I was asked by my cousin, Jill, and my friend, Cheryl, to tell about a saint named Anna or Annabelle/Annabella. I could not find any saint with the name Annabelle/Annabella, but I did find that Annabelle is a combination of the Hebrew word for grace and the French word for beauty. The name means favored grace, so I found a St. Anna who I think embodies the favored grace of God.
Saint Anna Schäffer was born in 1882 in Bavaria, Germany. Her father died at the age of 40, leaving the family in poverty. Anna left school and went to work as a maid at the age of 14. She hoped eventually to enter religious life, but her family situation made that impossible. On February 4, 1901, she was working in a laundry. She slipped and fell while trying to reattach a stovepipe and boiled her legs in the washing machine. She was taken to the hospital, but nothing could be done about the painful burns. More than thirty operations followed, but despite the care of her doctor skin grafts did not succeed. Anna became completely immobile and her mother had to care for her the rest of her life.
Anna never lost her optimism and her faith. She continued to express her adoration of Christ and veneration of the Blessed Mother and received the Eucharist daily, brought to her by a local abbot. She considered her suffering, her writing and her ability to knit clothes for her friends the three "keys" by which she could enter heaven. This beautiful attitude drew people to Anna. Townspeople would often visit her to hear her comforting words of faith. From 1910 mystical phenomena developed around her, including what could be described as stigmata, and occasional waking visions which made her ecstatic. However, she remained selfless offering prayers and letters to anyone who asked.
In 1925, she developed colon cancer and her paralysis spread to her spine, making it difficult to speak or write. On the morning of October 5, she received her final holy communion and died minutes later. Her feast day is October 5.
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