Angela and Abraham's Beliefs and Experiences

Angela of Foligno's Beliefs and Experiences

Angela of Foligno, a Franciscan tertiary, has been deemed as a woman for Christian Mysticism. Angela experienced various situations that could be deemed as “mystical”. These mystical experiences influenced her beliefs and she had them written down by a scribe called “Brother A”.  

The first experience Angela had was after the deaths of her mother, husband, and children. She decided to go to a general confession when she began to fear the life of sin she had lived. After the general confession, where she prayed to St. Francis, he came to her in a dream. St. Francis designated her a specific confessor to go to in this dream (Turai, pg. 27). After this initial experience, she would go on and have other experiences. Most of them involving God himself coming to her. One experience involved pain within Angela as God’s presence was leaving her (Heffernan, pg. 52). All these experiences helped influence Angela in several ways when it came to her beliefs. 

Angela’s beliefs vary across various fields such as, poverty and penance, body-soul connection, and union with God. Angela devoted her life to the ways of St. Francis. She sold all her belongings and possessions, starting a life of poverty. She devoted herself to charity work and human service. She felt that union with God was important, and prayer could be a way to obtain that.  

 

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia’s Experiences and Beliefs: 

Abraham’s mystical experiences were similar to Angela’s in several ways. Abraham already led a religious life; his mystical experiences did not turn him towards God. In fact, he started having mystical experiences while exploring his own practices with meditation. His beliefs were remarkably interesting due to the uniqueness and how one of a kind they were. 

To begin with, Abraham was the creator of Ecstatic Kabbalah, which is a form of getting unification with God. Abulafia’s form of kabbalah focused on the combination of metaphysics and the combination of letters, numbers, and other symbols (pg. 36). The manipulation of these symbols were used during meditational/ concentration practices to either promote focus on the divine name or other visual mystical experiences.  

Abulafia had an interesting take that would often be criticized. He believed that he was a messenger of God, he felt that he was sent to spread the word of God. He viewed himself in a messianic manner, and these views caused him to travel to various countries to spread the words of God. These trips would lead him to go to the Pope at the time to try and discuss his thoughts and words (pg. 35).  

 

References 

 

IDEL, M. (2011). ABRAHAM ABULAFIA AND ECSTATIC KABBALAH. In Kabbalah in Italy, 1280-1510: A Survey (pp. 30–39). Yale University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npjh5.6 

Heffernan, C. F. (2019). Angela of Foligno: Her Mystical Experience and Her Influence. Magistra, 25(1), 49–61.  

 Turai, G. (2022). The Life and Context of Angela. In Medieval Female Mysticism and Weber’s Charismatic Authority: The Case of Angela of Foligno (pp. 25–34). Harrassowitz Verlag. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2tbwq83.5