Biography
Angelus of Jerusalem
About Angelus of Jerusalem
The surviving biographical tradition identifies Angelus as a Carmelite priest associated with Jerusalem and Licata, Sicily. The French Catholic calendar calls him a priest and martyr and summarizes a story in which he was killed while preaching at Licata. However, the Catholic Encyclopedia warns that very little is securely known and that the life attributed to his brother Enoch was written in the fifteenth century and contains demonstrably unreliable details. The sources do not establish his birth year, birthplace, or exact death year.The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that Angelus's feast first appears in Carmelite breviary lessons in 1458. The Licata sanctuary reports that a Carmelite provincial chapter had fixed May 5 for his annual celebration the year before. The French Catholic calendar also lists a local May 5 feast and preserves the martyrdom tradition. These records establish a later Carmelite and local cult more securely than they establish details of his thirteenth-century life. The biographical chronology remains disputed.
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