St. Angela Merici (1474 - 1540) Angela Merici has the double distinction of founding the first of what are now called “secular institutes” and the first teaching order of women in the Church. St. Angela Merici was an Italian religious educator and founder of the Ursulines whose deep prayer life and relationship with the Lord bore the fruit of mystical encounters with God. She was born on March 21, 1474 in Desenzano, a small town on the shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy. Born in