Mother Angelica has passed away today at the age of 92, according to the Eternal
Word Television Network.
EWTN, the world's largest Catholic
satellite network, was founded by Mother Angelica out of a garage next to the
monastery she started in Irondale.
Mother Angelica also hosted a
long-running talk show. Her show is still seen on reruns i nternationally.
She even received a video message from
Pope Francis last month, when he asked the nun to pray for him.
Her health has declined over the year,
but she wanted to remain alive as long as possible, she said.
She once told her fellow nuns, "We don't
understand the awesomeness of living even one more day... I told my sisters the
other day, 'When I get really bad give me all the medicine I can take, all the
tubes you can stuff down me.'
'Why'd you want that?'
'I want to live.'
'Why?'
"Because I will have
suffered one more day for the love of God... I will exercise you in virtue. But
most of all I will know God better. You cannot measure the value of one new
thought about God in your own life.'"
Her greatest talent, a gift of gab that
built an international media empire that broadcasts to 80 million homes, eluded
her in the last few years. Mother Angelica has had health problems most of her
life, from an accident that left her in leg braces to 2001 stroke that caused
her to wear an eye patch. She suffered another stroke in 2001, which left her
mostly unable to speak. She also had health problems like Bell's palsy, heart
disease, and asthma.
On most days, pilgrims arrive from all
over the world to visit the grounds of the shrine that Mother Angelica built a t
an estimated cost of more than $30 million, paid for by donations, on 300 acres
outside Hanceville. It has a stone castle with 40-foot-tall turrets for a
visitors' center, with nine suits of armor, 600-year-old wood plank tables,
medieval manuscripts, and a gift shop inside.
She also built a worldwide shortwave
radio station, WEWN, on top of a mountain in Shelby County in 1992.
The nuns in Hanceville have provided
Mother Angelica with constant care.
Birmingham Bishop Robert Baker said
about her passing: "Mother Angelica brought the truth and the love and the life
of the Gospel of Jesus to so many people, not only to our Catholic household of
faith, but to many thousands of people who are not Catholic, in th at beautiful
way she had of touching lives, bringing so many people into the Catholic
Faith."
Michael Warsaw, EWTN Chairman and CEO,
released a statement: "This is a sorrow-filled day for the entire EWTN Family.
Mother has always, and will always, personify EWTN, the Network which she
founded... Everything she did was an act of faith."
