IFTTT Autopost 
Ángela de los Ángeles Guerrero y González was born on January 30, 1846, in Seville, Spain to a poor family. Though Angela was one of 14 children, only five of them survived to adulthood.
Angela’s father, Francisco Guerrero, was a wool carder from Grazalema who moved to Seville, and her mother, Josefa González, was from Seville. Both of Angela’s parents worked for the Trinitarian Fathers at their house in Seville, Francisco as a cook and Josefa as a seamstress and laundress.
When she was twelve, Angela went to work in a shoe repair shop to bring in money to help support the family. There, Angela worked almost continuously until she was 29. At the shop, Angela’s boss was a very devout Catholic woman named Antonia Maldonado, who noted Angela’s special attraction to religious practices such as common recitation of the rosary and reading the lives of the saints. Therefore, Antonia referred Angela to a priest from the Canary Islands whom she knew, Father José Torred y Padilla, noted for his holiness. Father José was happy to help Angela as her spiritual director.
When she was 19, in 1865, Angela applied to become a Discalced Carmelite sister, but her application was denied. The sisters believed that Angela was too fragile to handle the physical tasks that would be required.
Fr. José recommended that instead of the convent life, Angela should consider helping cholera patients, for that disease was epidemic at the time. That she did.
But in 1868, Angela decided to try to enter the Daughters of Charity in Seville, and she was accepted. At the time, the sisters knew that Angela was not in perfect health, but they took a chance by sending her to Valencia to help her get quality medical treatment and nursing care. During her novitiate year, however, she discovered she had to abandon that dream and returned to the shoe factory.
When she was 29, Angela left her job at the shoe factory to found a new religious community with three other women: the wealthy Josefa de la Peña, and two poor women, Juana María Castro and Juana Magadán. On August 2, 1875, this group declared themselves to be a religious order and elected Angela to be their superior. Angela then became Mother Angela of the Cross, and their group would become known as the Sisters of the Company of the Cross (H.C.C.).
With money from Josefa de la Peña, the group rented a small room and organized a support system to serve the poor and the ill of the community. The group also began wearing a religious habit while they served the sick, poor, homeless, and orphans in the community. With the money they received, they were able to provide food, medicines, and other items for those they served.
On April 5, 1876, the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville, Luis de la Lastra y Cuesta, approved the community. From that time on, the community continued to grow and flourish, and by the time Mother Angela died, the sisters had 23 convents.
Mother Angela died in Seville on March 3, 1832, and she was canonized on May 4, 2003. Saint Angela of the Cross Guerrero’s feast day is March 2. She is the patron saint of the community she founded, the Sisters of the Company of the Cross.
