed whenever I read this intimate fact in the lives of the saints, and it is not nearly as rare as you'd think. I knew about St. Frances of Rome, and I knew she was the foundress of the Oblates of the Tor de' Specchi, an active order of sisters, but I didn't know how her saintly husband "freed" her in this unusual way. I mean, he didn't have to, but he knew the desires of her heart. And I think we need to honor "Saint" Lorenzo today too!