St Frances of Rome: Life, Guardian Angel and Prayer

St Frances of Rome (1384-1440), Santa Francesca Romana, was a Roman noblewoman who lived for forty years as a devoted wife and mother, served the poor and the sick of her city through war, famine and plague, founded the Oblates of Tor de' Specchi, and was granted to see at her side, for more than twenty years, the angel whom God had given her as guide. In the calendar of 1962 her feast is kept on 9 March, a feast of the third class, which nearly always falls in Lent. Below are her life according to Butler, her guardian angel and her visions, why she is the patron saint of motorists, and the collect of her feast in Latin and English.

Who was St Frances of Rome?

Frances was born in 1384 in the Trastevere quarter of Rome, of a noble and devout family, at the beginning of the Great Schism of the West. At eleven she asked to become a nun; her parents refused, and at barely thirteen she was married to Lorenzo Ponziano, a young nobleman of wealth and good character.

She found the new life hard at first. Her sister-in-law Vannozza, the wife of Lorenzo's brother, found her one day in tears, and confided that she too would have chosen a life of prayer. The two young wives became lifelong friends and, with the consent of their husbands, went out together, plainly dressed, to visit the poor of Rome and to nurse the sick at the hospital of Santo Spirito, choosing those with the most repellent diseases.

Frances bore three children known to us: Battista, Evangelista and Agnes, and she would let no one else look after them in their childhood. When her mother-in-law died, Frances, though the wife of the younger son, was made head of the household, and she ruled it, Butler says, treating the servants as younger brothers and sisters. In forty years of marriage there was never a quarrel between her and her husband. Her own rule for a married woman's piety is often quoted:

"It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping."

Her biographers relate that once, while she was reading the Office of Our Lady, she was called away four times to her husband's service, and each time closed the book and went; when she returned the fifth time, she found the words of the antiphon written in letters of gold.

War, plague and the gift of healing

Rome in her lifetime was torn by the Schism and by the wars of Naples. When famine and pestilence struck, Frances emptied the granaries of the Palazzo Ponziano for the poor, sold her jewels with her father-in-law's consent, and went with Vannozza from door to door begging food for the starving. The Ponziani supported the legitimate Pope, and paid for it: in 1408 Lorenzo was stabbed and nursed back to health by his wife; Battista was demanded as a hostage; in 1410 the troops of King Ladislaus of Naples plundered the palace and ruined the family estates, and Lorenzo had to flee. Frances stayed in a corner of her ruined house with her younger children and Vannozza, and went on relieving those still poorer than herself.

In another epidemic her son Evangelista died. Frances turned part of the house into a hospital, and God, Butler writes, rewarded her labours with the gift of healing. Her daughter Agnes died not long after, at sixteen.

St Frances of Rome and her guardian angel

This is the grace for which she is best known, and the one the Church herself names in the Collect of her feast. According to her confessor's account, a year after Evangelista's death he appeared to his mother, radiant, accompanied by an archangel. He told her of his happiness in heaven, warned her of the coming death of her daughter, and announced that the archangel would henceforth be her guide; Butler says this was for twenty-three years, and that in the last period of her life he was succeeded by an angel of still higher dignity.

From then on, Butler writes, the angel was always visible to her, though unseen by others, in the form of a child of about eight. When she committed a fault, he faded from her sight for a time and returned as soon as she had repented and confessed it. On the evening of her death her face was seen to shine, and her last words were: "The angel has finished his task: he beckons me to follow him."

The Church does not ask us to see our angels, but she teaches that each of us has one. To know what she teaches about them, see our page on guardian angels in Catholic teaching, and for the prayer every Catholic child learns, the Guardian Angel prayer, Angel of God. Those who wish to give nine days to their own angel can pray the novena to your guardian angel.

The visions of St Frances of Rome

Frances was tried all her life by violent temptations, which sometimes took the form of terrifying or alluring visions. She also received consolations and revelations, many of which were set down by her confessor in the last ten years of her life, John Matteotti, first in Italian and then in Latin; his collection of her visions and miracles is the chief source of her life. Among them is a vision of hell, granted to her after she herself had recovered from the plague, which, Butler writes, was so terrible that she could never speak of it without tears; the same collection contains revelations about purgatory.

These are private revelations. The Church, in canonizing her, approved her heroic virtue, not every detail of what her confessor recorded, and they add nothing to the faith. But they agree with what the Church teaches about the last things, which you can read in our page on the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell.

The Oblates of Tor de' Specchi

As her fame spread, Frances was called on all over Rome to heal the sick and reconcile enemies. Lorenzo, whose reverence for her grew with the years, freed her from the obligations of married life, on condition that she remain under his roof. She then formed a society of devout Roman women living in the world, without vows, who offered themselves to God and to the service of the poor. With the help of her confessor, an Olivetan monk of Santa Maria Nuova, the society was affiliated to the Benedictines of Monte Oliveto. Its members were called first the Oblates of Mary, and later the Oblates of Tor de' Specchi, from the house near the Capitol which they acquired in 1433 for their common life; Pope Eugene IV approved the congregation that same year.

Frances would not be called foundress, and placed the community under Agnes de Lellis. After Lorenzo died in 1436, she entered Tor de' Specchi on the feast of St Benedict as a humble suppliant, and the superior at once resigned in her favour. The oblates still live there, and Butler notes that their dress remained that of the Roman ladies of her day. For the patriarch under whose Rule they live, see our page on St Benedict and the St Benedict medal.

How did St Frances of Rome die?

In the spring of 1440, already very ill, she was visiting her son Battista and her daughter-in-law when her director ordered her to stay with them. She lingered for seven days and died there on the evening of 9 March 1440, with the words about her angel quoted above. Crowds thronged the house, and then the church of Santa Maria Nuova in the Roman Forum, where she was buried in the chapel of her oblates and where miracles were reported at her tomb. She was canonized by Pope Paul V in 1608, and the church is now known as Santa Francesca Romana.

The collect of St Frances of Rome (Missal of 1962)

The prayer of her feast is the surest "prayer to St Frances of Rome". It names the grace that made her famous and turns it into a petition for us: that we may come to share the company of the angels.

Collect, 9 March

Deus, qui beátam Francíscam fámulam tuam, inter cétera grátiæ tuæ dona, familiári Angeli consuetúdine decorásti: concéde, quǽsumus; ut, intercessiónis ejus auxílio, Angelórum consórtium cónsequi mereámur. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

O God, who, among the other gifts of Thy grace, didst honour blessed Frances, Thy handmaid, with the familiar companionship of an Angel: grant, we beseech Thee, that by the help of her intercession we may deserve to attain to the fellowship of the Angels. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle of her Mass is the praise of the valiant woman from the Book of Proverbs (31:10-31), Mulierem fortem quis inveniet?, "Who shall find a valiant woman?", a portrait that fits the mistress of the Palazzo Ponziano exactly.

When is the feast day of St Frances of Rome?

The feast of St Frances of Rome is 9 March, the day of her death. In the calendar of 1962 it is a feast of the third class, in white vestments; you will find it in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962. Because 9 March almost always falls after Ash Wednesday, her feast is usually kept within Lent, the forty days of penance: under the rubrics of 1960, a feast of the third class on a Lenten weekday gives way to the weekday, the Office is of the Lenten feria with a commemoration of the saint, and in a Mass that is not conventual the priest may take the Mass of St Frances. The calendar of 1969 kept her on 9 March, as an optional memorial.

What is St Frances of Rome the patron saint of?

In 1925 Pope Pius XI proclaimed St Frances of Rome the patroness of motorists. The choice rests on a pious tradition that her angel lit the road before her when she went out at night, so that she travelled safely in the dark streets of Rome; the tradition is told by her devotees and is not found in Butler's account, and we give it as such.

Beyond this modern patronage, she is above all a model for the three states of life she lived: wives, mothers and widows. The calendar of 1962 calls her simply Vidua, widow, and her Mass is that of holy women. She belongs to the great family of Catholic saints who became holy not by leaving their homes but by sanctifying them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is St Frances of Rome known for?

For seeing her guardian angel, who was visible to her for more than twenty years, until her death; for her fidelity as a wife and mother in a time of war and plague; for her charity to the poor and the sick of Rome; and for founding the Oblates of Tor de' Specchi.

What did St Frances of Rome do?

She ran a great Roman household, raised her children, nursed the sick in the hospitals of Rome, begged food for the poor in famine, turned her house into a hospital during the plague, made peace between enemies, and founded a society of women living in the world for the service of God and the poor.

How did St Frances of Rome die?

Of illness, aged about fifty-five, in her son's house in Rome, on 9 March 1440, after seven days of sickness. Her last words were that her angel had finished his task and was beckoning her to follow.

When was St Frances of Rome canonized?

In 1608, by Pope Paul V, who set her feast on 9 March.

Where is St Frances of Rome buried?

In the church of Santa Maria Nuova on the Roman Forum, now called the church of Santa Francesca Romana, where the faithful still venerate her.

Is there a novena to St Frances of Rome?

The Church's own prayer for her is the Collect of 9 March given above, and it may be said on nine days before her feast, ending on 8 March, or on any nine days, as a novena. In the traditional manner, it can be followed by an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be, and by the prayer Angel of God to one's own guardian angel.

The Iter Fidei app carries the calendar of 1962 with every feast and Lenten commemoration, the Roman Missal with the prayers of each day and the Breviary, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 9 March (St Frances of Rome, Widow); Common of Holy Women (Epistle, Proverbs 31:10-31). Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 9 March (St Frances of Rome, Widow). The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), article "St. Frances of Rome".