Angelus of Jerusalem

Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	c. 1459, Rome, Papal States by Pope Pius II
Major shrine	Santa Maria del Carmine
Feast	5 May
Attributes	Carmelite habit, sword through chest, crucifix, martyr's palm
Patronage	Palermo

Angelus of Jerusalem,

ordained priests and Carmelite friars. Unlike his brother, however, he retreated into the desert to a hermitage after his ordination, but he emerged once he was instructed to go to the Italian mainland to evangelize as well as to meet with Pope Honorius III to have him approve a new rule for the Carmelites.^[2]

He was slain whilst preaching and was believed a saint after his death. The Carmelites venerated him as such until during his pontificate Pope Pius II beatified the slain priest circa 1459.^[2]

Life

He was born in

Hebrew.^[2]

In 1210, Angelus was

Albigensians and the Bulgars. He had likewise been instructed to go to Rome to obtain from Pope Honorius III confirmation of the new and definitive rule for the order (later granted in 1226).^[2]

Angelus was one of the first friars to come to Sicily from Mount Carmel.

Archbishop of Palermo Bernardo de Castanea while in Palermo. He settled on the Sicilian island though his fame as a wonderworker caused crowds to flock to him. He also had success in converting some Jews though most Jews in Palermo came to despise him for this since he himself was once Jewish.^[1]

He wanted to convert a

Cathar knight named Berenger (known also in sources as Berengarius).^[1] Tradition states that Berenger was living in incest and that the friar convinced the knight's companion to leave Berenger. Berenger became enraged and had him attacked in front of the church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo in Licata^[4]

on 1 May 1220. He died of his wounds within the week of 5 May and according to tradition asked for his assassin to be pardoned while urging the faithful not to avenge his death. He was buried at Santi Filippo e Giacomo.

Veneration

His sepulcher at Licata became a site of

translated to the Carmelite Church,^[4] and are now housed at the Santuario della Madonna del Carmine in Catania; the ending of a plague in the Kingdom of Naples in 1656, was attributed to his intercession.^[2]^[1] Since 4 May 1626, he has been known as the patron saint for Palermo

.

Daniel Papebroch sets no great value on any of the three different acts or relations of his martyrdom, but gives long accounts of miracles attributed to his intercession since his death, and of the great veneration which is paid to him in Sicily, especially at Licata and Palermo.^[3]

As he and Albert of Trapani were the first two saints in the Order to have a cult, they are frequently found in medieval Carmelite iconography alongside the Virgin Mary.^[6] In the Carmelite church of Santa Maria del Carmelo in Traspontina in Rome, there is a chapel dedicated to St. Angelus with an altarpiece by Giovanni Battista Ricci.