EWTN Founder Mother Mary Angelica Dies on Easter Sunday
Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, a celebrated Poor Clare Catholic nun who founded the Eternal World Television Network in 1981, died on Easter Sunday after a 15-year battle with the after-effects of a stroke. She was 92 years old.
"Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, P.C.P.A. passed peacefully from this life at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery on 5 p.m. CDT, Easter Sunday, March 27, in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, surrounded by the prayers and love of her spiritual daughters, sons and dear friends," said Mother Dolores Marie, superior of the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, in a statement to EWTN.
"Known as 'mother to millions' to her EWTN family, she untiringly exhorted all to pursue holiness by living with God in the present moment. We are grateful for your prayers for this courageous daughter of the Church and your support of EWTN, the media network that she founded for the salvation of souls. May our beloved Mother Angelica, Foundress of EWTN, enter through the Mercy of God into the joy of Heaven," the statement ended.
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EWTN, according to the network's website, is the largest religious media network in the world. It's family of stations broadcasts in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to more than 264 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories.
"Mother has always and will always personify EWTN, the network that God asked her to found," said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw in a report in The National Catholic Register, which is a part of the EWTN family. "Her accomplishments and legacies in evangelization throughout the world are nothing short of miraculous and can only be attributed to divine providence and her unwavering faithfulness to our Lord."
"Mother Angelica is the only woman in the history of television to found and lead a cable network for 20 years," said Raymond Arroyo, managing editor of EWTN's news division, in a video statement.
"Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation's bishops themselves couldn't achieve," Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who has served on EWTN's board of governors since 1995, told the Register. "She founded and grew a network that appealed to everyday Catholics, understood their needs and fed their spirits. She had a lot of help, obviously, but that was part of her genius."
Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, said Mother Angelica left behind of legacy of the "new evangelization."
"In passing to eternal life, Mother Angelica leaves behind a legacy of holiness and commitment to the new evangelization that should inspire us all," he told the Register. "I was honored to know and be able to assist Mother Angelica during the early days of EWTN. Over the years, that relationship grew, and today the Knights of Columbus and EWTN partner regularly on important projects."
He said she was fearless because of her faith and because of it was able to bring the Gospel around the world.
"Mother Angelica was fearless because she had God on her side," Anderson noted. "She saw what he needed her to do, and she did it! She transformed the world of Catholic broadcasting and brought the Gospel to far corners of our world. That witness of faith was unmistakable to anyone who met and worked with her, and generations of Catholics have and will continue to be formed by her vision and her 'Yes' to God's will."
Reacting to news of her death on Monday, Father Sean O. Sheridan, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville, said the university mourned Angelica's passing with the rest of the Catholic community.
"Mother Angelica faithfully conveyed the knowledge and love of God to Catholics, Christians, and non-believers alike. What started in a garage with a few used cameras has today become a global television, radio, print, Internet, and social media apostolate," wrote Sheridan.
"Having received a religious vocation as a cloistered nun, Mother Angelica embraced even more deeply a life of silence and prayer following a stroke in 2001. She devoted the final stage of her life to prayer, living out what she once wrote: 'We, too, must suffer in order to prepare ourselves for our glory.'"
