Today, April 20 marks the centenary of Mother Mary Angelica’s birth. On that day 100 years ago, Rita Rizzo, who would eventually become a nun who would touch the lives of tens of millions of people around the world by founding the world’s largest Catholic media network, was born. Armed with only $200, and 12 cloistered nuns with no television background, Mother turned the monastery’s garage into a television studio. On August 15, 1981, EWTN went on the air as the country’s first Catholic satellite television station. Mother became a television star hosting a popular and still running show, Mother Angelica Live. … Today, the Eternal Word Television Network is the largest Catholic media organization in the world. The remarkable Canton, Ohio, native who became a Poor Clare nun went on to found two thriving religious orders and the world’s largest religious media network. After experiencing various ailments, including an inability to walk, Sister Mary Angelica promised God that if she was able to walk again, she would found a monastery in the South. But with God’s help, she accomplished much more. She refused to take ‘No’ for an answer, and instead relied on God to provide. She loved to say ‘Dare to do the ridiculous, so that God can accomplish the miraculous!’ That sums up so much of how she lived her life. She was poor and from a broken family, with a mother who had serious emotional issues. She had very few advantages in life. She had enormous sufferings. Yet God always was there for her. He was always in her life, guiding and healing her and bringing her forward to do the work he had destined for her. In founding EWTN, the world looked at Mother and thought this whole idea was ridiculous. From both inside and outside the Church, the idea that a cloistered nun with barely a high-school education and so many physical challenges could create a television network was seen as ridiculous. But it turned out to be miraculous ! Mother Angelica died on March 27, 2016. Happy Birthday in Heaven.
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