Holy women of the Middle Ages and Renaissance have attracted scholarly attention in the past two decades. Fasting nuns who live on the eucharist alone have been proposed as “holy anorexics,” as imitators of Christ's embodiment, and as charlatans. The self-definition “bride of Christ” has been explored for its symbolic value, both in the original context and in our own. It is interesting to note, though, that this emphasis on the extreme and the ephemeral has largely ignored one woman whose religious mission actually left a legacy that continues into our time, Angela Merici (1474–1540). Mostly Italian scholars have been aware of Angela's role in the piety of the early sixteenth century, and her role at the center of a symbolic ideology based on the model of St. Ursula and her company of 11,000 virgins. Querciolo Mazzonis has stepped adroitly into this gap with his fine study of Angela Merici in the context of holy women in the Christian tradition.

Angela Merici was born in 1474 in Desenzano del Garda, on the Lombard side of Lake Garda. Her parents died when she was an adolescent, so she went to live with family in Salò, farther up the lake; during this time, she became a Franciscan tertiary. In 1516, at about the age of 40, Angela moved to Brescia to pursue a different religious vocation. In the mid-1530s she founded the Company of St. Ursula, a group of women committed to religious life in the world. The Company grew out of the life Angela was already living, with a pious group of unmarried and widowed female friends, but it became increasingly formalized: in 1535, Angela dictated a Rule to a Brescian notary; in 1536, the Company was given ecclesiastical approval from the Vicar General of Brescia; in 1537, Angela was elected its head. Since Angela died in 1540, the contours and definitions of the Company were worked out over a small window of time in her own life, and after her death.

The Company of St. Ursula was not quite like any religious order founded to that time, although it looks like many religious communities, especially communities of women, of the modern era. Much of its ethos comes straight from Angela's character; as Mazzonis says, “She was both contemplative and active, mystical and practical, learned and aware of the matters of everyday life” (17). The Company stressed devotion (Angela was known to take frequent communion and spend hours in prayer before the consecrated host), and insisted that all those entering be virgins, “Brides of Christ,” yet living in the world as laywomen who took no vows and did not wear a common habit. Most of the Company lived at home, or in small groups of two or three. They did penance for the sins of the world, gave spiritual advice, and sometimes may have worked in hospitals and charitable institutions. They resembled the medieval Beguines of northern Europe and the Pizzochere of Italy but led even more independent and secular lives. Members of the Company who were wise in the ways of this life were called the Colonelle. These visited the other members and oversaw their spiritual progress. The Matrone, a group of widows who could not become members of the Company because they were not virgins, were fellow travelers who oversaw the Company in financial and social aspects.

Working mostly from primary sources, Mazzonis describes how Angela Merici's ideal took shape in the context of early modern spirituality (especially that of women) and in the social realities of sixteenth-century Brescia. His analysis includes the expansion of the Company to other cities (usually in slightly different forms, since each version was authorized by a local bishop), and the gradual changes that took place in Angela Merici's original ideal. The Ursulines today do not look very different from other women's religious orders, but Mazzonis does a fine job of showing how they came out of a specific set of religious motivations, and how they adapted to their environment. He is especially insightful about how Angela fit into and became popular in Brescian society, something quite original to his work. The analysis of Angela and the Company in the context of early modern women's piety shows great learning, but sometimes is a bit generalizing, such as putting Angela among the Sante Vive (14–24), in spite of the fact that she was nothing like a court prophet. The most interesting thing about Angela Merici is the fact that she doesn't really fit, something this book shows with grace and flair.