Wife, mother and widow, religious, founder of the Oblates of Tor de' Specchi · Feast: 9 March
Open in the Daily Word app“She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20
Frances was born in Rome in 1384 into a noble and wealthy family. As a girl she wished to enter a convent, but at about twelve she was married, as her father had arranged, to Lorenzo de' Ponziani, a rich nobleman of Trastevere. On the advice of her confessor she accepted this as God's will. Her marriage lasted some forty years and was a happy one. They had children, and she ran a great household with care.
Together with her sister-in-law Vannozza, who shared her desires, Frances looked for ways to serve God in the midst of family life. They visited the sick in the hospitals of Rome and helped the poor. Her father-in-law at first objected to her giving, but he came to respect her. She kept a simple and penitent life under her fine clothes and treated her servants with kindness.
Her times were hard. The Church was torn by the great schism, and Rome suffered war, plague and famine. When the troops of King Ladislaus of Naples took the city, Lorenzo was badly wounded and later exiled, their property was seized, and their son Battista was taken as a hostage. Plague killed her son Evangelista at the age of nine, and later her daughter Agnes. Frances turned part of her house into a hospital, gave away what she had, and went out with a donkey to gather wood and beg for those in need.
In 1425 she gathered a group of Roman women, still living in the world, as oblates under the rule of St Benedict, attached to the Olivetan monks of Santa Maria Nova. In 1433 they began to live together at Tor de' Specchi, and Pope Eugene IV approved the community. After Lorenzo's death in 1436 Frances joined them as their superior. She died on 9 March 1440 and was buried in Santa Maria Nova, in the Roman Forum, now called Santa Francesca Romana. She was canonised by Pope Paul V in 1608.
Family duty came first, and God was found in it.
She lost her children and gave her love to the children of others.
Frances and Vannozza encouraged one another for years.
She kept nothing back when the city was hungry.
It is told that while she was reciting the Office of Our Lady, someone in the household called her away four times on the same verse. Each time she went without complaint. When she returned the fourth time, the verse was written in gold letters on the page.
Her confessor, who wrote down her life and visions, records that for many years she saw beside her an angel, whose light allowed her to read and walk at night. This is why she is named a patron of motorists.
Her early life tells that after she had given away the corn from the family granary to the hungry, her husband and his father found the loft full again, and the empty wine cask full too.
A married woman must, when called upon, leave her devotions to God at the altar and find him in her household affairs.
Saying attributed to St Frances of Rome, in substance
God is found in household duty.
The strong woman of Proverbs reaches out to the poor (Proverbs 31:20).
Loss can make the heart wider.
Dear friends, many people think that holiness is for priests and sisters. St Frances of Rome wanted to be a nun, and instead she was married at about twelve into a great house. She could have spent her life in regret. Instead she made that house the place where she met God, and she stayed married for forty years.
A saying attributed to her is very simple: a married woman must, when called, leave her devotions at the altar and find God in her household affairs. Mothers and fathers, hear this. Your prayer matters. But the crying baby, the sick parent and the child who needs your time are not interruptions to your life with God. They are part of it.
Frances knew great sorrow. War took her home and her husband's health; plague took two of her children. Sorrow could have closed her heart. It opened her heart instead. She turned her house into a hospital, went out to beg and gathered wood on the road, though she was a noblewoman of Rome. The book of Proverbs says of the worthy wife that she opens her hand to the poor (Proverbs 31:20). There are parents among us who have buried a child. May they know she walks with them.
At this Holy Mass / Holy Qurbana let us offer our families to God: the good days and the hard days, the meals, the quarrels and the prayers. Let us ask St Frances to teach husbands and wives to love one another faithfully, and to help every Christian home open its hands to those in need. Amen.
O God, who gave us in St Frances of Rome a model of holiness as wife, mother and widow, grant that through her prayers we may serve you faithfully in every state of life, and find you among the duties of each day. Amen.