The greeting of the postulator father on the occasion of the presentation of the biography

The Servant of God Angela Caterina Borgia, Augustinian nun (1694 - 1743)

             Good evening everyone! I thank you for your presence on this important occasion, in particular I thank the nuns of the monastery of St. Lucy in Selci, who have kindly welcomed us to their home, the Augustinian family and the friends of this venerable nun and historic monastery.

Our meeting will focus on the beautiful figure of Sister Angela Caterina Borgia: a beautiful woman whose main biographical features are now more accessible to all of us thanks to the biography prepared with dedication, seriousness and enthusiasm by Daniele Bolognini, who is not a beginner in the hagiographic field. I also thank Prof. Claudio Canonici who honors us with his presence and his participation in this event.

The historical period in which our Caterina lived can’t be considered among the most prosperous in terms of holiness in the Order.

Of course, there were illustrious friars and nuns of extraordinary goodness[1], but this period is quite lacking of prepared processes and concluded ones, from the perspectives of the Postulation, which is directly interested in them and promotes the causes of canonization.

Among the figures of sanctity whose process was started in a contemporaneous time to Sister Angela Caterina's one, we find:

• The Servant of God Ange Le Proust, a French Augustinian priest, member of the Congregation of observance of St. Guglielmo, who also was inspired by the figure of the Augustinian Thomas of Villanova, who dedicated himself to a social work that he developed in the first congregation of nuns which was aggregated to the Augustinian Order, that is, the Sisters of St. Thomas of Villanova.
• the Servant of God Catalina Maura of St. Tommaso, born in Palma de Mallorca in 1664 and died with a reputation for holiness at the beginning of 1735. At the age of twenty, she entered the monastery and she took her religious name in honor of St. Thomas. Just like Angela Caterina Borgia, she felt a call to be a prophet among her sisters and she had various mystical experiences and long periods of spiritual desert.
• the Servant of God Tommaso Antonio Arbuatti, a member of the Province of Picena, a friar who tried to live fully his Augustinian vocation taking St. Thomas of Villanova as his model of inspiration. He died in July 1746 and a few years after his death a process was prepared to collect evidences of his holiness.

The recent canonization of St. Thomas of Villanova (1658) is a feature that unites those three Servants of God. This aspect seems totally absent in the life of Angela Caterina Borgia.