St. Angela Merici (1474-1540) was one of the women who pioneered a new form of ministry for religious women in a time when the choice for women was marriage or enclosure in a convent. In her youth, moved by the poverty and ignorance of her neighbors in northern Italy she began to provide simple religious education to their children. Other women joined her and in 1533, at the age of 50, she set about formalizing this community of women. Two years later, twenty-eight women prepared to consecrate themselves to the service of God under the patronage of St. Ursula, the Company of St. Ursula, or Ursulines.
Angela had developed a simple rule for the community but did not envision them as nuns; they did not wear a habit and did not take vows. They continued to live in their homes. Such an association of women was a novelty and generated concerns. Four years after her death Pope Paul III approved a constitution for her community.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1572, Pope Gregory XIII, at the insistence of Saint Charles Borromeo, the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, declared the Ursulines a religious order under the Augustinian rule. In most cases, especially in France, the sisters adopted enclosure and took solemn vows. They were called the "religious Ursulines" as distinct from the "congregated Ursulines" who continued to follow the original plan.
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