- Young Rita Rizzo's mother was opposed to her desire to become a nun. So she ran away from home to enter a convent under the name Sister Angelica, which nearly ended their relationship entirely. Several years later, her mother not only reconciled with her daughter, but became a nun herself. She was admitted into the same convent as her daughter, just as Sister Angelica was promoted to Mother Angelica. Reflecting on this turn of events, Mother Angelica recalls "I called my mother Sister and she called me Mother."
- Her parents, John Rizzo and Mae Helen Gianfransisco, divorced in 1929.
- Before becoming a nun herself, she had disliked all the nuns she had met, describing them as "the meanest people I've ever known."
- Is Mother Superior at Our Lady of the Angels Monastary in Irondale, Alabama. (2004)
- Recovering from 2 strokes suffered since late 2001.
- Entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration monastery in Cleveland at age 21, and eventually helped open the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Alabama in 1962.
- Mother Angelica passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday March 27, 2016 at the age of 92 at the monastery from complications due to the stroke she had 14 years prior.
- Mother Angelica is the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and hosted a show on it "Mother Angelica Live" from 1983 to 2001.
- Following what some considered a scandalous World Youth Day '93 in Denver, Colorado (Catholic Church's world-wide event), Mother Angelica and her nuns return to wearing their traditional habits on Christmas Eve, 24 Dec 1993. In the following year Mother also institutes previously abandoned cloister practices such as the stating of faults, strict silence, prostration during the Consecration at Mass, and more. Mother herself begins to spend three hours a day in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.
- In May 2004 Alabama Broadcaster's Association names Mother Angelica as "Citizen of the Year.".
- On 29 Jan 1998 following praying the rosary the previous day with Paola Albertini, an Italian mystic, Mother Angelica begins to walk without her braces. Three physicians independently examine her and find the healing is real.
- Following her second stroke in Dec 2001 and deteriorated health Mother stops hosting her shows. But in Oct 2002 she tapes new rosary video with her nuns for EWTN, which begins airing in March 2003. In Dec 2002 Mother also appears in a pre-taped segment on a live program saying "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.".
- In 1946 Mother Angelica, still a young nun, Sister Angelica, has an accident that injures her spine, causing her ongoing pain and requiring her to wear leg braces for most of her life. In May 1993 during a hospital stay the severity of Mother's cough shatters a vertebra in her spine, damaging a nerve to her right leg and causing her excruciating pain. She now wears a new back and leg brace and can only walk with crutches.
- On 4 Oct 2009 Mother Angelica receives the papal medal (Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice) from Pope Benedict XVI for her distinguished service to the Catholic Church.
- On 24 Dec 2001 Mother has a second stroke and collapses. Her only chance of survival is immediate brain surgery. Medical personnel say if Mother does not die within the week, she will be a complete vegetable. A week later, she can not only move her legs, but feeling returns to the left side of her face. On 25 Jan 2002 Mother Angelica returns home although she will experience seizures of varying intensities over the next two years. She is confined to bed for long periods of time. Her language skills deteriorate.
- On 5 Sep 2001 Mother Angelica has a stroke which results in the paralysis of half her face. On 11 Dec 2001 with one eye patched as a result of her stroke, Mother Angelica falls cracking her left arm above the elbow. The next day, she is given the wrong plasma to thicken her blood, which contributes to her perilous condition.
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