St. Frances of Rome

St. Frances of Rome was born in 1384 into a wealthy family of Rome and died there on 9 March 1440. Married young to a nobleman, she became a devoted wife and mother, yet longed always for a deeper life of prayer; she bore family sorrows, the loss of children to plague, and the upheavals of war and occupation with heroic patience, and turned her palace and her resources to the relief of the poor and the sick of the city, converting part of her home into a hospital.

With other noblewomen she founded a community of Oblates attached to the Benedictines of Monte Oliveto, women who, without vows or enclosure, dedicated themselves to God and to works of charity while living in the world. Frances was blessed with remarkable mystical graces, and it was said that her guardian angel was visible to her and accompanied her constantly. After her husband's death she entered the community she had founded and served as its superior until her own death. Canonized in 1608 and honored as a patron of Rome and, in modern times, of motorists, she is commemorated on 9 March.