Venerable Angelus of Jerusalem

Angelus of Jerusalem, OCarm (Italian: Sant'Angelo; 1185 – 5 May 1220) was a Catholic convert from Judaism and a religious priest of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance. Angelus and his twin brother became converts to the faith following their mother's conversion. Both went on to become 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. 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. He was born in Jerusalem in 1185 to Jewish parents. His mother later converted to Christianity, and both he and his twin brother John were baptised into the Catholic Church when she converted. His parents died while Angelus and his brother were still children, and the Patriarch Nicodemus oversaw their education until the twins turned eighteen. At that age, he and his brother John entered the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel at the Saint Anne convent near the Golden Gate to commence their novitiate. The two could speak Greek as well as both Latin and Hebrew. In 1210, Angelus was ordained to the priesthood in Jerusalem and he travelled in Palestine. Miraculous cures were attributed to him around this time and his "acta" stated that he sought to avoid fame and withdrew to a hermitage in the desert when he was becoming popular for his miracles. He became a hermit on Mount Carmel when he was instructed in 1218 to leave for the Italian peninsula in order to preach against the patarini as well as the Albigensians and the Bulgars.